Team News
For Ganassi, Crown Fits
By: Bob Kravitz, Indianapolis Star
July 28, 2010
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It's safe to assume Chip Ganassi doesn't swing a baseball bat the way Carl Yastrzemski did when he won baseball's last Triple Crown in 1967.
And we know for a fact Ganassi can't run any faster than Affirmed, the last horse to win that sport's Triple Crown in 1978.
But man, can he run a race team. Several race teams, actually. And in different areas of the motor sports realm. The deal is done now: One year, one Triple Crown -- the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400.
"And don't forget, he finished second in the 24 Hours of Daytona," Brickyard-winning driver Jamie McMurray said.
Different types of cars, different kinds of conditions, so many moving parts and personalities and styles, and Ganassi wins the big ones, does it without the profligate spending of a man like the late George Steinbrenner, does it without the (harmless) bluster of Mark Cuban.
Right now, there is no better team owner in all of sports.
Period.
And nobody comes in a close second.
"To win all those (races) in one year is remarkable,'' second-place finisher Kevin Harvick said. "It will probably never happen again.''
He's probably right.
Unless, of course, Ganassi does it a second time.
There have been 11 Triple Crown-winning horses and 16 Triple Crown hitters. Now, there's one team owner to win all three of his sport's mega-races, the first time that's happened since the Brickyard 400 came into being 17 years ago.
"I'm speechless,'' Ganassi said shortly after the race. "I'm lucky and privileged to be in this business. I'm honored to work with the people I work with. That's all I can tell you. I'm the luckiest guy on the planet. You wouldn't dare dream this. You wouldn't dare to dream this kind of year.''
Wake up, Chip. It's real.
At one point, I asked Ganassi, if you were speaking to a group from the Kelley School of Business down in Bloomington, what would you give them as the two or three keys to running a successful business?
He replied, "I don't know -- hard work, passion and sacrifice. That's what I'd tell them.''
There was a long pause. Really long. "Does that answer it?'' he wondered.
I answered, "Well, it's not going to fill up much column space.''
Ganassi smiled.
"You've got to work hard at what you do,'' he said. "It's the only thing I've figured out how to do it -- work hard at it. You've got to turn the other ear to a lot of things and keep focused on what you're trying to do. Stay on your plan. I can't tell you how many times, I mean, we've been staying on our plan for a long time, how we go racing week in and week out.
"So you've got to sacrifice. You can't listen to other people. You have to pick and choose sometimes, make a call, A or B. Those are tough calls you have to make. But you have to plan your work and work your plan and have passion about what you're doing. You have to love what you're doing. I love what I'm doing.''
Said team co-owner Felix Sabates: "Chip is the most dedicated person in racing I've ever met. If you cut his veins, motor oil would come out.''
Think about what Ganassi's team has done this season. The Indianapolis 500 is a completely unique animal on a completely unique track, run on a one-time-only kind of schedule. Daytona, on the NASCAR side, is a high-banked superspeedway, a restrictor-plate race. And the Brickyard 400 is run on an unusually flat track where passing is at a premium, a thoroughly different kind of race that requires different technology and alternative strategy.
Win, win, win.
Ganassi has figured it out, in terms of technology, choosing drivers, hiring research-and-development folks, pit crews, so many employees, and keeping all those people synchronized toward reaching the same goals. That's not luck, although a little bit doesn't hurt. That's raw excellence.
Most of us thought Ganassi would pull off the triple with pole sitter Juan Pablo Montoya doing the bidding. Montoya dominated last year before a speeding violation sent him reeling, and once again Sunday, Montoya led most of the race, looking nearly untouchable as he grabbed a 3.7-second lead on lap 138. But then came an ill-timed caution -- apparently the Andretti Curse is contagious -- followed by a mistaken decision to change all four tires instead of two.
McMurray was the appreciative beneficiary, passing Harvick on a late restart. Armed with just two new tires, he maintained track position out of the pits and ran away from the field those final 10 laps.
"After happy hour (practice Saturday), we made a 12-lap run . . . and were looking at all the laps after practice in the lounge,'' crew chief Kevin Manion said. "Jamie says, 'Can we win?' I said, 'Absolutely.' We had enough speed to where if you put us in the right position, there was no one going to pass you because passing and track position is at a premium.''
When it was over, Ganassi came down from his perch in the pit box and looked like a man in the midst of an out-of-body experience.
The Triple Crown.
Surreal.
Amazing.
"I feel like I need oxygen,'' he said.
Sunday, Ganassi and his team left the sport breathless once again.
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