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Owners Penske and Ganassi ready to renew rivalry

INDIANAPOLIS - Team owners Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi congratulate each other via text messages after races, but when the green flag drops on the Indy 500 on Sunday the two giants of American motorsport will be out for blood.

The only owners to win both the Indy and Daytona 500s, Penske and Ganassi will renew their great rivalry at the 94^th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

“Believe me, there are times when we’d just as soon rip each other’s heart out, I assure you,” Ganassi told reporters.

“But at the end of the day, that’s on the track and when it comes to off the track, we’re certainly civil and friends and like to keep it that way.”

Wearing crisp white shirts, matching dark trousers, black socks and shoes, Penske and Ganassi are dressed for success and it is something both have come to expect at the Brickyard.

American motorsport’s two most successful owners, their dominance stretches across decades and all types of race cars.

Ganassi’s teams have amassed 121 wins in everything from Champ cars to sports cars, but he still lives in Penske’s rear view mirror.

Penske, dubbed “The Captain”, operates the most successful Indy car racing team of all-time with 147 wins and 12 drivers championships. His cars have stormed home first at the Daytona 500 and his Formula One team has celebrated from the top of the podium.

Rivalry

But it is at the Brickyard where Ganassi and Penske’s friendly rivalry turns fierce.

Penske has claimed a record 15 Indy 500 wins with the help of an all-star stable of drivers that has included four-times winner Rick Mears and current sensation Helio Castroneves, who will try for his fourth victory on Sunday.

For Ganassi, Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and Australian Scott Dixon in 2008 have put their names on the winner’s trophy.

On Sunday, Castroneves will start from the pole with team mate Will Power alongside and Dario Franchitti starting his Ganassi Dallara from the outside of row one.

Penske driver Ryan Briscoe and Dixon will be on row two.

“The guy sitting next to me is the one that we have to beat every weekend, whether it’s here at Indianapolis or certainly at Daytona or Charlotte,” said Penske.

“The only thing I don’t like to do is every time he wins I’ve got to send him a text congratulations.”

Despite his record, Penske could watch Ganassi accomplish something he has never done — become the first owner to claim the Indy and Daytona 500 double in the same year.

“It would be a huge thing but right now my focus is to beat this guy next to me,” said Ganassi, who won the Daytona 500 in February with Jamie McMurray. “He’s the team we’re going to have to beat on Sunday to walk away with the trophy.