The Chip Ganassi Racing team will be downsizing its presence in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2025 and returning to the Indy NXT series.
The move on the IndyCar side has been expected, and comes in reaction to the series’ new charter program. The structure of the charter limits the distribution of memberships to a maximum of three entries per teams who qualify for the program. With five current full-time entries, Ganassi’s newest entries — the No. 11 Honda added in 2023 and the No. 4 Honda, which debuted this season — will not be included once charters are issued.
The No. 8 Honda driven by Linus Lundqvist, No. 9 Honda driven by Scott Dixon, and the No. 10 Honda driven by Alex Palou are the only cars eligible to receive charters, and as a result, Ganassi will shutter the two non-charter entries.
Kyffin Simpson, driver of the No. 4 car , is tipped to step into the No. 8 entry, although the team’s complete driver plans will be confirmed at a later date. With a deep roster of crew members to support, Ganassi will make use of its existing employees to field a new two-car Indy NXT effort.
“The biggest thing for us is we have a lot of really good people, and we’re in the midst of a downsize,” CGR team manager Taylor Kiel told RACER. “We’re losing the sports car program with Cadillac, and this charter system is forcing us into three cars, so first and foremost, we’re trying to figure out what to do with our good people.
“When you couple that with what we’re seeing in the IndyCar Series and what we’re seeing in Indy NXT, we’ve got a lot of confidence in joining the series. The NXT car counts are up. The quality of teams is up. There’s a lot of bonuses to being a part of that series as an IndyCar team, beyond just finding a place for our people. It’s a natural fit for us and it’s been discussed in the past here for quite a while.”
The addition of a junior open-wheel team marks the team’s third participation in the NTT IndyCar Series’ top development category. After retiring from driving, Chip Ganassi’s early foray into team ownership involved a NXT program in 1989 with the late Joe Stimola to run Johnny O’Connell under the championship’s original name, the American Racing Series, and again — in what was then known as the Infiniti Pro Series — in 2007 for Chris Festa and Pablo Perez Companc.