Top 5 Worst Performing Chip Ganassi w/ Felix Sabates drivers

Top 5 Worst Performing Chip Ganassi w/ Felix Sabates drivers

By Brian Cotnoir

Chip Ganassi is a legendary owner in Open Wheel Racing.  His teams have 11 drivers Championships between CART & IndyCar, he’s a 4-time winning owner of the Indianapolis 500, and in 2010 he became the 1^st Car Owner to win the US Racing “Triple Crown”, when his cars won the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, and Indianapolis 500 in the same season!  Ganassi has also had a lot of success in Endurance Racing, winning multiple IMSA titles and 24 Hours of Daytona’s.                                 

Ganassi would eventually look to expand his racing empire in bought a majority share of Felix Sabates Racing around the turn of the new millennium, and then later eventually merge with the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.   Ganassi has had some successful drivers in racing drive for him such as Sterling Marlin, Jamie MacMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson.  In fact if it wasn’t for a season ending neck injury suffered at Kansas Speedway, Sterling Marlin would have most likely gone on to win the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship.   Not every driver Chip Ganassi has hired in the Cup Series has been successful; in fact, you’ll see that many of his drivers have gone on to be pure busts!

5.)  Casey Mears

Casey Mears made his Cup Series Debut in 2003 with Ganassi and I can’t for the life of me figure out why?   Mears isn’t a bad driver by any stretch of the imagination, but he hadn’t really accomplished anything to prove he earned the ride.  He did win 3-of-the-4 ARCA races he entered that season, but that’s ARCA.    Mears raced 3 full-time seasons for Ganassi, and in his first 2 seasons he finished 22^nd in the final point standings.  In his final season with the team he switched to the #42 team and finished 2^nd in the Daytona 500; his best career finish for Ganassi.  He also won his first Xfinity Race at Chicagoland, Mears would finish 14^th in the final driver standings, and would leave the team to join Hendrick Motorsports the following season.

4.)  Reed Sorenson

Reed Sorenson made his Cup Series debut in 2006, replacing Casey Mears in the #41 Target Dodge (as Mears had moved over to the teams #42 car).  Unlike Mears, Sorenson showed a lot of potential before being moved to the Cup Series.   Sorenson had won 2 races for Ganassi in his first full-season in the Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series, and finished 4^th in the final standings.  He’d run a second full-time season in 2006 (along with his first full Cup Series Schedule) and finished 10^th in the Xfinity standings, but on the Cup Side he struggled to find his footing.  More than often he struggled to finish in the Top-20 and Top 10 Finishes for him were few and far in between.  His best finish was a 3^rd at Atlanta in 2007 (his home racetrack) and his best Points Finish—also in 2007—was a 22^nd in the final points.  Sorenson is still a journeyman in the sport and runs part-time throughout the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, though he may be forever known as another NASCAR bust.

3.)  Jimmy Spencer

Jimmy Spencer makes another appearance on are Worst NASCAR drivers list, which is a shame, because he really wasn’t a bad driver, he just drove for some bad teams.  After failing to qualify for the 2002 Daytona 500, Spencer began to show signs of promise.   He almost won his first race in 8 years at Bristol after an infamous battle with Kurt Busch that resulted with Busch scoring his first Cup Series Victory.  Spencer’s time at Ganassi was best remembered for his rivalry with Busch, and he was let go from the team after just that one season in 2002.

That would Net you a fine today!

2.)  David Stremme

Who replaced Sterling Marlin when he finally left the Famous Coors Light Silver Bullet; it wasn’t Jamie MacMurray (who scored his first Cup win in his 2^nd career start subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin) or Former IndyCar and Formula 1 Superstar Juan Pablo Montoya.  Do you remember?  The correct answer was David Stremme!  Yeah, I know, “Whose that?”, right?  Stremme was another one of those drivers who had some moderate success in the Nationwide/Xfinity Series in the early 2000’s driving for mediocre Dodge teams, so he seemed like an ideal choice to be put in the Best Dodge ride in the Cup Series at that point. 

His first season was disastrous.  He finished 33^rd in the final Cup Series standings and he wasn’t even entered in the two road course races that season.  His second season with the team showed more promise early on; he actually finished in the top-10 twice, but then after the Coca Cola 600, his season took a nose drive, and he was only able to muster one other Top-10 finish that season.  Unsurprisingly he was dropped from the team after the 2007 season.  Wow, a lot of these Ganassi drivers drove during the 2006-07 Seasons?

1.)  Dario Franchitti                         

Again, this may be considered “cheating”, because he didn’t even last a full-season in the Cup Series, but Franchitti had an awful run in NASCAR.   Jason Leffler actually had a much worst season than Franchitti while driving for Ganassi and he ran a full-season, but I just can’t bring myself to say one negative thing about Jason Leffler; it’s not only because he’s no longer with us, but because he was such a likeable driver, and even though I’ve included other drivers who ran their Rookie Seasons with Ganassi, I don’t have anything negative to say about Jason Leffler.   

 

After winning the IndyCar Championship and Indy 500, Franchitti was convinced by Chip Ganassi to jump ship to NASCAR and at the time this was one lots of open-wheel drivers were being persuaded to give NASCAR a chance.  Other drivers who made the switch around this time included Tony Stewart, Scott Speed, Sam Hornish Jr, and Juan Pablo Montoya!  It seemed like a no-brainer.  Well, Franchitti really struggled to adapt to NASCAR.  He miraculously qualified for the Daytona 500, but only finished 33^rd.   He also ran part-time in the Nationwide Series, and was showing some early signs of potential…but then he got injured from a Nationwide wreck at Talladega and had to miss the next 5 races to recover from his injuries.   He came back, failed to qualify for the Sonoma race, and his final finish in the Cup Series was a 38^th at New Hampshire.   

An interview was Franchitti admits his regretful move to NASCAR

The 40 team would close its doors in the Cup Series after the race.   He scored a 5^th place finish in the Nationwide Series at Watkins Glen driving for Ganassi, before jumping ship back to IndyCar and racing for Chip Ganassi’s IndyCar team, where he’d go on to win 3 consecutive Drivers Championships and two more Indy 500’s!  Yes, just like Christian Fittipaldi at Petty Enterprises, Dario Franchitti was a NASCAR Bust!