He’ll drive the No. 40 Dodge for Ganassi Racing next season.

He’ll drive the No. 40 Dodge for Ganassi Racing next
season.

SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE

Chip Ganassi Racing announced Wednesday that 2007 Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti will drive the No. 40 Dodge in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series next year.

“The time came for a new challenge,” said Franchitti, who joined team owner Chip Ganassi and new teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Reed Sorenson for the announcement at the race shop in Concord, N.C. “I thank you, Chip, for the chance to do this.”

Franchitti, from Scotland, will become the first European driver to compete full time at NASCAR’s highest level. He will make his stock car debut in Friday’s ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

Initiated last season

Ganassi initiated discussions with Franchitti last year, but with the signing of Montoya for the 2007 season, he had no seat available for Franchitti. That changed when Ganassi opted not to renew the contract of David Stremme, the current driver of the No. 40 Dodge.

Ganassi, who characterized himself as one of the strongest supporters of open-wheel racing, said he turned to the IndyCar Series to hire Franchitti because of his driving ability.

“People always want to talk about ‘Am I raiding the open-wheel series?’ But that’s kind of a swipe at NASCAR,” Ganassi said. “I don‘t care where the drivers come from, but I have to take the best drivers available. If they’re good drivers and they’re available, I’m going to take them.”

Franchitti was in the final year of his contract with Andretti Green Racing but said he made up his mind to go Cup racing before he won the IndyCar Series championship.

“My mind was made up before that,” Franchitti said. “That was just the icing on the cake from a terrific season.”

Ganassi said Franchitti will follow logical steps, as Montoya did, before making his Cup debut. The progression includes competition in ARCA and the Busch Series.

“We have solid steps we want to make,” Ganassi said. “He has to satisfy everybody in this building. Then he has to satisfy the people in the building down the street [referring to NASCAR officials at the sanctioning body’s nearby research and development center].”