Welcome to Gaia! ::

Anyone heard the news? McMurray will be in the #97 next year, giving Kurt Busch the chance to go over and drvie the #2 car. Not only that, Mears will take over the #42 because Reed Sorenson and David Stremme will be his teammates next year. Its just some crazy stuff.

*cough cough* Not trying to bad mouth LPchickie here, but clearly she doesn't know Chip Ganassi's history of hiring drivers, not just for NASCAR, but for any racing league (he clearly goes AWOL when it comes to picking names out of hats)... so let's look at CART, some IRL, then some NASCAR and Busch and ASA... or whatever... heh... sweatdrop :

- In 1996, Chip hired Alex Zanardi, a relative no-name and Italian sensation. Alex won the ROTY Title in 1996, then won the CART title in 1997 and 1998, both right after teammate Jimmy Vasser did it for Chip too.

- Hired Juan Montoya, a Columbian Karting king, after Zanardi went to F1 to persue his career (a mistake he would regret, I would think). Juan won the 1999 CART title in his rookie year BY A TIEBREAKER for winning more races than Dario Franchitti. Vasser became a legend of being referred to as "That Other Target Driver". In 2000, Vasser would better Juan in the season, but Juan won the Indy 500 with Chip, which polevaulted his racing status. (Also to note that Casey Mears ran 1 race that year, finishing 4th in the race.) Chip would also buy into Team SABCO with Felix Sabates and change it's name to Chip Ganassi Racing. Chip is also the main guy who brought Dodge to NASCAR in the new century.

- In 2001, Juan moved onto F1 (still looking to bust-out there too) and Jimmy Vasser's contract ended. Chip Ganassi again hired unknowns, 2 this time: Nicolas Minassian and Bruno Junquiera, both young stars from their represented countries of France and Brazil, respectively. Minassian was an F1 test driver, and Bruno was a Brazilian Karting hero. What they both had in common was they were the top 2 in Formula 3000 in 2000. Minassian would be replaced mid-season, controversially, by Memo Gidley, due to "extreme suck". Chip was still happy that year. In Winston Cup, Sterling Marlin ran a great Gatorade 125 win, qualifying 3rd for Daytona, and won a couple races after that. Marlin got 3rd in the points, and rookie driver Jason Leffler had a nice 37th in the points. Leffler also had a pole in 2001, at Kansas.

- In 2002, Chip ran 2 CART cars, then 3 starting in June. Drivers were Bruno Junquiera, 1999 Indy 500 champion Kenny Brack, and 2001 ROTY Scott Dixon. Bruno would finish 2nd in Chip's last year before the team defected to the Indy Racing League with Scott Dixon. (Later in life, Scott would win the IRL Title for Chip Ganassi and Target.) In NASCAR, Chip gets a bunch of wins out of Sterling, and gets rookie driver Jaime McMurray into the history books as the fastest rookie to ever win in the highest echelon of NASCAR, by getting a race win on his 2nd attempt.

- In 2003, Chip Ganassi was known as "Rookie Man". McMurray won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award in Winston Cup, David Stremme won the Rookie of the Year in Busch, and Reed Sorenson won the ASA ROTY as well.

- In 2004, Ganassi NASCAR driver Casey Mears became the first driver in 40 years to get his first 2 poles in consecutive races. To top that cake with some sweet icing, Casey broke the track record at Indianapolis with an average speed of 186.293 mph.

If Reed Sorenson and David Stremme move up, we'll all notice it quite well... It's Chip's gift. And that's from a small team. The man is a racing diamond in the rough, or at least he mines his drivers that way. Chip never hurts from his drivers moving on, it actually makes his team BETTER. You'll see, because I have my sights on seeing Reed Sorenson kick a lot of rear bumper in '06.

P.S.: To think I actually HATED Chip Ganassi Racing... since well... 1999. Must have been Juan Montoya that made me not like them.

i'd have to agree with him.Reed sorenson's going to be good .