CUP: Ganassi Wants Rebound From ‘Pathetic’ Season

Sprint Cup

CUP: Ganassi Wants Rebound From ‘Pathetic’ Season

Key changes mark the new season for Chip Ganassi Racing…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 24, 2012 Concord, NC

Team owner Chip Ganassi was unhappy with the performance of his organization last season. (Photo: Getty Images)

It isn’t often that a racing team owner will step up to a microphone and describe his organization’s performance as “just pathetic.”

But that’s exactly what Chip Ganassi did Tuesday morning as he previewed the 2012 Sprint Cup season and what he hopes it will mean for his drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray.

What he hopes to leave behind is the season past, which saw the team go winless, Montoya finish 21st in points and McMurray 27th.

For an organization with some of the most visible (and lucrative) sponsorship in the business, it was a dismal performance.

Ganassi reacted, booting long-time NASCAR garage veterans Steve Hmiel and Tony Glover from the organization and bringing in a 30-year roamer of race tracks, Max Jones, to take over the competition department. Additionally, John Probst was hired as technical director, and Chris Heroy signed on as the new crew chief for Montoya, whose Sprint Cup career has not taken off as many assumed it might.

“We were 21st and 27th in points last year,” Ganassi said. “That’s just pathetic for a team with our ability and our resources. Simple as that.

“I live for racing. There’s no place I’d rather be than at a race track.”

And, generally speaking, there are few people more successful at race tracks than Ganassi. His teams win IndyCar and sports car races and championships with stunning consistency, but his NASCAR program has lagged behind. In IndyCar, he has won 86 races; in Sprint Cup, 10.

“The great thing is you get to start all over again,” Ganassi said. “Certainly, after last year, we had to start over in a lot of areas. We made some changes in the team. We feel pretty good about them.

“It’s just a matter of putting the right people in place and letting them do their job. It was obviously time to make a change. We took a big swipe at it. I’m certainly happy with the people we have. If more changes need to be done, we’ll do that, in fact, as well.”

The point man will be Jones, a veteran motorsports manager who has been inactive – largely by choice – for the past 14 months. He took some time to travel the world, to hike mountains and to recharge batteries.

“When I saw what Chip was doing, I wanted to be part of it,” Jones said. “You can look at these two cars, and they’re probably the best-funded cars in the garage. Chip provides the team with everything they need. You have great drivers in Jamie and Juan. We should be able to put all the pieces together and win races.”

Montoya, still looking for his first Cup oval-track win, said the changes have been exciting.

“I think we have the right people,” he said. “I know it’s very early, but you can see the changes. You can see there’s a direction where we’re going. The team is heading somewhere.

“Sometimes before it was like, ‘What are we doing?’ There were a lot of long faces and no answers. Now there’s a direction, and there’s so much potential.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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