Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Chip Ganassi Interview

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Legendary motorsports owner Chip Ganassi joins Kevin Harvick to discuss everything from his team's preparation for the iconic Indy 500 to the major differences between INDYCAR and NASCAR. Chip reveals which NASCAR drivers he believes could excel in INDYCAR, shares his thoughts on the penalties handed down to Team Penske, and opens up about what he looks for when recruiting top talent for his teams. Plus, Harvick presses Ganassi on whether a return to NASCAR could be in his future. 0:00 - Intro 0:37 - Chip Ganassi Joins the Show! 4:15 - FOX’s Partnership with INDYCAR 7:25 - American Open-Wheel Racing Development 12:52 - Developing Young Talent 14:32 - Best Drivers for Chip Ganassi Racing 17:34 - Could Christopher Bell Drive in INDYCAR? 19:26 - INDYCAR Penalizes Team Penske 21:38 - Participate in NASCAR again? 26:02 - Most Successful Year as an Owner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's one guy in NASCAR that you'd want to bring to the Indy 500 to do the double. Who would it be? Kevin Harvick. I'm going to be 50 this year. I think the Super Bowl sometimes is the Daytona 500 football. I think all teams have a certain responsibility to uphold the integrity of the sport. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. And today we have one of the legends of Motorsports.

Team owner, Chip Ghanasi, Chip, welcome to the show. And thank you for taking the time. today during a busy week. Thanks, Kevin. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing great. It's been a crazy, been a crazy weekend here in Indianapolis, but typical month of May. Yeah. Well, talk to me about that month of May. You know, for me, going to the Daytona 500, now it's, you know, three, four, five days at the most. And we used to go down there for two weeks, but we're talking a whole month. Explain to our fans just the challenge

of managing the whole month with the sponsors and the people and just this massive event that you guys have at the Indianapolis 500. Yeah, you know, it starts off with the road race at the beginning of the month, you know, the Indie Grand Prix. So we start off with a race, a small race, and then we go right into practice for five days, qualifying for two days, then another practice, and then the following weekend, the race. And so we just got through a week of practice. And, you know, you're in different conditions. And it's actually good that you get that kind of practice because, you know, you get rain and you get, you know, you get heat and you get cool. And, you know, these cars react to all those conditions differently. So you want to be prepared for each one of those in case you get that on race day.

Yeah. When you go through this month and we've seen the cars be extremely hard to drive for a lot of guys. We've seen some crashes and a lot of things happening. how do you manage that with your guys? Is it just something that you go by feel or is it something that you say, hey, we need to stay in the box right here. We need to get a good solid starting spot and put ourselves in a position to qualify decent and not take too big of a risk?

Well, it's talking to your guys every day. You know, it's talking to your drivers every day and tell them, look. You know, we had a little different condition than we did yesterday. You know, you see a lot of these guys when they have, these incidents like Colton did or or McLaughlin or Armstrong. Those are the ones I'm familiar with. You know, they were all, you know, like first run out type of incidents, you know, or a brand new tire, brand new set of tires, you know, when you're running, they're on their first lap trying

to get the most out of it. So, you know, believe me, Kevin, when you get up, you know, you know this as a driver, you know, you get up over 200 miles an hour. and, you know, the air gets really thick and little, little tiny changes make big differences in the, in the, in the, in the, in the performance of the car. And, you know, you don't have to be off much to be, when you're, when you're out on the, you know,

that outside edge of the envelope, it doesn't take much to push you off the edge, you know, and, you know, you get a little too much bite in the front, a little too light in the rear, and things can start happening pretty quick. Are you happy with where you're, you're, your cars qualified? We are. You know, we were fourth and sixth and 15th. And my two, my two veterans, Alex Paloo and Scott Dixon, you know, we've increased basically 15 spaces from where we were a year ago. We were out to lunch on super speedways a year ago. And we needed to do a lot of work in the offseason. And the guys here in the race shop did a great job in the offseason,

