Looking back on Ganassi’s first IndyCar championship, 30 years onVasser and Chip Ganassi celebrate their first championships. Getty Images

After the title was clinched, did it feel like a one-off, or did it feel like the start of sustained success for the team?

Julian Robertson: You never know… but I didn’t consider it was possible for any team to win four championships in a row. I’m not sure it had ever been done before. Of course Alex Zanardi was brilliant – although I felt Jimmy drove better in ’97 and ’98 than he did in his championship year, but it didn’t fall right for him.

Even though we were very competitive, I never felt like our advantage was huge. It’s interesting that IndyCar has never had Balance of Performance yet back then, there were multiple engine manufacturers, tire suppliers and chassis manufacturers who came up with pretty similar outcomes, performance-wise. They’d all have different strengths at different tracks. So we were never confident that we had everyone covered, so the four championships in four years was really special.

Chip had just laid the foundations of a great team, and that’s when I thought, ‘Yeah, we could go a long way.’

Two titles went to Zanardi, one to his replacement Juan Pablo Montoya. With hindsight, what are your thoughts about that 1997-99 period when you scored several race wins but couldn’t retake the championship?

Jimmy Vasser: My form definitely fluctuated. There were times when I just wasn’t as quick as my teammates. In my defense, I’d say I had pretty strong teammates! After my championship, Zanardi just killed everyone in ’97 and I got a bunch of podiums but only one win. That was annoying because I should have got at least one more, but when Greg Moore’s engine blew at Fontana with 10 laps to go, I assumed there was going to be a yellow – it was all fire and brimstone! – so I backed off, but the caution never came and Mark Blundell got around me. Still, I got third in the championship.

Then in 1998, I regained some momentum, but I had a driving style that was harder on fuel mileage and harder on tires, and I think Firestone had made their tires slightly softer that year, so that hurt me. But I was responsible for our testing on the short ovals where we’d sucked before, and I’m proud because we improved there and I won Nazareth and Milwaukee, and then got my Fontana win at the end of the year.

Maybe I should have worked harder to adapt when I saw my form going up and down. I was kinda nowhere in that first year when Montoya arrived in ’99. Then I got better in our second year together, 2000, when Chip switched to Lola and Toyota and all the teams were running Firestones.

I don’t know, man, I wish I could have explained my form. But I’ll always be grateful to Chip for the opportunity, and that my best year coincided with Ganassi hitting its stride in ’96. It was an exciting time. And fulfilling.

• The original version of this story appears in the current issue of RACER Magazine, No. 339, The Technology Issue. CLICK HERE for more details of the issue.
• CLICK HERE to purchase the new issue of RACER. Get 6 print issues of RACER Magazine, unlimited digital access to the RACER archive, and 24/7 motorsports streaming on the RACER+ App for one year at only $8.33/month, two years at $7.71/month, or three years at $7.22/month. CLICK HERE and subscribe now for the ultimate motorsports fan

 

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By David Malsher-Lopez - Apr 2, 2026, 12:30 PM ET

New RACER explores race tech, but celebrates the human side, too

 

Every time there’s a major change in formula for a race series, it’s all too easy to find oneself heckling from the balcony, a la Statler and Waldorf from “The Muppet Show.” It’s a worryingly short journey from objective critique to obdurate criticism, and the majority of us are watching motorsports as fans and purists with no skin in the game. If Formula 1’s new power formula of half recovered energy, half internal combustion engine, was formulated to lure in Audi and entice Honda to stay, then OK, job done. But it’s not – as yet – compelling viewing.

The opening grands prix of 2026 left us intrigued but not excited by regulations that have cars and drivers backing off or downshifting before their braking point to harvest energy for the next straight, or making passes that look as cheap as those seen when CART Indy cars ran the Hanford Device on superspeedways.

The late, great Tony Brooks once explained to our writer Nigel Roebuck, “To be worth driving or watching, a racing car should always have more power than its chassis can cope with.” Which may be the case with the new F1 cars – a combined ICE and battery maximum of 1,000hp is a lot, especially now there’s no ground effect, tires are slightly narrower and the wheelbase is shorter – but how would we know? We’re not going to be able to witness and pass judgment on the finer points of drivers or cars until we know they’re at their respective limits in every corner.

It’s appropriate in RACER No. 339, The Technology Issue, that we explain (with calm impartiality, of course) how F1’s new formula produced the racing we saw in the opening grands prix, and why some teams have nailed it and others are at their wits’ end trying to figure it out.
Formula 1 being so tech rich, we’ve also taken the opportunity to examine how ever-improving driver-in-loop simulators shape both cars and driving styles, and why they are still fallible when it comes to translating that performance into reality.

We’ve also delved into F1’s past to examine aero regulations and innovations that came and went – by regulation or ever improving designer knowledge – and we’ve also told the story of 1986, when horsepower was at its peak and barely contained, yet Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna produced one of the greatest seasons in history.

Formula 1’s new breed of power units have stolen the headlines, but the fuel they use is radically different in 2026, as is Firestone’s similarly eco-responsible evolution of its tires for the NTT IndyCar Series and Indy NXT championship. We explain both. And we also take a look at the science – and the art – of racetrack design.
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It’s not all tech talk. We mark the 30th anniversary of Chip Ganassi Racing’s first Indy car championship with a look back on that first title in 1996 and some subsequent milestone seasons since, but we also feature the team gunning for CGR with renewed vigor in the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series, Andretti Global. And it almost goes without saying that we check in with Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing after their history-making start to the NASCAR Cup Series season. Four wins, including the Daytona 500, from the first six races!

And speaking of American teams, Haas F1 appears to have a gem in series sophomore Oliver Bearman. Team principal Ayao Komatsu explains to RACER just how good the 20-year-old Brit is already.

On the subject of aces, we have interviews with IMSA’s current driver to beat, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr, four-time Champ Car champ (and regular sports car race winner) Sebastien Bourdais, WRC rapidly-rising superstar Oliver Solberg, and MotoGP winner Jack Miller on his efforts to move Yamaha up the grid.

And it doesn’t end there. Stick around for a deep dive into the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray street car and our take on the off-road phenomenon that is King of the Hammers.

CLICK HERE to purchase the new issue of RACER. Get 6 print issues of RACER Magazine, unlimited digital access to the RACER archive, and 24/7 motorsports streaming on the RACER+ App for one year at only $8.33/month, two years at $7.71/month, or three years at $7.22/month. CLICK HERE and subscribe now for the ultimate motorsports fan experience.

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