[h=2]Hull celebrates 25 years with Chip Ganassi Racing[/h] Friday, 23 June 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Images by Abbott/Boyd/Ehrhardt/LePage/Levitt/Miller/Streck/LAT, IMS Photo

Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull started his journey with the team exactly 25 years ago today, June 23, 1992, and what an amazing run it has been.
CART IndyCar championships, Indy Racing League titles, IndyCar Series championships, Indy 500 wins, Grand-Am Rolex Series titles, Rolex 24 at Daytona wins, 12 Hours of Sebring wins, and even a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans have been captured during Hull's tenure with the Indianapolis-based team.
The 25-year mark, a rarity for anyone with a single racing team, is a point of pride for Hull, and in typical fashion for the California native, there's a good story on how it almost never happened.
"I went to work with Jim Hayhoe to run Jimmy Vasser through the Indy 500 in 1992," he told RACER. "I was kind of upset with IndyCar racing because of the way that I got let go at Patrick Racing, and I just wasn't really sure if I wanted to continue with IndyCar racing. We were in the garage next to Chip's team at the Speedway and Tom Anderson, who was running Chip Ganassi Racing, talked to me a bit about talking to Chip about coming to work there. They were wanting to move into a direction of running two cars full-time, and they had a deal at the time to run Robby Gordon in eight races during the season."
Click on the thumbnails below for larger images from Mike Hull's CGR career.




Richmond, 2004


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Anderson, an immensely respected figure in the paddock, looked after CGR on his own. Founded in 1990 with Eddie Cheever as its lone driver, engine partner Ford was interested in funding a second car for Gordon alongside Eddie Cheever after the 1992 Indy 500.
"They were trying to put together a second program that would roll into a full-time program in 1993, but I told Tom I wasn't sure that I really wanted to do it, although I appreciated the offer," he said. "I'd known Tom for a long time prior to that anyway. I couldn't say we were really good friends, but we certainly understood each other well. Our careers were somewhat similar, being from California and going through the open-wheel system."
Ready to take a break from IndyCar, Hull almost missed out on the CGR opportunity, but Anderson maintained his pursuit.
"I think it was the day after the Speedway was over, I was in the garage trying to get everything organized to pack – Jimmy crashed in the race pretty heavily and broke his leg, so he wasn't going to race for a while, and things were going nowhere," he said. "I had my car there, I was loading all my stuff up to go home. Tom came over there in the morning and said, 'Would you come over to the building and talk to Chip?' I again said, 'No. I'm not sure that I really want to do it.' He said, 'Well, I'd really appreciate it if you'd come and talk to Chip because it will get him off my back.'"
Twenty-five years on, the favor to Anderson has turned into one of the sport's great relationships between a team owner and an employee.
"I went over there and sat down with the two of them," Hull said of the chief mechanic opening. "It was a great meeting. Chip, he's the same today as he was then. He always is looking forward. He's always trying to figure out where he needs to go next. He had a plan. I had a lot of time for that, but Tom was there. I said to Chip, and Tom was sitting there, 'I'm not going to take this job to displace Tom.' I said to Chip at the time, 'If that ever comes to pass, I'll walk out the door at the same time as Tom.'
"Chip said, 'I want somebody to come and work for me that can organize and that can put together a competition organizational plan of people to be supported by the shop to run two cars full-time. That's the job I'd like you to do. Tom will run the business. He'll do all the things he has to do to manage Chip Ganassi Racing. What I want you to do is look on the competition aspect and organize the people in all the rest of that.' I said, 'OK. We'll do it.'"