By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
Chip Ganassi Racing will reunite with Honda Performance Development for the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season and beyond.
The team announced today that they will return to the Santa Clarita, California-based manufacturer after spending the last three seasons with Chevrolet. The team previously ran Honda-powered cars from 1996-1999 and again from 2006-2013.
Honda propelled CGR to four consecutive CART championships from 1996-99 with Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya driving. Their second partnership produced championships from Scott Dixon in 2008 and 2013 along with Dario Franchitti taking the crown three years in a row from 2009-2011.
“The Honda-Ganassi association is one of the most successful in the history of Honda’s North American racing programs,” said Art St. Cyr, president of Honda Performace Development. The Ganassi organization was one of our partners when Honda won its first Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Manufacturers’ Championship in 1996; and a Ganassi driver, Jimmy Vasser, won our first CART drivers’ title that same year.”
Of the team’s 102 victories, Honda has powered 77 of them, three of them coming in the Indianapolis 500 in 2008 with Dixon and 2010 and 2012 with Franchitti.
“We’ve had a long and successful relationship with Honda over the years and we look forward to getting it back on track. I feel a little like I am going home after having previously spent 12 years with them. Much of our organization’s success has been with Honda power in our cars so we are all very excited.”
