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On the go Ganassi goes distance to manage CART, NASCAR teamsPosted: Saturday May 25, 2002 10:39 PM
By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com CONCORD, N.C. -- Equipment clanks, people scurry. Garage doors yawn. The sun has risen on Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Chip Ganassi is running full-throttle. It's Carburetion Day at Indy. Ahead lies the final 500 practice and traditional pit-stop competition. The owner of three CART and two NASCAR teams has already ducked in his hospitality area, fielded phone calls and punched the clock. By 9 a.m., he's parked in his garage bay -- and in conversation with the Baltimore Sun's Sandra McKee. One of Ganassi's drivers, Bruno Junqueira, has the pole for Sunday's 86th annual Indianapolis 500. His two teammates, Jeff Ward and former champion Kenny Brack, start 15th and 21st, respectively. Their cars sit in front of Ganassi, surrounded by crewmen, and the owner calls, "Hey!" to a visitor, and taps his watch. "Where were you this morning?" One day shy of his 44th birthday, the busy Pittsburgh native is doing the "double" this Thursday. After Carburetion Day, he'll fly to Charlotte to watch his NASCAR drivers, Winston Cup points leader Sterling Marlin, and Jimmy Spencer, qualify for Sunday night's Coca Cola Racing Family 600. He'll make the same trip on Sunday, but for now, there's no more room on the itinerary. Ganassi springs from a white plastic chair in the rear of his garage. "Come on," he says. "Let's go find RP." That's garage-speak for fellow open-wheel and NASCAR owner Roger Penske. Ganassi's mission is delivering a gift from his father, Floyd. The Penske family held a celebratory dinner earlier in the week, and the elder Ganassi's gift is tucked in a red paper bag; a bottle of 1966 Haut-Brion wine. Penske can't be found. Back in his quarters, Ganassi discusses his own driving career. "It was a different time in racing," he says of the 1982-86 open-wheel seasons. "It was a lot more dangerous then. I had to make a decision -- could you actually make a living being a driver in those days? In 1980, I don't think there were 50 drivers on the planet making a living on a regular basis racing cars." After five Indy 500s and five racing seasons, Ganassi sampled another side of the sport. He took a year off before buying a team in 1988. And in the late 1990s, the experiment paid off: Chip Ganassi Racing teams won an unprecedented four consecutive CART titles from 1996-99. "I'm better at this than I was driving," Ganassi jokes from his plastic lawn-chair seat. "Well, I've had more success at this, but I've been at this a little longer than I was driving, too."
He exchanges friendly barbs with a long-time newspaper vendor: "Chuck, I already got the papers today. Too late, man." A cellular conversation ends with Ganassi's secretary asking if he needs anything else. "Love, power and money," Ganassi replies, grinning. Minutes later, he dials up one of his NASCAR team managers, Andy Graves. "Ganassi here," the boss says as Graves answers. "How are you?" The red-shirted garage army continues to swirl. Ganassi juggles face-to-face and cellular conversations, darts in and out of the garage; conferences with Mike Hull, the managing director for Chip Ganassi Racing. Junqueira eventually drops in a plastic chair to do an interview, and Ganassi says a central factor in his success as an owner stems from a trait that works as well off the track as on it -- knowing when to back off. "I'm lucky that I have good people around me, you know?" he says. "Whether it's Mike up here, or Andy and [NASCAR team manager] Tony [Glover] down there. They're good guys. They understand what we're trying to do and how we're trying to get there and so they don't need me watching over them 24 hours a day." Fans crowd the ropes separating them from the garage as Ganassi walks out to visit and sign autographs. Good-luck wishes resound, cameras flash. "Are you going to both places?" a fan asks of Sunday's Indy 500 and Sunday night's 600-miler in Charlotte. "Of course I am," Ganassi replies. He breaks into a grin as Brack shows up; the two shake hands, playfully jostle. He tells the very blonde Swede, who's tested a Cup car, that he wishes the driver could accompany him to Charlotte. "I wish I could, too," admits Brack, resplendent in black pants and a black team jacket. "But [team public relations representative] Brian Zepp put the block on me." Junqueira reappears in his red fire suit; with his flavorful Brazilian accent. He discusses strategy with Ganassi, who advises him to practice starts. Penske enters the garage just minutes before the 11 a.m., practice. He and Ganassi exchange pleasantries, laughter, comparisons over last week's NASCAR all-star event, The Winston, won by Penske's rookie driver Ryan Newman (Marlin crashed out early). Penske's eyes widen as he unsheathes the vintage wine. "Wow," he says. A swift walk through Gasoline Alley proves a traffic hazard. Team carts zip back and forth. Fans yell. Ganassi waves. He stops on pit road to greet Indy 500 rookie Tony Kanaan, and announces, "Time to go to work," as he mounts Junqueira's pit box and dons radio headphones. The two-hour practice produces blistering speeds; Kanaan's 225 mile-per-hour mark tops the chart. Ganassi also spends time in Ward's and Brack's pits, and does a public-address interview with legendary track announcer Tom Carnegie. "You're going to see a heck of a race come Sunday, I'll tell you that," Ganassi says into Carnegie's microphone. Brack isn't happy with a sputtery engine. During lunch in the team hauler -- actually, three linked together -- Ganassi listens as engineers talk with the driver. Laptops line a conference table; fingers fly across keyboards. Guys wolf down chicken-pasta salad, grilled vegetables and