Having failed to win the Daytona 24-Hour race in back to back years recently, team boss Chip Ganassi will again field two cars in the event scheduled in late January.
Ganassi's #1 car will be ran by 2010 Grand-Am champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, who will be joined by IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and Grand-Am and LMS specialist Joey Hand. As far as the team's #2 car is concerned, the lineup will comprise high-ranked racers from Ganassi's IndyCar and NASCAR programmes: Juan Pablo Montoya (former CART champion) and Jamie McMurray, both racing in NASCAR, will be joined by IRL champions Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.
“Daytona is always exciting for our team, especially because it involves so many of our drivers from all different series,” said team boss Chip Ganassi in a recent statement, preparing for the January 29-30 event.
“There are so many elements out of the drivers' hands that need to come together in order to have a shot at winning this event. That's what I love about it. You have to not only be good, but you also have to have a little bit of luck on your side to succeed in a race that lasts 24 hours.”
Chip Ganassi Racing has won three Daytona 24-Hour races in a row between 2006 and 2008, but failed to repeat that feat in the years to come. Last year, the team was very close to making it 4 wins out of 5 participations, but their #1 car suffered some reliability issues late in the race and had to settle for the runner-up spot.
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