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Target Chip Ganassi Racing brings back the bolt

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Photo: LePage/LAT Photography

INDIANAPOLIS - The livery that made Target Chip Ganassi Racing famous is making a comeback for 2016.

In the races where Target serves as a primary sponsor of the No. 9 Chevrolet driven by four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, the “lightning bolt” scheme will be back adorning the car.

The livery raced from 1995 to 2001, and scored 36 race wins from 1996 through 2001 between CART and IndyCar.

Here’s the unveil of the new one as it happened:

Here’s the team’s full release:

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Target Chip Ganassi Racing (TCGR) announced today the return of the team’s classic “Lightning Bolt” livery to the No. 9 Target Chevrolet driven by four-time and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Scott Dixon for the 2016 season.

The Target Lightning Bolt livery debuted in 1995 at the season-opening race at Bicentennial Park in Miami with drivers Jimmy Vasser and Bryan Herta, and ran through the 2001 season finale at California Speedway with drivers Bruno Junqueira and Memo Gidley.

The livery reached a fever pitch in the mid-1990s when drivers Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997-1998) and Juan Pablo Montoya (1999) accomplished the first-ever four-peat in Indy car racing history by winning four-consecutive Championships. Shortly after, Montoya put the Lightning Bolt livery in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500 in 2000 for Target’s first win in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

To commemorate Montoya’s return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Target, the paint scheme also made a one-off return in 2009 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Brickyard 400.

“Heading into such an historic season with the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500, the Lightning Bolt paint scheme taps into some of the most memorable times in Target’s longstanding partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing,” said Steve Lauletta, President, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams.

“Scott Dixon will be carrying a big part of history with him in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season, not only as the four-time and defending Champion for Team Target, but with the livery of past Target Champions such as Vasser, Zanardi and Montoya from a very special era in Target’s racing history.”

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