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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Ganassi Evaluating Options For Fourth Entry
With Graham Rahal departing Ganassi Racing at the end of the season, team director Mike Hull tells SPEED.com keeping its fourth entry is a major priority.
Will the No. 38 entry continue in 2013 with a new driver filling Graham Rahal's seat? (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
Coming off a fifth-place finish at Sonoma last weekend with Graham Rahal, Ganassi Racing continues to draw interest in the Honda-powered No. 38 entry Rahal will vacate at the end of the season.
Sitting 10th in the championship standings—directly behind Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s four-time series champion Dario Franchitti, Rahal and the satellite Ganassi Racing program, based minutes away from TCGR’s primary base in Indianapolis, has continued to gain momentum since the team nearly won the Texas 550 race in June.
With five top 10s from the last seven races, including three top 5s, Rahal and the “G2” team have started to jell after an up-and-down first season together in 2011 and an opening to their 2012 season that was far from stellar.
Rahal’s decision to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the paddock has left the G2 operation, and its managing director, Mike Hull, evaluating which direction to take Ganassi’s two-team, four-car program in 2013.
“We’re actively trying to understand how we can continue to run the team, because we feel it's important for the commitment Chip Ganassi Racing wants to make to IndyCar Racing and continue to run four cars in the series,” Hull told SPEED.com. “I don't know where the commitment goes from here, but we would like to continue.”
Charlie Kimball, Rahal’s G2 teammate, signed an extension with the team and will be back with sponsor Novo Nordisk, yet what happens with the No. 38 car in the off-season will directly affect Kimball’s No. 83 program.
Provided a suitable replacement for Rahal can be found, it should be business as usual at G2’s facility in Brownsburg, but if the team is left with just its pair of Target cars for Franchitti and Scott Dixon and Kimball’s G2 entry, some changes could be forthcoming.
From consolidating both IndyCar programs into one three-car effort at the TCGR facility, to using G2 as its base of sports car operations, Hull has plenty to consider in the coming months.
“We want to have four cars if we can, then we’ll try to look at the model and see how to proceed,” he reiterated. “We have other irons in the fire to run a second [GRAND-AM] DP team and a [new] GT team, so we’re looking at how to expand our overall efforts. I’m not sure if all that will happen in 2013, but whatever happens, we’ll have to look where to house it all.”
For now, and after meeting with interested drivers like Rubens Barrichello and others to discuss taking over Rahal’s seat in the No. 38, Hull and Ganassi will continue to talk with drivers that fit the G2 team’s business model and competitive needs.
Sitting 10th in the championship standings—directly behind Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s four-time series champion Dario Franchitti, Rahal and the satellite Ganassi Racing program, based minutes away from TCGR’s primary base in Indianapolis, has continued to gain momentum since the team nearly won the Texas 550 race in June.
With five top 10s from the last seven races, including three top 5s, Rahal and the “G2” team have started to jell after an up-and-down first season together in 2011 and an opening to their 2012 season that was far from stellar.
Rahal’s decision to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the paddock has left the G2 operation, and its managing director, Mike Hull, evaluating which direction to take Ganassi’s two-team, four-car program in 2013.
“We’re actively trying to understand how we can continue to run the team, because we feel it's important for the commitment Chip Ganassi Racing wants to make to IndyCar Racing and continue to run four cars in the series,” Hull told SPEED.com. “I don't know where the commitment goes from here, but we would like to continue.”
Charlie Kimball, Rahal’s G2 teammate, signed an extension with the team and will be back with sponsor Novo Nordisk, yet what happens with the No. 38 car in the off-season will directly affect Kimball’s No. 83 program.
Provided a suitable replacement for Rahal can be found, it should be business as usual at G2’s facility in Brownsburg, but if the team is left with just its pair of Target cars for Franchitti and Scott Dixon and Kimball’s G2 entry, some changes could be forthcoming.
From consolidating both IndyCar programs into one three-car effort at the TCGR facility, to using G2 as its base of sports car operations, Hull has plenty to consider in the coming months.
“We want to have four cars if we can, then we’ll try to look at the model and see how to proceed,” he reiterated. “We have other irons in the fire to run a second [GRAND-AM] DP team and a [new] GT team, so we’re looking at how to expand our overall efforts. I’m not sure if all that will happen in 2013, but whatever happens, we’ll have to look where to house it all.”
For now, and after meeting with interested drivers like Rubens Barrichello and others to discuss taking over Rahal’s seat in the No. 38, Hull and Ganassi will continue to talk with drivers that fit the G2 team’s business model and competitive needs.
INDYCAR BRAZIL
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