Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time

From the 1970s into the 1990s, Penske Racing was Indycar’s most successful team. Penske still dominates in terms of Indianapolis 500 victories and race wins, but Chip Ganassi Racing emerged as a force in the second half of the 1990s.

Ganassi has relentlessly stacked up championships – 17 of 30 between 1996 and 2025. Scott Dixon has done the bulk of the heavy lifting, collecting six titles between 2003 and 2020, but Alex Palou has come on strong as of late, and the Spaniard appears well on the way towards notching his fifth crown for Ganassi in the last six years.

The 1982 Indy 500 ‘Rookie of the Year’, Chip Ganassi’s driving career was cut short by a nasty accident at Michigan Speedway in 1984. He became a minority partner in Patrick Racing for Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1989 CART championship and Indianapolis victory before setting out on his own with sponsorship from Target stores and driver Eddie Cheever the following year. Ganassi’s 27-year run with Target that ended in 2016 is the longest-running continual partnership in Indycar history.

With Palou on the brink of another title and Dixon set to depart the team after a 25-year run, it’s a good time to rank Ganassi’s top 10 IndyCar drivers – taking into account only their performance and accomplishments with CGR.

10. Bruno Junqueira

Junqueira spearheaded an all-new line-up in 2001

Photo by: Earl Ma

Ganassi years: 2001-02
Ganassi starts: 39
Ganassi wins: 3
Ganassi titles: 0

When Juan Pablo Montoya made the move to Formula 1 with Williams after two very successful years in America, Chip Ganassi decided to completely clean house, also cutting loose 1996 CART champion Jimmy Vasser. The replacements for 2001 were Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian, who finished 1-2 in the previous season’s FIA Formula 3000 championship.

Minassian lasted just seven races before being swapped out for Memo Gidley, but Junqueira qualified on pole at Nazareth for his first oval start and used his two years with Ganassi to launch a successful Indycar career. The Brazilian won three races over a two-year span for CGR and finished second to Cristiano da Matta in the 2002 CART championship before joining Newman/Haas Racing for a four-year stint.

Other drivers who won races for Ganassi but didn’t crack this top 10 include Kenny Brack, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball, and Felix Rosenqvist.

9. Michael Andretti

Andretti took two wins for Ganassi to end up best of the rest behind the Penske cars

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Ganassi years: 1994
Ganassi starts: 16
Ganassi wins: 2
Ganassi titles: 0

Andretti was the dominant Indycar driver of the early 1990s before a 1993 F1 season with McLaren that can only be described as an abject failure.

He returned to his comfort zone in the CART series for 1994, but not with Newman/Haas, where Nigel Mansell had won the 1993 championship in the IndyCar Michael had stepped out of. Andretti instead signed for upstart Chip Ganassi, who was also in the first year of his venture backing Reynard’s entry into CART.

Reynard had never been beaten in its first race in a new formula, and Andretti kept that winning streak intact by bashing his 94I-Ford/Cosworth over the kerbs of the Surfers Paradise street course in spectacular fashion to win the 1994 opener – the first IndyCar race win for Chip Ganassi Racing and for Reynard. He won again later in the season at Toronto and wound up ‘best of the rest’ in a year Penske dominated with 12 wins from 16 races.

Andretti returned to his old home to drive Lolas for Newman/Haas in 1995, but Reynard soon became the dominant chassis marque in CART, taking the drivers’ championship every year through 2001.

8. Marcus Ericsson

Perception of Ericsson in IndyCar transformed during his Ganassi stint, optimised by his 2022 Indy 500 win

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Ganassi years: 2020-23
Ganassi starts: 54
Ganassi wins: 4 (1x Indianapolis 500)
Ganassi titles: 0

Widely viewed as an F1 backmarker turned IndyCar ride buyer, Ericsson’s 2020 move to Ganassi’s #8 car after a rookie season with Schmidt-Peterson (now Arrow McLaren) was a bit of a surprise. But the Swede emerged as a solid midfield runner in his new environs, then managed to win twice in 2021 after qualifying 15th at Belle Isle and 18th at Nashville when typical IndyCar street course madness broke out.

After finishing sixth in the 2021 standings, Ericsson ran even better the following year, claiming a career-changing Indy 500 victory and was again sixth in the championship.

Ericsson won the 2023 season opener at St. Petersburg on merit and nearly repeated at Indy, denied by Penske’s Josef Newgarden and a bit of on-the-fly late race rules adjustments by IndyCar.

Despite three consecutive top-six championship results and an Indy 500 win, Ericsson struggled to shake off the pay driver stigma within the Ganassi team and at the end of 2023 he departed for a lucrative offer from Andretti Global.

7. Dan Wheldon

Wheldon's popularity grew at Ganassi, but he wasn't able to hit the same heights as his time at Andretti

Photo by: Richard Sloop

Ganassi years: 2006-08
Ganassi starts: 48
Ganassi wins: 6
Ganassi titles: 0

Wheldon was IndyCar’s bravest man on the high-banked 1.5-mile ovals that were the hallmark of the Indy Racing League in the first decade of the 2000s. The Englishman was at his peak in 2004 and 2005 with Andretti Green Racing, dominating the IRL championship the latter year, so it was a shock when Wheldon announced his transfer to Ganassi’s #10 car for 2006.

