Ganassi confirm Wheldon for 2006
Target Chip Ganassi Racing have confirmed that they have signed new IRL champion Dan Wheldon
Wheldon will partner 2003 champion Scott Dixon in one of the strongest line-ups on next season's grid.
The move end's Wheldon's three-year association with Andretti-Green Racing that yielded nine victories and last year's Indy 500 crown, and puts to bed any speculation that he would move to F1 next season.
The 27 year-old Brit was unveiled at a news conference held at the team's Indianapolis headquarters today. Team boss Chip Ganassi has signed the Brit in an attempt to improve the fortunes of the team that powered Dixon to the 2003 title.
They have only won one race since Dixon's championship and suffered a large repair bill last season as the result of many accidents in the hands of Dixon, Jaques Lazier, Darren Manning and Ryan Briscoe.
Briscoe, who drove the team's third car last season before a fiery accident ended his season at Chicagoland, has not been retained, and the team will shrink to two cars.
Ganassi also confirmed they will switch to Wheldon's preferred technical package of Dallara chassis combined with Honda engines, the team switching from the Panoz/Toyota combination that they fielded this season.
Ganassi experimented with a Dallara in practice for this year's Indy 500 but opted to race with their regular Panoz for the rest of the season. However, the Dallara/Honda combination, which Wheldon secured this season's title with, has been chosen. Toyota are expected to announce their withdrawal from the sport before next season.
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