Riding With Chip Ganassi on Historic Day

INDIANAPOLIS -- A still-smiling Chip Ganassi stared down at the scene on the ground as the private jet we rode in ripped toward the sky at such a steep incline it was as if his beloved Indianapolis Motor Speedway below was tugging him back for more.

Less than an hour earlier, a massive crowd of some 400,000 had witnessed the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team win its second Indianapolis 500 in three years, and from the sky, the traffic looked like a maze flowing from the legendary speedway. Fans were still partying in the parking lots, fully satisfied they'd gotten their money's worth with Sunday's thrilling race and historic finish.

Less content was the 52-year-old Ganassi, who had just settled into his seat for the 56-minute plane ride toward the day's next order of business: the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race outside Charlotte, N.C. -- 600 more miles of competition 429 miles away.

Earlier, in the moments after his driver Dario Franchitti claimed racing's most sought-after checkered flag, Ganassi walked down Indianapolis' pit road for an overwhelming offering of congratulatory handshakes, hugs and pats on the back. Among the first to greet Ganassi was his great rival, Roger Penske.

With this victory, Ganassi had become the first race team owner in history to win the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 in the same year -- a feat not even the sport's standard-bearer, 15-time Indy winner Penske, could claim.

And yet even before the significance of this historic accomplishment could set in -- before he'd tasted a drop of the Indy winner's milk -- Ganassi stopped outside victory circle, leaned over and shouted to me above the celebration, "We're going to Charlotte! I've got a new boost of energy and we've got another race to win.''

For Ganassi, race day happiness is equal parts pursuit and triumph.

So the small group of Ganassi's longtime friends accompanying him on racing's biggest day were only somewhat surprised by this unprecedented decision to head southeast despite the fact that in previous years Ganassi opted to stay in Indianapolis after a win.

But the rare and exclusive access Ganassi granted to FanHouse for his Memorial Day weekend racing "Double" clearly revealed a philosophy of relish less, race more.

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Before leaving the speedway, we stopped back at Ganassi's team hospitality area long enough for him to raise a plastic cup, inch-high in champagne, for a single toast. With his father Floyd snapping photos of it all, Ganassi recognized the team's sponsors and VIPs such as Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel and graciously thanked his friends and family for their support -- so many had traveled from his hometown of Pittsburgh to share in his day.

Then he grabbed a handful of cut vegetables -- his only food of the day -- and we were off.

After a high-speed police escort from the track to the former Indianapolis international airport, we boarded a jet belonging to one of Ganassi's NASCAR drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya, for the trip to Concord, N.C. During the flight, Ganassi alternated between reading the 171 e-mails he'd received since the checkered flag and pointing out landmarks on the terrain below, such as the Bristol Motor Speedway as we flew over the Tennessee-Virginia state line.

As we got closer to North Carolina, one of Ganassi's team members informed him that Montoya was "already 70 laps down but [Jamie] McMurray was doing all right.''

After landing at Concord Regional Airport near the track, we ran over to a waiting helicopter for a three-minute lift to the speedway grounds. A golf cart awaited to take us trackside and 170 laps into the 400-lap race, Ganassi -- still wearing his Indy 500 winning cap -- arrived on pit road to waves and cheers from fans and other teams' crew members.

As Ganassi climbed atop his pit box at Charlotte Motor Speedway, back in Indianapolis, the massive Brickyard grounds still hadn't cleared out.

"Hey, congratulations!'' the Daytona 500-winning McMurray said on the team radio.

"I came here to see you man, here I am,'' Ganassi replied with a grin.

Montoya chimed in with atta-boys and joked with Ganassi that he was getting a little nervous that such a dominant Franchitti, who led 155 laps, was going to break his record for laps led (167) when he won the 2000 Indianapolis 500 for Ganassi.

And then a very peculiar, unprecedented and potentially spectacular thing happened.

The Coca-Cola 600 became a showdown not among NASCAR's recent and typical top dogs Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, but between Ganassi and Penske -- just as the Indianapolis 500 had been a few hours earlier.

