Ryan Hunter-Reay will return to the track next month with Chip Ganassi Racing in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, joining Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais on the No. 01 Cadillac.
Hunter-Reay had raced full time in the NTT IndyCar Series from 2008-21, winning the 2012 championship and 2014 Indy 500 during 12 seasons with Andretti Autosport. He also is a sports car veteran, having won the 2020 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Mazda in his most recent start in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series. Hunter-Reay, 40, also won the 2018 Petit Le Mans in a Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac that also included van der Zande and Jordan Taylor.
In his debut with Ganassi, Hunter-Reay, 41, will be reunited with van der Zande and also will be teamed with Bourdais, whom he competed against throughout his IndyCar career. The March 19 race on the historic 17-turn, 3.74-mile Sebring International Raceway also is a sort of homecoming for Hunter-Reay, a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Chip Ganassi Racing and returning to Cadillac for the 70th running of the Twelve Hours of Sebring,” Hunter-Reay said in a release. “This is a tremendous opportunity to work with one of the very best teams and manufacturers in motorsports. Sebring is my home track, and the Twelve Hours of Sebring is one of those iconic events that you focus on as a competitor. After winning the 2020 race overall, I’ve been eager to get back with a top team and compete for another win.”
“It’s beyond belief that Ryan Hunter-Reay is available to be a Cadillac teammate at Sebring,” Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull said. “Chip Ganassi Racing has admired his ability to consistently win major globally recognized events. He has that special knack to be a separator. We’re excited that Ryan’s an integral part of our team at the Twelve Hours of Sebring.”
Ganassi’s No. 02 Cadillac will be driven at Sebring by full-time drivers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn joined by Kevin Magnussen, who drove for Ganassi in IMSA last season.
IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson had rounded out the endurance lineup for Ganassi’s Cadillacs among the 12 full-time IndyCar drivers in the Rolex 24 at Daytona last month. But with the Twelve Hours of Sebring falling on the same weekend as the March 20 race at Texas Motor Speedway (the first IndyCar oval of the 2022 schedule), logistics will preclude as much crossover between IndyCar and IMSA in this year’s race.
Cadillac has won the overall in three of the past five Twelve Hours of Sebring. The No. 5 Cadillac of Tristan Vautier, Loic Duval and Richard Westbrook also will be in the field for next month’s race.