However, he is also remaining realistic, for despite having arguably the best cars at Indy for the past two years, the most recent of his team’s four wins in the 500 came as long ago as 2012.
Nonetheless, with his drivers lining up first (Scott Dixon), second (Alex Palou), fifth (Marcus Ericsson), sixth (Tony Kanaan) and 12th (Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson), this might be the team’s greatest chance yet of adding a fifth 500 crown.
“You’re always tempted to feel good about the race at this point,” said Ganassi, who made his Indy debut as a driver 40 years ago. “But I will say I probably feel as good as any car owner should feel going into the race.
“Having said that, we’ve still got to execute, still have to do all the things you have to do in the race. But I’d be surprised if anybody’s more confident than us right now. I think our cars are good, our drivers are doing a great job.”
Asked if he would say that it’s his team’s race to lose, Ganassi replied: “That’s for you guys to decide. I don’t know. I don’t look at it in terms like that at all.”
He went on: “I’m trying to remember the last time any team had a lot of cars that were competitive like that. Obviously, Roger’s had three there, Andretti maybe over the years…
“But we still have to run the race, we still have to get in and out of the pits, we still have to get through the start, and restarts… There’s a long way to go yet. But again, we feel as good as anybody should feel.”
The Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas’ consistently excellent pace and stability in dirty air was notable throughout the practice sessions, and even before qualifying, several rival drivers believed Ganassi’s squad was the team to beat this year. The man himself suggested that qualifying performance had just been a natural corollary of the engineers’ efforts to come up with strong cars for this Sunday’s 106th running of the Indy 500.
“I think we’re all realistic about what good qualifying means for the race – not much,” he said. “So we were focused on getting racecars that will race well and go from there.”
In last Sunday’s Top 12 battle to determine which drivers would progress to the Firestone Fast Six shootout, Johnson made a hugely impressive save at Turn 1 as his car fishtailed millimeters from the SAFER barrier, but it sapped his speed. Ganassi summed up the moment as being “one corner away from us having five cars in the Fast Six”, but praised the seven-time NASCAR champion ahead of his Indy 500 debut.
“It was unfortunate, but Jimmie’s a champion, he’s a professional, he just took it in his stride,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier with the job he’s doing.”
