Insider: How Jimmie Johnson scaling back in IndyCar affects Chip Ganassi, Dale Coyne
Jimmie Johnson’s decision to scale back his IndyCar schedule will have wide-ranging effects on the paddock.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver’s tone changed over the last month – from targeting a full-time campaign Aug. 19 to vague Sept. 9 on the heels of confirming Carvana would back anything he chose to pursue in 2023. But Johnson said Monday that the commitment required to get absolutely everything out of another full-time IndyCar run – the four test days, 15 sim days and 17 weekends at the track – no longer held his attention.
“I don’t want to enter another full season if I know I can’t give it my all,” Johnson said on the latest episode of his docuseries, ‘Reinventing the Wheel.’ “I’m really at a point where I’m satisfied with the accomplishments I had in 2022 running the full-time (IndyCar) schedule. I truly felt like as this year started, I would want more years and want to continue on, but through this period of time I’ve had to reflect and now feeling as full as I do from my full season, (I’ve decided otherwise).
“I still very much have the desire to compete, but from a full-season standpoint and what’s required and the energy, effort, time away from home and all the commitments that are required to be your best for a full-time season, I’m just not there right now.”
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So where does that leave Johnson? Ganassi? Other owners hoping to finalize their 2023 lineups? Drivers stilling praying to land a ride? Here’s the lay of the land as IndyCar moves forward from its second massive offseason Silly Season development in as many weeks.
How does Jimmie Johnson organize his 'bucket list' season?
Johnson left media who spoke with him at this month’s IndyCar season-finale certain of just one thing: his 2023 calendar would not look the same. The 21 combined weekends at the race track, to go with four IndyCar tests and 18 days in a simulator combined between his IndyCar and IMSA commitments had been a much heavier load than Johnson had imagined.
Dropping his IMSA slate seemed a possibility. Not only does it lengthen his offseason by two months, but it would trim down a couple weekends in the middle – namely Sebring in March and Watkins Glen in July. 2023 would be about IndyCar – full-stop – to see what he had left in the tank.
Instead, Johnson clearly wanted fewer than 17 weekends competing at the track. He told the Associated Press on Monday he’s targeting a slate of “no more than 10 bucket-list events” for 2023 and beyond. He’s long wanted to be part of NASCAR’s Garage 56 entry with a modified Next Gen car at Le Mans in 2023 and shedding full-time IndyCar commitments means the Detroit Grand Prix won’t prevent him from missing out on the opening weekend of practice and testing. Though he wouldn’t commit to it, Johnson is expected to run in the upcoming Indy 500. Johnson’s also come close to winning the Daytona 24 Hours on multiple occasions. Making another go at an overall victory would seem like something Johnson would classify as a box left to check on his “bucket list”.
Johnson specifically named to the AP NASCAR’s All-Star race at North Wilkesboro, its season-opening exhibition at the LA Memorial Coliseum and Cup’s new downtown Chicago street race as events on his radar, as well as looking deeper into becoming the first driver in nine years to attempt ‘The Double’ – running the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600. With his family’s affinity for travel, he said he’d also be open to a run in the World Endurance Championship – an international sportscar series that, along with Le Mans, runs in Italy, Japan, Belgium and Bahrain, among other locations.
There’s a chance Johnson could return to IndyCar for an oval-only schedule and try to improve upon the 5th-place (Iowa) and 6th-place (Texas) runs he made this year.
Decisions are months away, Johnson said Monday.
Will Chip Ganassi Racing continue running a fourth car in 2023?
For Ganassi, the questions are fewer but their answers are far more pressing. Will they continue to run a fourth full-time IndyCar entry in 2023 with Johnson involved? Will they run a fourth car and help facilitate whatever Johnson’s dreams may be outside that car? Or will CGR drop down to three full-time cars?
CGR officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. In July – before filing a lawsuit against Alex Palou – Ganassi said publicly he expected his lineup to be “status quo” in 2023. Less than a month ago, CGR managing director Mike Hull told RACER that the team was still working towards a four-car program because of the “advantage of running more cars.”
