Chip Ganassi Team Recap (insert catchy title)
What Happened
For Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates Racing 2007 was a pretty nice season. After years of running in the background, the team returned to the spotlight primarily because of a 31 year old “rookie” Juan Pablo Montoya. In the summer of 2006 Ganassi surprised not just the NASACAR world, but the racing world when he announced that Montoya was coming to Nextel Cup. The move assured the team would have plenty of attention whether they won races or not. Everyone wanted to see how an open wheel star would do in NASCAR. The answer was quickly answered with a “yes”.
Ganassi won their first Cup race since 2002 when Montoya took the checkers at Sonoma. It was hardly a surprise that Montoya, one of the best road racers in the world, won at a non-oval course. He won the Busch road race at Mexico City earlier in 2007. The win still ended a four year plus drought for the team.
Montoya’s success affirmed Ganassi’s belief in open wheel drivers and in the summer announced he had signed another open wheel star Dario Franchitti to drive in 2008. Franchitti comes off a splendid IRL season where he won the Indy 500 and the IRL title.
What Went Well
The road course wins were nice, but Montoya’s true progress was measured on oval tracks. That progress was seen in flashes throughout the season. In just his fifth Cup start, Montoya scored his first top five at Atlanta. He followed it up three races later with an 8th place at
Texas. In the fall Montoya also scored top tens at Dover and Martinsville, two of NASCAR’s toughest tracks for any driver let alone a stock car rookie.
The team’s brightest day came at Indy during the Brickyard 400. Reed Sorenson won the pole while Montoya started 2nd. Both cars spent the majority of the day in the top five and Montoya finished 2nd and Sorenson came home 5th.
Compared to his nightmare 2006, David Stremme enjoyed a better season. He scored his first career top ten at Texas and finished the year with 3 total. After struggling last season to sat inside the top 35, he began 2007 with 5 straight top 20’s to ensure that wouldn’t happen again. Comparing his average finish from 2006 (26.4) to 2007 (25.2) it doesn’t look like great improvement, but it’s not the case. Last year Stremme suffered lots of early race problems that rendered his day wasted. This year even in races that didn’t get the finish, he usually stayed in the hunt longer. Look at his 61.2 driver rating compared to 54.2 last season.
Sorenson had a few highlights in his sophomore season. He scored a season best 3rd at his
home track, Atlanta, in the fall. In five career races at Atlanta Sorenson has three top tens. In all he had three top 5’s and 6 top tens.
What Went Wrong
During the offseason the team focused on improving their speedway program and the results were seen in races with the “old car”. The problem came with the CoT. Sure, Montoya won a road race in the CoT, that speaks more to Ganassi’s traditionally strong road course program than than the CoT. Only four of the team’s combined 12 top 10’s came in the CoT. The team’s average finish in the old car was 22.75 compared to 25.77 in the CoT. Neither is a great number, but the team obviously lost ground in the car that will feature exclusively in 2008.
Sorenson had a rough second season. While fellow classmates Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer
and Martin Truex all won races and made the Chase, Sorenson was still searching for consistency. He had 7 DNF’s and an incredible 8 finishes of 40th or worse. The good news is that with two world class drivers for teammates, Sorenson should be able to take advantage of their knowledge, not to mention their clout when asking for organizational improvements.
Stremme showed improvement, but it wasn’t earth-shattering and in the end he lost his ride to Franchitti. Part of the reason was performance based, but sponsorship was also to blame. Coors Light ended their association with Ganassi and another sponsor couldn’t be found. It was reasoned that the Indy 500 winner Franchitti was more marketable (being married to actress Ashley Judd doesn’t hurt either) than Stremme.
Montoya’s success was tempered slightly by his fierce and stubborn driving style. He had incidents with several drivers including Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and most famously with Kevin Harvick. The two tangled both in and out of their cars at Watkins Glen. After wrecking their cars, both drivers exchanged words and shoves, but presumably not insurance information. Montya deserves credit for not backing down as a rookie. At the same time he needs to find the balance between aggressive and antagonist. If he wants to run in the top 10 consistently he needs to respect the other top drivers.
Past Team Reviews
- DEI
- Michael Waltrip Racing
- Penske Racing
- Haas-CNC
- Team Red Bull
- Joe Gibbs
- Evernham
- Wood Bros
- Hendrick Motorsports
- Robert Yates Racing
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