After selling his NASCAR team’s assets to Trackhouse Racing, Chip Ganassi said that he’s “not getting out of anything” yet.
Ganassi ended his 20-year run as a NASCAR team owner by selling his team to Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing ahead of the 2022 Cup Season.
He was asked about why he is quitting the sports to which he replied:
“I’ve been sticking around for a long time, I enjoy the sport – and I’m not getting out of the sport, I’m still in motor racing with three other teams in IMSA, IndyCars and Extreme E.
“So I’m still heavily involved in motorsports. I’m not getting out of anything.”
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He said that he was surprised at first when Trackhouse approached but thinking about it, he realised that he had to move on from NASCAR.
“At first, it surprised me a little bit, but I have to say that – after thinking about it for a while – it very much reminded me of about 20 years ago, when I was talking to Felix Sabates about getting involved in NASCAR,” said Ganassi. “I felt like there’s a lot of young, energetic thought being put into what Justin was saying.
“With all the new blood that seems to be coming into the sport now, with Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and maybe [Brad] Keselowski, and Tony Stewart has his team, Jeff Gordon’s back involved… all these sorts of things.
“Y’know, the sport is great for some new young blood. We talk about a new generation of drivers and I think you’re going to see a new generation of owners now. I think it’s a great thing for the sport.”
Ganassi also added that he only considered selling the team’s assets to Trackhouse and he didn’t consider other offers for his NASCAR charters.
“I didn’t talk to anybody else about the sale of charters or the sale of our business,” said Ganassi. “I only spoke to Justin. You hear a lot of talk around the [value of] charters, but I wasn’t really listening to much of that.
“In some sense, the charter is doing what it was meant to do in terms of helping the ownership and value the businesses differently or better. I think the system’s working like it’s supposed to.”