News Analysis: Ganassi thows us a curveball

Just yesterday I was convinced that Dan Wheldon was on the verge of re-signing with Chip Ganassi racing for 2009, I mean why wouldn't i? He is in the best team in the business and is improving on the road courses, staying at Ganassi is the logical choice to keep winning, right? Well apparantly things aren't that simple in the Indycar world as today Chip Ganassi stood up and said he would have a second top driver in his team and that driver is............. Dario Franchitti!!! Wait, rewind, Franchitti? You mean the guy who left Indycar for NASCAR after winning the title saying that the open wheel chapeter of his life is closed, that Dario Franchitti? Yes boys and girls it is true, Dario Franchitti is back in the IRL after a rather dismal go at NASCAR this year. The domino effect of this is that within a couple of hours Wheldon was confirmed as joining Panther racing for next year to replace the eternally unlucky Vitor Meira in the number four car. The immediate reaction is that this is good for the sport, which it is as it does raise the talent level in the field, but it does cruelly deny one of the sports true good guys of a decent job. The panther people are touting the same old story that if Vitor comes up with sponsorship they will run a second car, but it does not seem bloody likely at this point. There will be the usual scrap jobs out there if Vitor can come up with the cash, but it does not look all that promising for the man with the most starts without a career win. One must wonder what the stumbling block was to Wheldon's re-signing. Certainly he could not have been expecting the same amount of money that he had been receiving up to now, but there has to be more to it than that. Dan is no moron and he knows that Ganassi is the best team in the business. He must realize that he will need to take a pay cut to stay in the game and there is no way that Panther racing has anywhere near the money that Wheldon wants, heck they pretty much don't have any money. This must have to do with status within the team. Chip probably told Wheldon that he would be number two within the team to Scott Dixon and Dan wants equal billing. He can go to panther racing and be the man on an average team as opposed to being second fiddle on a great team. I wish Dan all the best as he is one of the big talents in the sport, and it is good to see more big names back in Indycar, hopefully it comes at the expense of the lousy backmarkers and not at the expense of the genuine good drivers like Meira.