getting us back, you know, back to where we were in the fast six yesterday with two cars. So that's a big thing. Yeah, well, I mean, qualified up front. I mean, no matter what you raise, qualified up front is the first key to success on the weekend. So when we talk about IndyCar this year, Fox obviously has to come into that equation. Talk to me about the things that you've seen Fox bring to the table, where you think this is headed, how it's good for IndyCar with this new relationship with everybody at Fox. Yeah, good question. First of all, I think it's important to point out that, you know, the head of the head of Fox Sports, a guy named Eric Shanks, is from the state of Indiana. You know, he grew up an hour from here in Terre Haute, Indiana, or just outside of Terre Haute. So the Indianapolis 500 is something he's known about forever and basically grew up with. And so, you know, for him to now be in the

position he's in and being able to televise the 500 is quite a feather in his cap. And he's approached it, you know, very, very, you're leaning, leaning in heavily to the series, to the Indianapolis 500 and to the television product itself. When you look at, when you look at being on big network and big Fox and you look at where you guys came from, what do you think, I mean, that's a, that's a big feather in a cap of, you know, everything that you can do being on Fox network, yeah, be on the big network. And when you look at everything else in IndyCar, what else do you think would help grow the sport where every sport is looking to grow in different directions? What's the one area that you really feel like IndyCar needs to push next now that they've got a new television deal?

That's a good question. No one's asked me that all week. I think it's basically just having some T events that are big. Look, we obviously have the Indianapolis 500. much like NASCAR has the Daytona 500, you know. And they're, you know, their big race of the year, or, you know, oftentimes we refer to that as, you know, the Daytona 500 or the Indianapolis 500. They use that term, I think, is so overused when they say, well, that's our Super Bowl. And it's true in a sense. And I think the Super Bowl sometimes is the Daytona 500 of football or the Indianapolis 500 of football. So, but having said that, you know, I think that that to make these sports bigger, we need to key on a couple of events and make them larger events.

We need other great events like Daytona, like Indianapolis, to make motorsports bigger. And, you know, whether it's the, you know, Long Beach Grand Prix or now we're going next year, next spring to Arlington, Texas. You know, we have Toronto, which is a great event. We have some great events in the Upper Midwest at Elkhart Lake and in Wisconsin. They're well-attended big events annually on the calendar of these local areas. And so I think the next growth area is just taking some of these other events and bringing them up to the level of Indianapolis. When you look at the American open-wheel development system, you always go out and find great young drivers, and you always pull somebody out the woodwork and have done that for a number of years. When you look at it, the biggest reason I asked this is I kind of went through the open-wheel system from the carding side with my son, Keelan. We went to Europe, kind of learned about F-4, F-3, F-2, Europe, America. Now you've got the Indy Next program. Where do you think that that system is in America for the open wheel feeder series to get to IndyCar compared to where we are in Europe with F4, F3, F2, and all the ranks?

Because it just, when I was there, it just seemed like you were going to need to go through that European system to get the experience and competitiveness that you needed to be a great driver. How do you feel about that? And what do we need to do if we need to strengthen it up here in the U.S.? That's a great question, and it's a little bit of a complex answer. I think, Kevin, in open wheel racing, specifically formula car racing here, whether it's in the United States or Europe, when you're a developing driver coming along, you want your, you have to learn to, we have to learn. You need to start with the overriding umbrella that you need to understand the mechanical. workings of an automobile. That's whether it's an open-wheel car, a stock car,

a sprint car, whatever kind of car, sports car. You need to understand mechanically what makes these cars work, okay? Then as a driver, I think you need to go from cars. You want to have the max downforce and the max tire grip at the highest level of the sport, okay and and and and and so you want to go from um if i can make it if i can put it in really quick english you want to it's it's easier to go from a from a let me let me let me go outside the discussion here for a second it's easier to go from a car with less down force to a car with more down force than it is to go from a car with more down force and more stick into a less

lesser down for his car. That's why when a cup driver gets in an indie car, he adapts very quickly. But when an indie car driver gets in a cup car, it takes a long time to adapt to the grip level. So you want to be in cars all the time that have, you know, as you're developing your career, you don't want to go to a car with more grip than is at the next level.

You want the max grip and the max downforce to be at the highest level. Now, that's one ladder you want to be on. The other ladder you want to be on is who you're racing against, okay? Look, you could be in the best championship in the world, but if you're not racing against anyone any good, it doesn't matter. And so once you understand, the mechanical workings of a car, once you understand the grip level of a car and how to manage that grip level, it's about who you're racing against.

