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.
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.”