New circuit, same results for Ganassi

Friday, June 15, 2001

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Chip Ganassi is always looking for better results from his racing teams. If that means changing engine manufacturers or tire suppliers or even drivers to give him an edge on the competition, he is not afraid to make a move.

He is usually right, too.

After a winless 1995 season on the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit, he switched from Ford to Honda, which had been less than impressive with only one victory in two years. Ganassi's drivers reeled off four consecutive series titles.

In his team's most recent run at the CART championship in '99, rookie Juan Montoya finished the season tied in points with Dario Franchitti, but Montoya's seven victories gave Ganassi his fourth crown in a row. The finish was too close, though, so Ganassi made wholesale changes before the 2000 season. He not only changed engines again, choosing a Toyota motor that had been winless in four seasons, but also switched chassis from the proven Reynard to a new Lola. Although his team did not win the championship, the team did win four races.

So it was no surprise that Fox Chapel's Ganassi, who bought a majority interest in Felix Sabates' NASCAR Winston Cup team last summer, decided to align himself with Dodge, which is competing in the stock-car series for the first time since the mid-80s.

What is surprising is that Ganassi's team with Sterling Marlin behind the wheel is third in points heading into Sunday's race at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. Marlin finished 19th last season. Of the other nine Dodge drivers, the next best is Bill Elliott, who is 16th in points. Jason Leffler, a rookie who also drives for Ganassi, is 36th.

"We're certainly pleasantly surprised," Ganassi said. "If you would have said last year in June or July that we were going to be third in the points come this June, I think we would have all had a party. The good news is we're in third place in the points, the bad news is we're a bunch of racers and we're not happy with that, either. If you're 10th, you want to be ninth. If you're fifth you want to be fourth. If you're third, you want to be second. We're all happy with that, but we're certainly not content with that."

Marlin, who has raced in the Winston Cup series since '76, enters the Pocono 500 after a sixth-place finish June 3 at Dover, Del., and a third-place finish Sunday at Brooklyn, Mich. Marlin doesn't understand what all the fuss is about, though. He believed all along the team would be able to contend for the championship this season.

"After all the testing we had done in December and January, I felt that Chip and Felix had really put together a good race team and Dodge had some good equipment to work with," Marlin said. "I thought if we didn't have any trouble and finished races we would be in the top five in points. It's pretty much worked to plan."

That plan started to unfold shortly after Ganassi bought 80 percent of Team SABCO and brought in respected crew chief Andy Graves as team manager.

"All that Chip's ever done is racing," Marlin said. "Felix was a really successful businessman who got into racing, but it was hard for Felix to really grasp what was going on.

"[Ganassi] brings a lot of good work ethic. When you go in the shop, there's a lot of work going on, a lot of organization and planning ahead a lot. I guess you get that from Indy car stuff, but he's hired a lot of different people so it's basically a new race team."

New teams often struggle while people learn how to work with one another, whether it's in the race shop or in the pits, but Ganassi has a knack for getting the most out of his team.

"I think everybody in racing, whether you're a mechanic or a driver or a crew chief or engineers or bus drivers ... whoever, everybody has their own toolbox," Ganassi said. "I think it's an owner's job to give everybody the tools they need in their toolbox to do their job, whether it's wrenches or some kind of analytical piece of equipment or something as simple as a cell phone to stay in communication. I like to ask people, 'What would make your job easier?' The fact that I drove a while back, I try to present a team that I would have liked to have driven for."

Ganassi finds the involvement of new manufacturers in racing -- whether in CART or NASCAR -- helps to keep his teams moving forward rather than remembering past success.

"I've been fortunate to be on the front end of a couple of different car companies coming into racing," he said. "What happens is, these companies have such an open mind they bring in some thinking that maybe other people aren't thinking about. When you're with a factory, they come in with some fresh thought. That's exactly what Dodge is doing. They have a very open mind. They want to give the teams what the teams need. Dodge is always asking, 'What can we do for you?' "

For Ganassi, who admits he is still learning the ropes in NASCAR, that's a refreshing way to run an organization because it's similar to the way he runs his.

"You have to have a group of people who are going to put the team ahead of their own personal goals. It's very difficult to find that," he said. "When you have 80 or 90 or 100 people, to some extent everybody has a different agenda. You have to make sure everybody has the same goal in mind and that they can see the goal post. People have to understand where they're going. They have to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They have to know what that means."

Fortunately for them, it's their owner who is holding the light.