So to, and so to be in your position with Keelan or any father's position who's looking over their son's career or any agent that's looking over any driver's career, those three things I mentioned change every year. Okay. So there's not one path that does it. And every father, every agent, every sponsor is looking at, they say, what's the real way to get there? And the answer is it changes every year because it's about who you're racing against, what the competition level is, what the horsepower of the car is, what the downforce is,

who's making a tire, is it a good tire, isn't a bad tire, and do you understand the car? And so what I'm saying is that formula changes every year as you're coming up. Look, we've all been in racing long enough to know that a guy comes along and just like you see this kid, Robert Schwartzman, on pole for the Indianapolis 500, he's never driven on an oval, okay? And he's on pole for the biggest race in the world. And you say, geez, how's that happened? And, well, first of all, it's because things are so close. but he's, you know, there's an example of somebody that's come along out of left field. Very few people have heard of here in this country,

but his steps that he's been in the sport coming up have prepared him for that yesterday. Yeah. It changes every year what the right path together is. And a guy always comes out, whether it's in open wheel racing, whether it's in stock cars, in any series, there's always some guy that comes out of left field. No one's ever heard of him. he comes on and they go, where'd that guy come from? You know. And, yeah.

Yeah. Well, you seem to find some, some great ones all over the place. So how do you, how do you, how do you keep coming up with, with all these guys? You found Larson. You found, you know, the current crop of guys that you have. I mean, Dixon. I remember you and Chastain. I remember you and Chastain back in Tharlington one year in a bush rate.

Yeah. And you and he got into it, you know, and I, and had some. some words and whatever. And, yeah, I mean, I, you know, I, I'll never forget that. You know, I mean, these guys come along and they, he was driving a motor home. Ross Chastiff is driving somebody's motor home to the race just to be there to get a shot at it, you know, and we gave him a shot and he took full advantage of it. And, you know, not without a few bumps and bruises along the way, you know, but, but he did it,

you know, and my hat off to him. And, you know, it's, you know, there's a good question how you find these guys, you know, and it's, there's no one answer to that either, but it starts with, it starts with your heart. I know that. You know, a lot of guys are fast. You know, I always say there are a lot of guys that are, that can drive a race car fast, but there are very few race car drivers. if and I think you know what I mean you could probably help me with that definition you know but a lot of guys can drive cars fast but but there's a difference between that and race car drivers yeah fast doesn't always fast doesn't always finish in order to finish first you must you must finish the race but so here's a question here's here's three guys that have driven for you Juan Montoya Alex Sinardi Kyle Larson who's who's the best one who's the best one out of those three

because I think they're all just world-class drivers. Yeah, they are all world-class drivers. And, you know, you and I can sit here and pontificate about that all day who the best one is. And the fact of the matter is neither of us know and we will never know. Okay, that's the fact. Okay, because they all in their day, you know, in their day are very, very faster on a particular given day. And again, what they're driving, what, you know, what the grip. level is, what the aerodynamics are, all that stuff sort of goes along.

You don't want to, I can tell you, Zunardi was one of these guys that, you know, a lot of times you have drivers that are what I call Friday, Saturday drivers, and then you have Sunday drivers, you know, and Friday, Saturday guys are always playing with their car and, you know, getting everything perfect, and they're always trying to over-engineer the car and I'll think it and this, they're always thinking real hard about it. And then come Sunday, they're like, well, they're in the race and this happened and that happened. They got all kind of excuses. And I'm like, okay, you know, you're always working on their car, you know.

And then you've got these guys that are Sunday guys that they kind of don't give a damn on Friday and Saturday. But boy, come Sunday, they come alive and they race and they race hard. Zunardi was the first guy I met that could make that perfect transition from a Friday, Saturday guy to a Sunday guy. Okay, he was the first guy I meant that did that. You bring along Montoya, and Montoya in his day was blindingly fast in anything you put him in, I mean blindingly fast. And he passed guys where nobody would ever pass. You know, I remember seeing videos of him driving around the outside of Michael Schumacher at these Formula One races where they said you couldn't pass. And, you know, he just would light things up and he came over here, Canadian States, and lit things up, winning the Indianapolis 500, win the championship.

championship and, you know, coming to NASCAR, making a transition into there, having, having, you know, winning races there. And, you know, it was a great thing to have him come along. And then, then you meet a guy like Larson. And, you know, you put Larson, no matter what you put him in, he figures it out in a short period of time. And, you know, so, and he's doing a good job now. And, you know, obviously one of the most versatile guys out there right now. and he gets in any car and he can drive it fast. And I think that's a great thing.

