Chip Ganassi Racing announced Friday it is changing brands for its IndyCar teams. Which at least prompts speculation about the NASCAR Sprint Cup team’s future with its current nameplate. Ganassi will drop its affiliation with Chevy in favor of Honda engines in its Verizon IndyCar Series program. Ganassi has ties with Ford in other racing ventures. There’s no immediate indication that Ganassi will leave Chevy in Sprint Cup. But for years there has been speculation that a second Japanese carmaker might jump into NASCAR to challenge Toyota. Meanwhile, Ford is trying to broaden its reach in NASCAR and make its cars more competitive. Whether Honda has interests in cracking into stock car racing is an open question. Neither is there a sign of Ganassi switching to Ford in its Cup program. Ford already picked up a headline team for next season when Stewart-Haas Racing announced it will switch from Chevy after this season. Earlier this year, Ganassi and Target parted company in open-wheel racing when the retailer ended its 27-year sponsorship. Ganassi has one more year with Target on its stock cars.(Sporting News)(10-8-2016)
