{"id":101290,"date":"2025-08-27T17:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101290\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:21:12","slug":"chip-ganassi-gives-telling-answer-about-nascar-return-with-honda-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101290\/","title":{"rendered":"Chip Ganassi gives telling answer about NASCAR return with Honda – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of Dodge\u2019s return to NASCAR<\/a> in 2026, with the Ram brand set to compete in the Craftsman Truck Series<\/a>, Japanese manufacturer Honda is also being touted as another impending arrival<\/a> on the stock car racing scene, in a move that could entice the return of Chip Ganassi.<\/p>\n

From 2001 until 2021, Chip Ganassi Racing competed in both the Cup and Xfinity Series, fielding the likes of Kyle Busch<\/a>, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, and Juan Pablo Montoya, amassing 20 wins in the Cup and a further 24 in the Xfinity Series before the team was sold to Trackhouse Racing – the current home of Shane van Gisbergen, Ross Chastain, and Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n

Ganassi\u2019s involvement in motorsport continued outside of NASCAR after the team was sold, with his IndyCar team continuing to build upon its already remarkable success, with Alex Palou winning the series in four of the last five seasons, powered by none other than Honda in a collaboration which first began in 1996.<\/p>\n

Given Ganassi\u2019s long-standing ties with Honda, with 15 of their 17 driver\u2019s championships having come powered by the Japanese manufacturer, the potential involvement of the company in NASCAR led to the Motorsports Hall of Famer recently being asked whether or not he would consider returning to NASCAR if a partnership was on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I open to it, I wouldn\u2019t say \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no,\u2019 but what I can tell you is that I haven\u2019t had that conversation with Honda,\u201d he said on Tuesday, as per Motorsport.com<\/a>. \u201cI have never had that conversation with NASCAR, but I am also smart enough to never say never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should Ganassi attempt a return to NASCAR\u2019s premier series, this would, of course, raise the question of who he would call up to pilot his entry. Intriguingly, he admitted to having considered how Palou would fare in the series, noting how \u201cthe formula has changed since I was there. It is a formula that does lend itself to the kind of racing we do and the kind of engineering we do, that we\u2019re good at,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the answer to that is yes, but I have not had any of those discussions or given it much thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, all of this hangs on the assumption that Honda decides to make the move to NASCAR in the near future – something the manufacturer has remained coy about of late.<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

In June, NASCAR Executive Vice President, John Probst, told Sports Business Journal<\/a> that they were \u201cvery close\u201d to agreeing a deal with a fifth manufacturer, although he refrained from specifically identifying the brand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Responding to rumors that Honda was the company in question, Honda and Acura Motorsports for American Honda Motor Co. manager Chuck Schifsky said that he was \u201cnot in a position to speculate as to what Mr. Probst was referring to. I can say that – Honda continues to explore multiple options for our future endeavors in U.S. motorsport. We have no news to share at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of Dodge\u2019s return to NASCAR in 2026, with the Ram brand set to compete in the Craftsman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,58565,3827,4386,2332,634,82,36954],"class_list":{"0":"post-101290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chip-ganassi","11":"tag-honda","12":"tag-kyle-larson","13":"tag-motorsport-section","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-trackhouse-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}