Wheldon never repeated the level of his Andretti success at Ganassi, winning two races in each of his three years with the team. He tied Sam Hornish on points for the 2006 championship, with the title going to the American on a 4-2 race wins countback. But Wheldon made Ganassi’s #10 car a truly competitive entry for the first time after the likes of Tomas Scheckter, Darren Manning, Ryan Briscoe and Giorgio Pantano rarely ran at the front.

Wheldon had a reputation for arrogance when he was with Andretti, but he became a much more likable figure during his time with Ganassi. He also helped team-mate Dixon improve his oval racing skills, culminating in Dixon’s six-win 2008 championship season.

6. Jimmy Vasser

Zanardi and Vasser celebrate a 1-2 for Ganassi in 1998

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Ganassi years: 1995-2000
Ganassi starts: 109
Ganassi wins: 9
Ganassi titles: 1 (1996)

Mansell’s return to F1 opened the door for Andretti to rejoin Newman/Haas Racing after running the 1994 CART season with Ganassi. CGR hired Bryan Herta to replace Andretti and absorbed the assets of Hayhoe Racing to expand to a two-car effort running Jimmy Vasser, another up-and-coming American.

Herta was still not fully recovered from a crash at Toronto that ended his 1994 season in July; he suffered a further setback when he was concussed in a big accident at Indianapolis and would be dropped at the end of the 1995 season.

Vasser emerged as the better prospect and, when Ganassi switched to Honda engines and Firestone tyres for 1996, the Californian won four of the first six races. What looked like an unassailable championship lead was tested down the stretch when Vasser suffered vertigo after a crash at Detroit. He endured a few subpar races, but held on over Andretti.

Ganassi’s Alex Zanardi dominated the 1997 and 1998 CART seasons, but Vasser remained a regular race winner and frontrunner, finishing third in the 1997 standings and second to Zanardi in a Ganassi 1-2 in 1998.

He then struggled to match the electric Montoya the next two years and memorably quipped, “There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is in Chip,” when his departure from CGR was confirmed.

Vasser took one last win for Ganassi at Houston in 2000.

5. Juan Pablo Montoya

Montoya picked up where Zanardi left off for Ganassi in 1999 and 2000

Photo by: IndyCar Series

Ganassi years: 1999-2000
Ganassi starts: 41
Ganassi wins: 11 (1x Indianapolis 500)
Ganassi titles: 1 (1999)

When Chip Ganassi and engineer Morris Nunn flew on Concorde to watch Zanardi test with the Williams F1 team in late 1998, Frank Williams and Super Nova Formula 3000 team boss David Sears convinced them to take a look at that year’s F3000 champion – 23-year-old Juan Pablo Montoya. The young Colombian also drove the Williams at the Barcelona test, quicker than Zanardi, impressing the usually stoic Nunn.

While Zanardi floundered at Williams in 1999, Montoya stepped into the CART championship-winning car and picked up right where Zanardi left off. After a big crash and verbal dust-up with Andretti at the Motegi oval, Montoya won at Long Beach in his third start and took control of the points race by mid-season.

Championship favourite Dario Franchitti rallied but the season ended with he and Montoya tied on points, with the title awarded to the Ganassi driver who won seven races to Franchitti’s three.

Ganassi ditched the magical Reynard/Honda package for a Lola/Toyota combo in 2000, and Montoya won three times. He also toyed with the competition in Ganassi’s return to the Indy 500, winning at a canter after leading 170 of 200 laps.

Montoya later won two NASCAR Cup Series races and shared in a handful of endurance sportscar victories for Ganassi.

4. Alex Zanardi

Zanardi was almost unstoppable with Ganassi

Photo by: David Taylor / Allsport

Ganassi years: 1996-98
Ganassi starts: 51
Ganassi wins: 15
Ganassi titles: 2 (1997-98)

Chip Ganassi helped bring Reynard into Indycars in 1994, and within three years, the Bicester firm supplied the majority of the CART grid. Reynard managing director Rick Gorne championed several Reynard F3 and F3000 drivers and acted as their agent; while Bryan Herta struggled in 1995, Gil de Ferran won the CART finale as a rookie for Jim Hall’s team, prompting Ganassi to ask Gorne: “Who is the next de Ferran?”

“Alex Zanardi,” Gorne responded.

Overcoming the reservations of Nunn, Zanardi won a shootout for the Ganassi seat over Jeff Krosnoff. He showed early speed in 1996 and, once he learned how to finish races, Zanardi was the driver to beat in the second half of the season.

In 1997 and 1998, Zanardi was almost unstoppable. His 1998 season of seven wins and 15 podiums from 19 starts remains one of the greatest in Indycar history. He and Vasser worked incredibly well together as team-mates, and they developed a deep and lasting friendship.

Zanardi also had an incredible flare for showmanship and a penchant for rubbing his competitors the wrong way. He won several races after penalties or his own over aggression put him at the back of the field, and his donut-spinning victory celebrations were revered by fans.