And he's been a cup champion now. He's come along and we're going to see him here next week at the Indianapolis 500 again. So, you know, they're all, they all have their pluses. They all have their pluses like everybody else. They all have their minuses like everyone else. But when it comes to who's the fastest of the three of those guys, nobody will ever know. And if I can make up an answer, but that's. what it would be a made-up answer.

Well, you've had some badass guys drive your cars and really unique individuals. If there's one guy in NASCAR that you'd want to bring to the Indy 500 to give it a shot to do the double, who would it be outside of Larson? Kevin Harvick. I'm going to be 50 this year. I have way. I mean, I guess I'd have to call Dixon to figure out how to get in 50-year-old shape. No, he's not quite there yet.

But there's not one. guy that you would you would say hey i'd like to like to see him do it yeah i mean maybe maybe um uh the kid that drives for gibbs um bell bell bell christopher bell yeah christopher bell yeah he'd be he'd be somebody yeah yeah yeah i love i love those dirt kids they're all i remember seeing him seeing him at turkey night in a in a in a usack midget um i don't know probably you know before anybody had ever heard Right after we brought along, it was actually a turkey night, and I was there with Parnelly Jones watching Kyle Larson run. In California, I'm trying to remember where it was in California.

Probably Irwindale. No, no, it was, it'll come to me. Yeah. Yeah. But I went to the Turkey night, and we were watching Larson. This is after we'd already signed Larson. And he was duping and out with Christopher Bell. on a USAC midget.

And I remember not much has changed. Nothing much has changed. Not much has changed on this side. So talk to me, talk to me about, talk to me about what's happening here with this penalty and everything that went on yesterday in qualifying. I don't really understand it. So I know that you guys were, you know, there. And tell me, tell me about everything that went down yesterday with the Penske cars.

Yeah, I mean, obviously they had some car, they had some parts on their cars. you know, there are a lot of what are called spec parts on these cars. And, you know, and they had some, a spec part that was modified on their car. And they were trying to get it off before, before they got penalized. And, I mean, that's sort of a penalty in itself. And so having, you know, you know, yeah, they had, they had an issue there. And, you know, I think, I think. I think all teams have a certain responsibility to uphold the integrity of the sport in any series.

And no team more than Team Penske, you know, they've had so much success over the years. And it's a team that everybody knows and everybody's heard of. And they have a lot of success around the world in a lot of different series. So I think they need to be held to even a higher standard. to protect the sport, especially with, you know, the investment that Roger Penske has at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and in the IndyCar series, and in all these other series he's involved in and his businesses for that matter. So they have a responsibility to protect the sport and we all need to. Everyone that's in it has to protect the sport. And it's certainly a problem when the pursuit of winning compromises in. integrity and sportsmanship. That's what you have. And it's unfortunate to these things happen.

Now, there's penalties being handed out as we speak. And in fact, there's an owner's meeting going on right now that I'm missing. And they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, your penalties handed out this morning, I know. Yeah, there's always something going on. I read about the penalties and wanted to ask you that. So it's our sport on the NASCAR side, you got out, a soldier team to Justin Marks. Our sport has changed a dramatic amount with the types of cars that we race, the way that we go about racing since you've left.

Have you, would you ever have any consideration of being a part of a NASCAR team again? You know, I get that question a lot. And I, of course I would. I would never say never. You know, I would probably, I would probably want some people like, you know, when you and Dale Jr. decided to get back and you let me know and I'll come with you, you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know.

You know, like I would, I would, I would, I would want somebody else to help shoulder the responsibility of it. you know, it was just, you know, I just couldn't do it the way I, the way I like to go racing, you know. I, you know, I like to have, you know, whether it's, you know, having the proper financial backing, having the proper, you know, people, driving the cars, working on the cars. And I like to be involved. You know, I'm not one of these owners that sits up in the suite, you know, eating and drinking. I'm down in the pit lane with the team. And it was just hard for me to do that in NASCAR and do it here and in sports cars. It's what was the biggest difference between the NASCAR culture and the other teams,

the other series that you were working in? Yeah, that's a good question. I think, you know, I mean, I think each series has their own culture. And none of them are good or bad. They just are what they are. And it's a culture that's developed, you know, the culture in NASCAR was developed because of the people like the France family and the Wood brothers and the Petty's and the, you know, you know, Banjo Matthews and, you know, all these people from way, you know, from a long time.