McMurray and Penske driver Kurt Busch exchanged the first and second position for much of the last 100 laps. With 30 laps to go, McMurray led Busch by more than two seconds. Busch, however, beat him out of the pits during a final round of yellow-flag pit stops with 23 laps remaining and despite an inspired drive by McMurray, Busch held off the Ganassi driver to give Penske his first win in NASCAR's longest race.

First place at Indy. Second place at Charlotte.

"Not bad,'' Ganassi said. "Not bad.''

He paused then added, "I think Jamie would have gotten him if there had been a longer run.''

Fifteen minutes later -- after a quick "Hello" in the NASCAR corporate hauler and a handshake with former open-wheeler Casey Mears, nephew of 4-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears -- we were back in a helicopter headed to the airport, where Ganassi's private plane was waiting to whisk him back to Indianapolis for the traditional winner's photos and Indianapolis 500 victory dinner the next day.

If not for the late-morning timing of the winner's photos, Ganassi would have flown to Lime Rock, Conn., to watch his championship sports car team compete in the Grand-Am Series race that Monday afternoon before the banquet.

"I just don't see how we can do it,'' Ganassi almost apologetically told his longtime friend Rick DeNunzio.

Then he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

A few moments later, he perked back up and turned to his friend again.

"Not bad,'' Ganassi said, turning to look out the window.

"If someone had told you when you woke up this morning that you'd finish first and second today ...'' DeNunzio said shaking his head.

"I'd have taken it,'' Ganassi said grinning.

"Nothing like winning, huh.''



Winning had been on his mind since early Sunday morning, which began with an eight-minute trip via police escort from his hotel to the 100-year-old Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's been on his mind since he was a teenager who convinced his father to buy him a Formula Ford and let him go racing.

"He called it 'driving school,' not racing school,'' Floyd Ganassi explained of his son, who has a best finish of eighth place in five Indy 500 starts between 1982-86.

Ultimately, however, Floyd convinced his son there was another way to succeed in this business.

"I told him, 'Chip, I know you like racing, but I've noticed they change drivers, they don't change owners as easy. If you really want to be in racing, you ought to look at owning.'

"But by no stretch of the imagination did we think we'd be here," Floyd Ganassi explained. "Maybe Chip did, but we were looking for an existence, not an empire.''

With three Indy 500 wins -- four wins if you count the partial ownership of the 1989 winning car driven by Emerson Fittipaldi -- the reality is edging closer to the latter.

One of the people in Ganassi's hospitality area on race morning was drag racing legend Don Prudhomme, a longtime friend and admirer.

"What drives me to him, is he's a racer not just a guy with a lot of money and all the bells and whistles,'' said Prudhomme, who has four titles as a driver in the National Hot Rod Association and two more as a team owner.

"But by no stretch of the imagination did we think we'd be here. Maybe Chip did, but we were looking for an existence, not an empire.''
-- Floyd Ganassi "It all comes down to him being a great leader. He knows when to stick his nose into things and when not too. Maybe the most important thing is he knows how to treat people. He's a guy that actually answers his cell phone no matter where he is.

"He's always asking, 'so what else?' and if you don't have an answer, he moves on,'' Prudhomme said with a laugh. "What else?''

Explains DeNunzio, who raced motorcycles with Ganassi when they were teenagers, "Chip doesn't understand the thought process of not being able to accomplish something. He believes you can accomplish anything.''

After spending time with Prudhomme and DeNunzio and a hundred other supports in the hospitality area Sunday morning, Ganassi walked through Indy's famed Gasoline Alley and onto the starting grid as the crowd erupted in rock star applause and "go get em Chip" calls.

The 90-plus degree temperatures -- hottest ever for Indy race day -- were searing and oppressive, especially on the dark asphalt as people lingered on the starting grid in the hour before the green flag dropped.

"It's hot,'' Ganassi acknowledged. "But the milk's cold.''

As he would soon find out.

More than 12 hours later, history in his pocket and some just barely left on the table, Ganassi's airplane touched down in Indianapolis and his journey was over.

"Best day of your life?'' I asked just before we climbed out onto the tarmac.

"One of them,'' Ganassi answered with a smile and a nod.

For Chip Ganassi, the best day is always still yet to come.