IndyCar team-by-team mid-season review 2022

It’s hard to knock a team that has started the 2022 season in roughly the same way as it ended the last, with three of its drivers in the top six in the championship, one of them leading. The down side is that they have scored only one win so far: the upside is that it was the Indianapolis 500.

That performance from the Ganassi team as a whole was pure class, the squad very clearly proving to be Honda’s difference-maker. Four of the five Ganassi cars started in the front two rows, all five cars led laps, totalling 163 of the 200, and while there was shock at how Scott Dixon missed out through an infinitesimally small mistake and another at how Fate tripped Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson delivered in superb fashion.

If there have been disappointments, it was in CGR’s initial pace at St. Petersburg, and maybe at Texas Motor Speedway, too. But that St. Pete weekend was a prime example of what happens when massively talented engineers work their butts off in times of crisis: they can produce a big mid-weekend turnaround, one of the team’s long-time specialties. The Ganassi cars were nowhere in first practice, but inched up the times with each session. By Sunday, Palou was able to finish just half a second behind the winner.

Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Ericsson is well worthy of his top spot in the championship at the moment. Aside from a gaffe while in a podium position at Long Beach, he’s made no crucial mistakes on race days, driving with the self confidence that race engineer Brad Goldberg has bred in him since the Swede joined the team in 2020. His qualifying pace is still not quite what it should be but few – if any – drivers out there are nailing it every time in qualifying these