IndyCar: Chip Ganassi confirms interest in James Hinchcliffe for 2020

Chip Ganassi Racing team owner Chip Ganassi confirmed that he is interested in signing James Hinchcliffe for the 2020 IndyCar season.

James Hinchcliffe was left without a ride for the 2020 IndyCar season when Arrow McLaren Racing SP announced that 2018 and 2019 Indy Lights champions Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew would be their drivers next year.

Hinchcliffe had been “confirmed” by the team on numerous occasions ever since Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the team for which he has driven since the 2015 season, formed a partnership with McLaren back in August and switched from Honda engines to Chevrolet engines.

But even with this switch, Hinchcliffe, who has ties to Honda and counterpart Honda Canada, was all set to make a go of it with the team next year.

Now we know that this will not be the case. As a result, the 32-year-old Canadian is actively seeking another full-time ride, likely with a Honda team, but the funding that Honda and Honda Canada would provide would not be enough to land him a full-time seat in itself.

Provided that he can find a sponsor, Chip Ganassi Racing team owner Chip Ganassi says that he would sign Hinchcliffe “in a second”.

Here is what Ganassi had to say about the matter, according to NBC Sports.

"“If I had a sponsor, I’d have (Hinchcliffe) in a second. I’d love to have him. It takes more than he and I wanting to work together. But I’d have him in a minute. We’ve talked, and he knows where we’re at. He knows how to find us. He knows where we’re at, and we know how to find him. It’s just a matter of, at the end of the day, in all these deals, somebody has to come with the sponsorship. I’m not asking him to do that. But I’ve got my hands full with what I’ve got right now.”"

Chip Ganassi Racing were supposedly going to field only two cars in the 2020 season for what would have been their third consecutive season as a two-car team.