Roger Penske drivers have won 10 season championships in either Indy Car or CART since 1979, the most recent being the 2006 title for Sam Hornish Jr. Penske’s number of NASCAR championships since beginning racing in the Cup series full-time in 1991 is zero. Chip Ganassi drivers have won five championships in either Indy Car or CART since 1996, the most recent being Scott Dixon’s Indy Car title in 2003. But, like Penske, Ganassi is searching for his first NASCAR season title in a full-time history that dates to the 2001 season. Why these two kings of open-wheel racing have not been able to translate that success to NASCAR is a question without a simple answer. “Because we haven’t had the success of Hendrick, or Roush, that’s OK,” Ganassi said. “That (NASCAR) series really rewards longevity, people that have been in it for a long time. Let’s face it, there are good drivers down there, too, that are good at that particular formula. Maybe Roger and I don’t have those guys.” There also is a matter of pure numbers. NASCAR races start 43 competitors. There are 33 starters in the Indianapolis 500 and the four other Indy Car races this season have averaged just 19 cars. Ganassi’s Indy Car drivers, Dixon and Dan Wheldon, are 1-2 in the season points heading to today’s race at Milwaukee. Dixon won the 2003 season title for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Wheldon was 2005 champion for Andretti Green Racing. Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr., are fourth and sixth in this week’s Indy points list. By contrast, Penske Nextel Cup drivers Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman are ninth and 18th, respectively, in season points heading into today’s race at Dover. It’s worse for Ganassi, who has David Stremme 21st, Juan Pablo Montoya 22nd and Reed Sorenson 24th in NASCAR. The top 12 drivers qualify for the championship chase over the final 10 races. Penske’s Busch has won a NASCAR Cup championship, but that was in 2004 when he drove for Roush. Last year, neither Penske nor Ganassi had a driver make the NASCAR championship chase, which then was the top 10 drivers. “This year, we’re confident in our position. Our team has much more momentum in 2007,” Penske said. Asked if the inability to claim a championship is making him impatient, Penske was quick to reply, “I’m not frustrated. Both Ganassi and I are just trying to meet our goals. We don’t have the experience in personnel in NASCAR that we have in Indy racing.” It’s not that Penske and Ganassi haven’t come close to NASCAR championships in the past. “We’ve been second in the championship with Rusty Wallace (in 1993),” Penske said. “We had 10 wins that year. Last year, we didn’t have a car in the chase, but we’ve been competitive.” Newman won eight races for Penske in 2003, twice the number of any other driver, but finished sixth in season points. Ganassi got a third place in the season points in 2001 with Sterling Marlin. Marlin led the season points chase for 25 weeks in 2002 before being sidelined with an injury. Since then, success has been sparse for the Ganassi teams, which haven’t gotten a Cup win since that 2002 season. “Racing is one of those businesses, when you have success, it snowballs, and when you have failures, it snowballs,” Ganassi said. “Roger and I are somewhat caught in that in NASCAR. We’re not successful and we’re not failures. We’re in no-man’s land there in the middle.” Dixon, who follows the other Ganassi racing efforts, is optimistic the NASCAR operation will begin to mirror the success in Indy Car. “I think it is a good, strong team,” he said. “They’re trying to find their sweet spot at the moment.”

Ganassi fruitlessly awaits call Early after Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., Chip Ganassi quipped that someone should give the driver his phone number. The phone hasn’t rung. “I don’t think I’m in the picture,” Ganassi said. “I kind of think the deal was done a long time ago, and this is all a charade. I think it’s all being done by Chevrolet with a Hendrick, or a satellite of a Hendrick, deal.” Ganassi runs Dodges. “I’d be happy to talk to him, as any owner would be,” Ganassi said of Earnhardt Jr. “I think he’s doing himself an injustice by not talking to other people, but that’s up to him.”

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