Petersen Museum Showcases Winning Cars of Chip Ganassi Racing
Chip Ganassi has been a racer and team owner, racing and succeeding in NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA racing.
There’s no doubt that most of us are race fans. And if you are, you’ve definitely heard of the name Chip Ganassi. To our delight, the Petersen Auto Museum has opened a special exhibit called the “Chip Ganassi Racing: Fast Tracks To Success | 30th Anniversary Tribute” to commemorate his achievements.
Ganassi’s most prolific racing involvement has been in IndyCar. As an owner of Chip Ganassi Racing, he’s had 16 IndyCar championships, won the Indy 500 4 times, and has 200 victories. And he’s still going. His career included time behind the wheel too, and his Patrick Wildcat MK9B shown above gave him a top 10 finish at the Brickyard.
Aside from open wheel prowess, Ganassi has also ventured into sports car racing. His team fielded a Ford GT that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 50 years after Ford’s own famous 1-2-3 finish of the same race in 1966. The 24 Hours of Daytona also provided a win for him… seven different times. A win at the 12 Hours of Sebring proves he knows endurance racing on an elemental level. NASCAR is another foray of this racing team. In that series he’s won two of the biggest races, the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400.
Cars on display come from just about every avenue of motorsport that Ganassi has raced. Of the ten total cars displayed, there’s some significant standouts. The 2016 Ford GT that won its class at Le Mans is one of our favorites. So is Scott Dixon‘s 2019 Dallara IndyCar. The Reiley MK XI which won the 2006 Daytona 24 Hours is on display too, along with the 2019 Camaro ZL1 driven by Kurt Busch in NASCAR (it even still has victory lane confetti on it!).
The closest IndyCar race in proximity to the Petersen Museum is in Long Beach, California. That will take place in April, and will coincide with a Racers Night formal dinner to honor Ganassi before the race begins. All of us at Team Speed are looking forward to IndyCar’s 2020 season. We can only guess which race that Ganassi is looking forward to next year. Outside of the Indy 500, of course.
Photos: Petersen Auto Museum
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