“Those days, 1996 through 2000, our team was just on fire then,” Ganassi says. “It was one sort of history making event after another. They were really heady times for the series, for the team, and Vasser and Zanardi set the table for that.”

3. Dario Franchitti

Three titles and two Indy 500 for Franchitti with Ganassi meant for a successful partnership

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Ganassi years: 2009-13
Ganassi starts: 84
Ganassi wins: 13 (2x Indianapolis 500)
Ganassi titles: 3 (2009-11)

Dario Franchitti won the 2007 Indianapolis 500 and IRL championship for Andretti Green Racing, then shockingly announced he was joining Chip Ganassi Racing… to drive in the NASCAR Cup Series. Within a couple months, Franchitti realised he had made a mistake, but he was put out of his misery when he was swept into another driver’s wreck at Talladega in April 2008 and a fractured ankle ended his season.

In September 2008, Franchitti attended the Belle Isle IndyCar race, and he and Ganassi had an epiphany. They sketched out contract terms on a napkin, and a few weeks later, Dario was in a Ganassi IndyCar for the non-championship season finale in Australia. It was the start of the most fruitful period of his career.

Franchitti edged Dixon and Ryan Briscoe for the 2009 championship, then swept the IRL championship and the Indy500 in 2010.

Franchitti completed a hat-trick of IndyCar championships with Ganassi in 2011, bringing his career total to four. He added a second Indy 500 win for CGR (third for himself) in 2012, but Dario often struggled with the tail-heavy Dallara DW12 in race trim and, despite taking six poles in the two years he drove that car, Indy 2012 was his only victory.

As he does for Wheldon, Dixon gives a lot of credit to Franchitti for being a helpful team-mate from whom he learned a lot. Had Dario’s top-line career not sadly been cut short by a massive accident at the Houston street course in late 2013, he might have ranked even higher on this list.

2. Alex Palou

Palou is still racking up the wins and titles for Ganassi, so could climb higher in this list...

Photo by: Perry Nelson / Lumen via Getty Images

Ganassi years: 2021-present
Ganassi starts: 97
Ganassi wins: 25 (1x Indianapolis 500)
Ganassi titles: 4 (2021, 2023-25)

When Palou contested the 2020 Indy 500 as a rookie for Dale Coyne Racing, his pit stall for the week of practice was right next to one of the Chip Ganassi Racing cars. Ganassi and CGR managing director Mike Hull took note of Palou’s professional demeanour and polished, cerebral approach.

Although he crashed while running in the top 10 trying to pass Josef Newgarden, he made an impression. At the end of the year, Ganassi hired him to replace Felix Rosenqvist in CGR’s #10 car.

Palou won his first race in a Ganassi car and went on to win the 2021 IndyCar championship. Since then, he’s only got better. He repeated as IndyCar champion in 2023 and 2024, then put together his best season yet, winning eight races including the Indy 500 on the way to his third consecutive crown and fourth in five years.

Palou has already won six times in 2026 and holds a substantial lead in the standings in his quest for title number five.

With a quiet, unassuming personality and a smooth, unobtrusive driving style, Palou doesn’t generate a lot of excitement outside of his results. He’s on a historical roll that has already placed him in the pantheon of all-time IndyCar greats… but he still ranks second among Ganassi Racing drivers.

1. Scott Dixon

Dixon's success with Ganassi is unmatched in the modern era

Photo by: Bill Watson - IRL

Ganassi years: 2002-26
Ganassi starts: 409
Ganassi wins: 58 (1x Indianapolis 500)
Ganassi titles: 6 (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020)

Scott Dixon showed enormous potential as a rookie for PacWest Racing in the 2001 CART series. He won at Nazareth and gave eventual champion de Ferran all he could handle fighting for the win at Laguna Seca.

When PacWest reorganised and eventually folded three races into the 2002 season, Ganassi and Toyota leapt into action and Ganassi ran Dixon in a third car alongside Brack and Junqueira for the rest of the campaign.

For 2003, CGR committed full-time to the IRL with Dixon and Scheckter. Dixon won the Homestead opener and added a couple more wins to emerge as an IndyCar champion at the age of 23.

The 2004 and 2005 campaigns were a struggle with uncompetitive Toyota engines, but the arrival of Wheldon in 2006 truly made Ganassi a two-car force for the first time. Dixon learned a lot from Wheldon and dominated the 2008 championship, taking his only Indy 500 win so far that same year.

Dixon has won races and championships in six distinct eras of IndyCar racing: open competition IRL (2003); spec Dallara IR07/Honda (2008); Dallara DW12 (2013); ‘Aero kit’ (2015); Dallara IR18 (2018); and Dallara IR18 with Aeroscreen (2020).

His six titles rank second only to AJ Foyt’s seven; Dixon’s 59 race wins (58 of which were achieved with Ganassi) are also second to Foyt on the all-time list.

Chip Ganassi and sponsor PNC Bank worked hard to keep Dixon, offering the IndyCar legend a multi-year contract. But perhaps being realistic about how difficult it will continue to be to beat Palou from within the same team, the New Zealander has chosen to move on. It truly marks the end of an era.