Chip Ganassi Racing will race Cadillac at Rolex 24 in 2021

Chip Ganassi Racing will field a Cadillac in DPi next year, returning to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Rolex 24 at Daytona after a one-year absence.

In a release, the team said driver lineups for its DPI-V.R would be announced in the offseason ahead of the 2021 season, which will begin Jan. 30-31 with the Rolex.

Ganassi is known for fielding Rolex 24 cars that include drivers from his NASCAR and IndyCar teams. With seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson running a schedule of road and street courses in IndyCar for Ganassi, it’s likely he also could race for Ganassi in IMSA.

Johnson has said he wants to run sports cars now that his full-time NASCAR career is over. Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said after Johnson’s final start that he expected Johnson and newly crowned NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott to race the Rolex 24 in 2021.

𝓦𝓮'𝓻𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴. 😏@CGRsportscar will return to @IMSA racing beginning in 2021 with @Cadillac DPi-V.R!

DETAILS: https://t.co/czyx1sI416 pic.twitter.com/CTSriV7FJM

— Chip Ganassi Racing (@CGRTeams) November 16, 2020

Ganassi entered sports cars in 2004 and had eight victories and three runner-up finishes in the Rolex 24 from 2006-18, including becoming the first team to win three consecutive overall Rolex 24s in ’06-08. The team also has won the Twelve Hours of Sebring and has an LMGTE Proclass win in the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Ford GT Mustang. Ganassi put its sports car program on hiatus in 2020 after Ford’s exit.

“We can’t wait to get back to IMSA and fight for the overall win after several years competing in the GTLM class,” Ganassi said in a release. “Our relationship with General Motors has expanded from the NASCAR Cup Series, and we couldn’t be happier. Partnering with Cadillac is a tremendous opportunity for our team and we want to start delivering for them in January at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.”

Cadillac has won four consecutive Rolex 24s, including the past two with Wayne Taylor Racing (which is moving to Acura next season).

“We are very excited to welcome Chip Ganassi Racing to the Cadillac competition family,” Cadillac vice president Rory Harvey said in a release. “Their success across many forms of racing, including sports cars, will be a great addition to our IMSA WeatherTech line-up. Chip’s pedigree at winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona eight times as well as their championships in this form of racing gives Cadillac another stalwart team to compete for the 2021 IMSA DPi championship.”

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports

Chip Ganassi Racing will return to Rolex 24 and IMSA with Cadillac next season

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

Read more about IMSA