Chip Ganassi was a good race car driver.

Over a five-year span (1982-86), the Pittsburgh native enjoyed a career-best second-place finish at Cleveland, as well as four starts in the Indianapolis 500. In 1983, Ganassi was voted CART's "Most Improved Driver" and logged eight top-10 finishes in just 27 appearances.

	Chip Ganassi's teams have won four of the last five CART FedEx Championship crowns.

But Ganassi is a great race car owner.

Since 1988, Ganassi's teams have captured four CART FedEx Championship titles, two Indy 500s and dozens of wins.

The same tenaciousness that marked his driving career has defined his life as a car owner.

"I think that what I'm trying to accomplish is that when you say the word 'racing' in the United States, I want my name to be first on people's list," Ganassi said. "I want people to think of our teams as teams that are always there; teams that are consistently at the front; teams that employ good people; employ good practices; teams that live by the deals they make."

This season, Ganassi has added a NASCAR arm to his growing racing empire that includes Chicago Motor Speedway, CART's Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and an Indy Racing League effort for this year's Indy 500, where he is the defending champion car owner.

Sterling Marlin and Jason Leffler wheel Ganassi's NASCAR Dodges, while rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian occupy the cockpits of his Target Toyotas on the CART circuit. Junqueira and Minassian are entered in the Indy 500, but lately stories have circulated that either one or both could be replaced by the time qualifying starts in early May.

On Monday, both Minassian and Junqueira tested a second time at Indy, with Minassian rebounding from his previous crash. The CART rookie logged more than 100 laps, including one at 217.98 mph. Junqueira battled windy conditions.

"I have to learn more about the car and more about the track, but we're going in the right direction," Junqueira said.

Ganassi gives both his NASCAR and CART efforts an early season performance grade of 'B'.

"For all the success that Sterling (Marlin) has had, we have had an equal amount of disappointment with Jason (Leffler)," Ganassi said. "I'm not pointing a finger at Jason by any means, I think we just need to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued his team. I'd almost be happier if both our cars were ninth and 10th in the championship, as opposed to third and 30th.

"We've only had two CART races, so let's not rush to judgement. If you remember, in 1996, Alex Zanardi didn't earn a championship point until June and we finished second in the championship. We could very easily have won that '96 championship if Alex hadn't crashed out in Vancouver, so I don't get excited. It's too early to get excited."

An upcoming date in the Hoosier State does get the minority owner of MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates excited. It is the 85th running of the Indy 500, which he won with Indy 500 rookie Juan Montoya last year.

"Winning Indy with a (first-time) driver, in the style we did, was a Cinderella story," Ganassi said. "Juan was the first to win there (in his debut) since Graham Hill. However you feel about the CART-IRL schism, I think everyone forgot just how much fun it is to be there during May. I'm looking forward to going back there this year and for many years to come."