And it's a culture that you and I grew up in in that formula of racing. And same thing here in IndyCar racing. You know, the culture here in IndyCar racing was, was, was, was born out of, you know, A.J. Foyt and Bobby Unser and Mario Andredi and, you know, teams like, you know, the teams that go way back in the sport, you know, you know, Penske obviously way back Hill and, you know, all these guys that were, that were around Foight way back in the 60s,

Lindsey, you know, Lindsay Hopkins, you know, all these teams. that you can think of, you know, drivers like Troy Rutman and, and Johnny, drivers like Johnny Parsons and, you know, all these teams from all around the world that came here to Indianapolis. We're living, today, we're living the culture that those teams, those respective teams

in each of these different categories of racing, built. They're the ones that started the culture. We've been beneficiaries of that. You and I are beneficiaries of those people that built the sport. And a lot of the culture, the way we go about things, the work ethic, it all started with those teams. And in each, in each, whether it's NASCAR, Indycars, whatever formula of racing it is around the world, we're beneficiaries of those older teams.

And then that's who really put the culture forward. the work ethic, the scheduling, the schedule itself during a weekend. I remember Mario Andretti telling me, you know, way back when they, when they discovered, you know, the difference in circumference of the tires, they were, they were, you know, the difference in circumference from one tire to the next and how they could, how suddenly that made the car faster. and they had a secret that they held for two or three years. And before anybody knew about that. And now next thing you know, everybody was measuring their tires.

Yeah, pretty wild. Yeah, it's pretty wild how our sport evolves. Just last couple questions. Yeah, in 2010, you won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400. Was that the most successful year that you've had as an owner? No question, no question. And when you look back on 2010, everybody mentions that. And I think what's even more exciting to mention is every driver on our team.

In other words, in those days, we had an IndyCar team. We had a two-car, I'm sorry, 2-10, we had a three-car indie-car team, we had a two-car cup team and we had a sports car and we had one sports car and the greatest thing that I can say about 2010 was not only did we win those races that you just mentioned and that's a big feat, no question.

Equally as large to me was every one of our drivers saw Victory Lane that year and so it wasn't just one driver doing it You know what I mean? We really had our act together technically that year. And in all the three types of racing we were doing, and we were just firing on all cylinders.

And every one of our drivers found Victory Lane that year, which was very exciting to me. And, of course, winning those big three races like that was just incredible. And we also won 24 hours of Daytona then in the following of February in 2011, in the early, the 24 as they told. So it was like, it was inside a year winning those four races was just, I don't know, you know, that was, that's a great record.

And I'm sure someday it'll be broken by somebody else. But that was really special. And really special about the way that those races were won. I remember Jamie McMurray. That was, in 2010, was, you know, the delay because of the pothole there on the racetrack. And we raced into the night. We got to Indianapolis, and Dario got spun on the first pit stop.

He was spun and landed in our pits backwards. And he went out of the pits in 31st place and came back to win the race. And then Jamie McMurray, Jamie McMurray went in the brickyard that year. I think he passed a guy. I'm trying to remember the guy's name that he passed to win that race. I can't remember. I can't remember either. I can't remember.

You look a lot like that guy. I'm just trying to remember his name. Yeah, think of who it was. But he passed him on the last restart. Yeah. You know, matter of that, Kevin, I think that was you. It was. It was.

Yeah. It's definitely one of those races that you go back and you're like, dang, I lost that race on the last restart. But it was in the record books, though, it's a, it's a remarkable feat to do all those things. And, you know, I think when I look back at your career and everything that you've done, for motorsports. It's well appreciated from those that have been inside this sport for a long time. You're a big part of auto racing in general, and I appreciate you taking the time today. Good luck this weekend, and we'll all be watching. Well, hey, you know, like you got all this time on your hands. Come see us in an IndyCar race sometime.

Come as my guest. Love to have you. Well, I appreciate that. I will take you up on that. I'm getting to the point where I might have some more time. So good luck this weekend. Thanks for taking the time, man. Thank you. Have a good day.