Chip Ganassi Racing, Cadillac to part ways at season's end

Chip Ganassi Racing’s relationship with General Motors and its Cadillac brand will come to an end after the current IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship seasons reach their conclusions.

The team, which fields a single-car IMSA GTP entry for GM under the Cadillac Racing banner, and a second car for Cadillac in the WEC’s Hypercar class, will complete both seasons with their V-Series.R LMDh prototypes and have begun an active search to find a new manufacturer partner to represent and continue racing without interruption in one or both of the series in 2025 and beyond.

“Chip Ganassi Racing has a fantastic history with General Motors,” CGR managing director Mike Hull told RACER. “Considering everything that we’ve done with them, there has been a lot of partnership definition to what we’ve accomplished. NASCAR, Extreme E, IndyCar, DPi and LMDh have all been successful programs and we’ve shared equally in learning from that success to get better together. We would never close the book on General Motors in terms of the future. We just know that this chapter is ending.”

Originally founded as an open-wheel racing team, Ganassi branched out into sports cars in 2004 during the formative years of Grand-Am’s Rolex Series Daytona Prototype formula and won the DP title on its first try. Four more DP championships, with manufacturer partnerships spanning Lexus and BMW, were earned through 2012, and with the establishment of the new IMSA series in 2014, Ganassi was hired by Ford to lead its DP program before it transitioned to fielding the new Ford GT in 2016 in IMSA and WEC.

Along with its numerous victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, Ganassi’s delivery of a debut win for the Ford GT at the 24 Hours of Le Mans — on the 50th anniversary of the Blue Oval’s first at the French classic — rates among its finer achievements. Following the end of the factory GT effort at the end of 2019, Ganassi was hired by GM to run factory Cadillac DPi entries where another Sebring win was captured, and as DPi was replaced by the new hybrid GTP formula, the team was tasked with helping to develop the car ahead of its IMSA and WEC launches in 2023.

One win and three podiums were delivered with the No. 01 Cadillac Racing entry last season, and with the first IMSA and WEC races in the books for 2024, a long year awaits the 50-strong Ganassi crews before they farewell the program.

“Chip has worked really hard himself to make sure we are always aligned with quality manufacturers, and it has made a large difference in the success that we’ve had,” Hull said. “We’re looking forward to sharing that again with other manufacturers in any category of motor racing going forward to win. The foundation we’ve established in Indianapolis has allowed us to take on projects like this one where we can service the racing community the right way.

“Our business is built on partnership and just like this chapter is ending, another chapter will start. We’ll continue on this year to do the job we were hired to do by General Motors and Cadillac in a positive manner.”

No reason was given for the impending split, and GM has not announced if another team will take charge of the No. 01 Cadillac next year, but multiple sources tell RACER the 2023 GTP champions at Action Express Racing, which secured the title with the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, is likely to expand to two cars in 2025.

In WEC, United Autosports, TF Sport, and at least one other European team is understood to be on GM’s radar as a new service provider.

“Our GM divisions have had successful partnerships with Chip Ganassi Racing across multiple series – NASCAR, IndyCar, Extreme E, IMSA and FIA WEC – over the years,” said Jim Campbell, GM U.S. Vice President, Performance & Motorsports.

“Together we have won numerous races and have had great success. We remain committed to winning races and championships together in IMSA and FIA WEC this year.

“Our sportscar plans for 2025 will be announced at a later date.”

For more information: www.racer.com

For more Industry News, please Click Here