pork chops. Ganassi sneaks back to the buffet line for desert. He's back out in the sun 20 minutes later. All three of his drivers are in the pit-stop competition, and Ganassi stops for a TV interview on his way to Brack's pit box. As luck would have it, Ward and Junqueira must square off in the first round. Ward's crew triumphs with a 10.5-second stop. Later, Brack's crew beats Buddy Lazier's, but Indy Racing League officials assess a five-second penalty for a left rear tire problem. "For what?" Ganassi says. At. 3:25 p.m., a voice-mail gives him a NASCAR update: Spencer has crashed in practice and must go to a back-up car. "Somebody laid down oil on the track," Ganassi reports. He spends the rest of the competition in his hospitality bus, taking a break before the flight to Charlotte. A few large, framed photos cover beige walls. One is of Ganassi with his three CART champions, Jimmy Vasser ('96), Alex Zanardi ('97-'98) and Juan Montoya ('99). It's especially poignant considering Zanardi's near-fatal CART accident last September, a head-on crash that forced the amputation of both legs below the knee. "You know," Ganassi says of the irrepressible Italian driver, "God has a special way of taking care of people. The last time I talked to him, about a month ago, he told me, 'What would you think if I was 5-10 now instead of 5-8?' " Tears well, quickly disappear. Ganassi smiles. He zips back out for the pit-stop finals, commandeering a team cart. Ward is matched against one of Penske's drivers, defending Indy 500 champ Helio Castroneves, and his crew loses the last round by a narrow margin. That's fine with Ganassi. "The last time we finished second, we won the race," he said of Montoya's win in 2000, and jumps back on the team cart for a ride to the hospitality bus. At 4:45 p.m., Ganassi weaves a SUV in and out of Interstate 465 traffic. He's back on his cell phone, checking in and out with employees, calling Felix Sabates, whose Cup operation he purchased prior to the 2001 NASCAR season [Sabates has retained a minority interest]. The SUV darts into an exit lane at the last second. "If I was a detail guy, I'd have been in that lane a long time ago," Ganassi says. His eight-seat plane leaves Indianapolis at approximately 5:15. Joining the two pilots are Ganassi, Hull, and Wolfgang Hustedt, motors sports manager for Bosch. "I've known Chip since he was 15," says Hustedt, who's bumming the ride to visit NASCAR clients. He describes Ganassi's competitive instincts as, "tenacious. A lot of people hate his guts, but he just wants it done and wants it done right." It's a gorgeous late-afternoon flight. Ganassi kicks off his black tasseled loafers. Talks business with Hull. "Hey," he says, gesturing to his right as mountains begin to hump below. "There's Bristol Motor Speedway. See it?" On the ground and inside Lowe's Motor Speedway, Ganassi shows off, "the bus," his newest motor home with its small gourmet kitchen, plush carpeting, and two plasma televisions. He passes out cold bottled water before leading a pack of folks to the garage. The stock-car world is very different than the one Ganassi left behind: The roar of Cup engines obliterates all other sound while Indy cars' high-pitched whine can shatter eardrums. But the people are much the same. Around 7 p.m., Ganassi refuels on team-cooked hamburgers, beans, and relish-style veggies. Marlin, and later Spencer join him, Hull, and Ganassi Racing executive vice president Gene Haskett in Spencer's hauler. Marlin tells a funny story about repairing muskrat damage to a rock wall at his Lake Norman home. Spencer describes the practice crash and his unhappiness with his back-up car. Ganassi needles both veterans about NASCAR's young-gun drivers. "Come on!" he says, laughing. "You're just teeing it up for them!" Marlin grins, pulls on his driving shoes. Spencer shakes his head, channel-flips for TV qualifying coverage. They roll their eyes at each other. "They're different, but they're not," Ganassi says later, as the sun vanishes over Lowe's Motor Speedway and qualifying continues; he's comparing his drivers in both series. "These guys are heavy-set and older, and those guys are younger and skinnier." He grins at the analogy. Fork-picks at an apple pie warming on the team grill. Both Marlin and Spencer are among the last to qualify, and Ganassi personnel join their boss atop Spencer's hauler. Groans go up at Marlin's laps; he's much slower than his eighth-quickest practice time. "He just needed a little bit of care when I came down here," Ganassi said of the Cup points leader. "He needed to have the guys who were working on his car to do less than they were doing. Cause they were doing 99 different jobs and he needed to just focus on driving. And soon as that all happened, he came right to the front." Spencer, in his first year with Ganassi, is faster than expected in the back-up car. "He's got an infectious energy about him, you know?" Ganassi says of the NASCAR veteran known as "Mr. Excitement." Soon, the owner is back on his cell-phone. "Let's call Felix," he says, adding, "Ganassi here," as Sabates answers. "You watching this?" Spencer ends up with the 30th starting spot, Marlin with the 35th. Ganassi descends from the hauler, collects Hull and Hustedt, and cruises through the garage. He consoles Marlin's crew chief, Lee McCall, who's not feeling well. He also greets former Cup series director Gary Nelson before the party sneaks around hauler cabs and back into the infield. There's just enough time for a pit stop at "the bus," and more bottled water. More than 12 hours since his Indy sunrise, Ganassi is still running on happy adrenaline. "Good luck Sunday," someone says before he twists back in his rental car for the return drive to Concord Regional Airport. "Oh yeah," he says, and grins.
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