Chip Ganassi on the Series' New Charter System

Nate Ryan
| Special to IndyStar

LEBANON, Tenn. – On the verge of seeing his team potentially win its fourth IndyCar championship in five years and 16^th Overall, Chip Ganassi will reduce his team by five cars next season.

And one of motorsport’s most successful car owners is perfectly fine with that – because it’s the byproduct of a new franchise-style model in the NTT IndyCar Series that will limit teams to three entries but will hopefully offer a more lucrative business model when it is implemented in 2025.

“We’re only going to have three entries (next season),” Ganassi confirmed for the first time to a small group of reporters Saturday ahead of qualifying for the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway (where points leader Alex Palou is aiming to deliver his third title in the last four seasons for Chip Ganassi Racing). “I think the charter system is playing out and it’s as advertised, so I’m happy.”

“It’s a really good thing. And it’s going to add value to every team. Sure, it’s not the size of the NASCAR charter guarantee. But it’s a hell of a start. It’s a hell of a start. So I think it’s a great thing.”

Ganassi said Palou and Scott Dixon will return next season with a third driver announced after the season.

IndyCar News: IndyCar Series in Nashville: Music City Grand Prix line-ups and TV schedule

It will be the second transition to a charter system for Ganassi and team co-owner Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Penske and Ganassi each received a pair of Cup Series charters when NASCAR introduced a similar system in 2016 that guaranteed race spots and millions of dollars in annual revenue to its longtime teams.

When Ganassi left NASCAR six years later, he sold his stock car team assets and two charters to Justin Marks of Trackhouse Racing. While no terms have been disclosed, individual charter sales in recent years have ranged from a low of $10 million to a high of $40 million, netting Ganassi a tidy eight-figure sum.

While that may seem paltry compared to the multibillion-dollar valuations of NFL and NBA franchises, it’s a considerable sum in auto racing, a sport where teams are known to be sold for pennies.

NASCAR is in the final stages of negotiations on an expansion of the charter system (which 13 of 15 teams have signed), and Ganassi believes the IndyCar proposal (which was delivered to teams last month) will include significant improvements.

“The IndyCar paddock is fortunate because I think Roger has been through some of the struggles (in NASCAR) that we had back then,” Ganassi said. “That paddock doesn’t even know it because they weren’t in NASCAR at the time, but they’re taking advantage of it, and that’s a good thing.”

Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles, who spearheaded IndyCar’s charter system, had hoped to have the structure formalized by the end of the season, but the proposal was bogged down in billable hours as a small army of team lawyers pored over contractual details.

“Every question that IndyCar drivers have about charter systems is like a repeat of what happened 10 years ago when they were doing NASCAR charters,” Ganassi said. “You want to say, ‘Don’t worry about it, this is what’s going to happen.’ These are all valid questions that anyone with any business sense would ask. But the end result is going to be just incredible.”

IndyCar News: In a few days, IndyCar will send the final charter system for approval by team owners.

Charters are among the many points of contention that have emerged in IndyCar during the 2024 season, the fifth under Penske Entertainment. NASCAR’s recent announcement of a Cup race in Mexico City next year has drawn a chorus of critics (including star Pato O’Ward), and team owner Michael Andretti has also been vocal about the need for Penske to reinvest more in the series.

Ganassi came out to defend Roger Penske on Saturday.

“I guarantee he’s taking unfair hits because I can tell you, you don’t know the story,” Ganassi said. “And when you hear the story, you’re like, ‘Oh, okay, no problem.’ So it’s all good in the end. I don’t want to name the drivers, but they don’t know the whole story either. So just tell them, ‘Sit down and shut up.’ Worry about what you should be worried about and don’t get involved in things you don’t know what’s going on.”

Ganassi speaks from the perspective of someone who has taken the hits of more than three decades as a team owner. Although his IndyCar operations are down next year and his IMSA prototype team is losing Cadillac backing, Ganassi intends to retain “most” of his staff.

It will welcome key personnel to a new team in the Indy NXT Series as well as a new technical alliance in IndyCar with Meyer Shank Racing next season.

“We have quality people that we want to keep,” Ganassi said. “And we want to win races.”

In addition to a Nashville title, Palou can clinch his second straight crown with a ninth-place finish or better for a No. 10 Dallara-Honda team loaded with longtime Ganassi stalwarts Julian Robertson, Barry Wanser and Ricky Davis.

Ganassi (who preaches “there’s speed in permanence”) sees continuity as essential to CGR’s success, noting that Wanzer worked through his recovery from throat cancer last season while helping call the strategy for Palou.

“You don’t replace guys like that,” Ganassi said. “It’s the team that matters.”