As I mentioned yesterday, Ganassi was almost a Brickyard 400 winner last season, when his driver Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the race, but got caught speeding on pit road, and was relegated to an 11th place finish.
Ganassi wasn’t in Indianapolis on that day. “I wouldn’t out it under the category of never recovering from it,” he said of the disappointment that day. “I was recovering from surgery on my eyeball, and I can tell you this, if that puts things into perspective really quickly, about what’s important in life and what isn’t, there are things more important than winning races.”
Ganassi also talked about NASCAR, and the sanctioning body’s seemingly constant, yet not consistent, rule changes. As an owner, is he ever consulted on what NASCAR wants to do? “They do a good job of canvassing the garage area, if you will, for input,” he said.
Ganassi owns the No. 1 car, which will be piloted by Jamie McMurray this year at Indy
He also added, “I don’t always understand or agree with [NASCAR], but I think they’re happy to tell you why they made their decision and they’re not afraid to change it if they’ve made a mistake.”
But when he was asked about the new “Boys have at it” policy, more specifically about Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski’s ongoing feud, Ganassi had some interesting points.
“I’m glad both of those guys don’t drive for me right now because I’d feel a lot stronger about it I’m sure,” he said. “I think I’ve said this before. I think someone has to be there to referee this and I think NASCAR does a good job of this, but I think you’re allowed one move, I’ve said this before.”
“I think it’s very hard to police, and I think you should be allowed one move—I think each guy should be allowed one move—but I don’t think you should be allowed to use your car as a weapon. I just thank God that nobody gets hurt in any of these things.”
Edwards, after practice at Kentucky Speedway for the Nationwide Series race in 2009
Edwards and Keselowski have a severely checkered history, dating back to April of ’09 when Keselowski wrecked Edwards, sending the No. 99 car into the fence at Talladega. Pay back came in Atlanta when Edwards spun Keselowski and the No. 12 car got airborne at Atlanta, hitting the wall.
NASCAR sat both drivers down and had a meeting. Edwards decided that he’d been unfairly pushed out of the way by Keselowski on Saturday night in St. Louis during the final lap of the Nationwide Series race and Edwards hooked Keselowski’s bumper, sending his car into the wall.
Keselowski, after Nationwide Series practice at Kentucky in June of this year. Check out the kid in the aqua shirt on the right side of the photo. Know him from anywhere? (Getty Images)
Edwards won. Keselowski was unhappy with Edwards after the race, which, if you ask me, is ironic being that Keselowski wasn’t unhappy after he wrecked Edwards in Talladega one year ago.
Enough editorializing though.
Ganassi made another point that reminded me of a certain NASCAR Sprint Cup driver when he said, “I would like to see more good driving and driving that we can respect, not having to crash a guy to win. I would rather see a race where a driver gets out of the car and says, ‘Hey so-and-so raced me clean. He could have taken me out for the win but he didn’t’.”
Last August at Bristol Kyle Busch and Mark Martin dueled for the win. Kyle Busch won, and in victory lane said, “He had a chance. He could have [wrecked me]. Mark Martin—what a class act.”
Martin told ESPN's Jamie Little after the race, “That’s not the way he would have raced me.”
Ganassi thinks drivers would get a lot more respect if they drove that way, and although he didn’t specifically mention Mark Martin, I could tell it was drivers like Mark that Ganassi was referring to when he opined about the current state of NASCAR affairs.
The obligatory Gasoline Alley photo as we approach raceday at Indy
And college football is always on the radar here on the blog. Current University of Cincinnati coach Butch Jones preaches that his team will play with more passion than any other team in the country. And Ganassi made some comments about his race team that parallel the thoughts of the UC head man.
“We’re fortunate that those teams are made up of people who are passionate and have a lot of passion for the sport and you have to have that,” Ganassi commented. “Part of having the passion for the sport is understanding the intricacies of each of the places.”
And when you come to read this blog you know you’re reading the musings of someone who might have too much passion—for college football and NASCAR. Hope you enjoyed Chip Ganassi tidbits.
Later on this evening we’ll hear from Jeff Gordon, the only four-time Brickyard 400 champ.
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