IndyCar champion Palou to make IMSA debut with Ganassi at Daytona
Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou will make his IMSA SportsCar Championship debut with Chip Ganassi Racing later this month at the Daytona 24 Hours in the team's expanded two-car lineup.
Photo by: Barry Cantrell / Motorsport Images
The 24-year-old Spaniard, who won his maiden IndyCar title in his first season with Ganassi in 2021, will be added to Ganassi's roster along with fellow Ganassi IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson.
Palou and three-time Daytona outright winner Dixon will drive the team's #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R alongside full-time drivers Renger van der Zande and Sebastian Bourdais, the latter re-joining the team he last raced for during its spell running the Ford GT programme after winning the Sebring 12 Hours in JDC Miller's Cadillac last year.
Former Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen will also return to drive the team's new-for-2022 second entry, the #02 machine, at Daytona ahead of his switch to joining Peugeot's new Le Mans Hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship.
Magnussen was a full-timer alongside van der Zande in 2021, the pair scoring a single victory at Detroit and finishing fourth in the final standings.
The Dane will join team newcomers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, the former Porsche and Aston Martin factory aces taking the wheel for the full season with Ericsson as the third driver.
Two-time Le Mans winner Bamber made his debut with Ganassi in last year's Petit Le Mans finale, when Magnussen was taken ill.
#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger van der Zande, Kevin Magnussen
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Ericsson was initially on Ganassi’s singleton entry at Daytona last year, but eventually the team decided on three drivers, with Dixon joining van der Zande and Magnussen for the four endurance races.
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Ericsson has since scored his first two IndyCar victories with the Ganassi team, and finished sixth in the championship last year.
Only late punctures prevented Ganassi winning its first race with Cadillac at Daytona last year, the first time the DPi-V.R was defeated in the 24 Hours in its five attempts by the Meyer Shank Racing Acura.
Ganassi is gunning for its first outright win at the 24 Hours since 2015, when Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson took victory in a Riley MkXXVI-Ford.
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