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Having run four full-time entries in IndyCar the past two seasons, Ganassi holds one of the most important pieces of the puzzle: The personnel. What isn’t immediately clear is where they might find the funding to run such a car.
Those graduating from Indy Lights, outside Benjamin Pedersen (who’s expected to land with A.J. Foyt Racing) don’t come with anywhere close to a full-season budget. Neither do any names on the fringes on the sport who represent a high-level driver capable of winning races or one with a big enough name to garner loads of attention.
It leaves CGR with the prospect of rolling out IMSA test driver and former IndyCar staple Ryan Hunter-Reay, who spent the final 12 years of his IndyCar career with Andretti Autosport. Hunter-Reay won the Indy 500 in 2014 and took the IndyCar title in 2012 but finished better than 6th just one other time.
Hunter-Reay would no doubt be tantalizing but he doesn’t come with the budget to pay for such an experiment. And if CGR officials were operating under the assumption Johnson would return, they'd find themselves vastly behind in terms of hunting for sponsorship that would need to total at least $6 million-8 million.
Already with three full-time entries, CGR isn't able to procure another $1.2 million spot on the Leaders Circle, due to IndyCar’s cap on three entries per team.
A roster of six-time champ Scott Dixon, Indy 500-winner Marcus Ericsson, 2021 champ Alex Palou and vaunted veteran Hunter-Reay would be a force to be reckoned with. Whether it’s worth it – or even financially viable – remains to be seen.
How will Dale Coyne Racing react to the news?
When I called Dale Coyne on Monday afternoon and asked him what this all meant for his IndyCar program, the longtime team owner answered a question with another question:
“I don’t know yet. Do you know if Ganassi is going to run a fourth car?”
Coyne is left playing the waiting game because Honda, its longtime engine partner (as well as Ganassi’s) has set a limit of 15 full-time engine programs for 2023. As of Monday, we sit at 14.
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Well, sort of. Coyne told IndyStar he believes Ganassi deserves – and will be given – a couple weeks by Honda to decide whether it'll run three or four full-time for 2023. Should they opt for three, the decision switches to Honda Performance Development president David Salters. Coyne has long said he’d love to jump up to three full-time cars, but he would have to convince Salters to commit to the project. Whichever lineup Coyne might assemble won’t deliver the same marketing opportunities as Johnson.
At the moment, Coyne’s roster for 2023 includes runner-up for Rookie of the Year in David Malukas. Despite rampant speculation late this season the young American driver could be bought out by Ganassi, Malukas’s father, Henry, who runs and owns HMD Motorsports (the partner program on the No. 18 Honda), told assembled media at Laguna that his son would return to Coyne in 2023.
Malukas’s 2021 teammate, Takuma Sato, has expressed his desire to return to his full-time role in 2023, and Coyne has said the sides are deep in talks. Likely complicating the matter is HMD’s 2022 Indy Lights champ Linus Lundqvist, who remains without a 2023 IndyCar ride with few left for the taking. Earlier this month, the elder Malukas expressed his desire to add a second HMD-sponsored car as part of his partnership with Coyne, but such a move, without an additional engine lease from Honda, would come at Sato’s expense. Coyne told IndyStar Monday he’d prefer not to entertain the idea of Lundqvist and Sato splitting his second car, so, should Ganassi keep its fourth engine lease, or if Honda opts not to grant Coyne a third one, Coyne will be left to choose.
Making things even less clear, it’s uncertain at the moment whether Sato still brings enough budget from Honda to help make ends meet or whether Rick Ware Racing will return to continue funding the No. 51. Lundqvist, on the other hand, earned just $500,000 for a scholarship from IndyCar -- $700,000 less than previously expected. Though he’d no doubt love to see Lundqvist graduate up through the team’s ranks, the elder Malukas very well may not want to foot the bill for another entire IndyCar ride while his Indy Lights team expands to an unprecedented eight entries in 2023.
To clear all this up, Honda’s decision must come first. In the meantime, Lundqvist could attract interest from Juncos Hollinger Racing, who still has a full-time seat next to Callum Ilott that isn’t believed to require full funding.
“Hopefully, we know in a couple weeks,” the team owner said Monday. “I’m anxious to get this all done.”