Target Ganassi IndyCar Reunion: Zanardi/Vasser/Hull

Former Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar teammates Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, and managing director Mike Hull reunite for the Marshall Pruett Podcast to discuss their glory years where Vasser won the 1996 CART title and Zanardi claimed the 1997 and 1998 championships as the American-Italian duo set the stage for the team's future success, and formed one of the most impressive and popular partnerships in the sport.
Filmed and produced by Travis Long.

[@pablobarrera7613]

Zanardi will always be in our hearts! Watching him win with Chip Ganassi was part of my family's life on Sundays. My parents and I just adore the guy!

[@DC322]

Ganassi Indycar team won more titles with Dixon, Franchitti and Montoya. Vasser and Zanardi were the duo that wins races and titles setting up for success for this indycar team.

[@stubailey9433]

The best of times! R.i.P Greg Moore.

[@dennisfritz3608]

What a great Come Together! Thank you Marshal for making this possible and thanks to the guys for making some time. You make some racing fans happy with this👌🏼

[@GenoSalvati]

Nice arms Popeye Zanardi. Watching you race in that red car was amazing.

[@dschoene57]

That's mostly due to his hand-bike training. People forget the guy is also a multiple Paralympics champion. That's some massive biceps 😆

[@camrsr5463]

Awesome! I can remember driving past the old Ganassi headquarters on Guion Road in Indy multiple times a week to get to the Meijer grocery store ( The Arie Luyendyk sponsor) But Ganassi was always my favorite team and have meant a lot to me and the city of Indianapolis and the speedway. Thanks.

[@garrettmurphy7238]

Marshall, incredible interview. thank you. The racing community is so lucky to have you.

[@COMMONsenseAdvocate86]

I grew up in Long Beach in the 90s & Good God did i see the pair of them EVERYWHERE(especially 98/99 when Alex was in a league of 1 on track) around town, all over billboards, bus stops, & media outlets in LB and all over southern CA. This wasn't just during April when the grand prix was in town. It was a year round thing that made them extremely popular in the country.

[@Jonhilsea]

Loved watching that Marshall. Brought back some memories. Thanks. All the way from U.K.

[@ZeroCool-vn9bd]

I'm so glad you made that discussion possible, and filmed! So much fun to see the interaction and stories!

[@patrickshea6666]

Awesome interview! Thanks!!

[@cartergermaine2408]

Awesome insight Marshall, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[@Saturn185]

can we have the newman haas duo of Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi in something like this? or the team green duo of Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy?

[@RAMSES76]

Thank you Marshall !

[@50caLIndycar]

shared this to fb group cart fans. this is solid gold and needs to be seen by more than 2.3k subs, which still baffles me, good work marshall

[@MarshallPruett]

Thank you--I've yet to make an effort to push for more subscribers, so 2.3K is my fault.

[@KosmicHRTRacingTeam]

Wow. Thank you!!! Alex is my favorite driver of all time and this was brilliant. One of the things that bothers me the most is when F1 elitists try and downplay his talent based on his experience at Williams. To this day I still don’t know why he wasn’t able to have more success in F1 (maybe it is just as simple as CART cars could let him push the limits more than an F1 car? Idk, but I’d love to hear what others think) but I do know that AZ could drive the hell out of that car and imho, is the most dominant CART/Indycar driver of all time. Alex is just so pleasant to listen to and Jimmy was the perfect teammate and I have a lot of respect for him as a driver and someone that still supported such a dominant teammate and maintain the fire than a race driver has to have to succeed. I still have 2 framed art pieces in my home and a couple 1:16 models (target Honda raynard and a beautiful but POS car that was the Williams F1 car). Thanks again for this!!!

[@pablobarrera7613]

F1 is unfair woth many superb drivers. Alex was the reincarnation of Gilles Villeneuve, taken to CART. Alex is outstanding from every point of view. Always in my parents' and my heart. He and Schumacher have been our heroes since the late 90s.

[@6lemans10]

The Woody Woodpecker car! Mecahrome power baby!!

[@RichieRich-71]

I know it's history now but part of me wonders how many titles Alex and Jimmy would have got if they had stayed together at Ganassi? I loved this era...

[@gizmobowen]

Thank you.

[@bidi5002]

Wow Awesome i really like it the dream team at TCGR and the car package was tough to beat!!

[@aurorebeaureal]

Jimmy Vasser is my favorite CART driver. He was the 1996 Champ Car/CART champion. Guess who was the last American to win the CART championship? Chip Ganassi in Champ Car won the championships from 1996-1999. Why isn’t the team in Champ Car World Series? My god, it took me some time to figure out who is Alessandro Zanardi. Would he ever race IndyCar or Formula 1 at this time? Alex Zanardi was the 1997 Champ Car/CART champion and won 1998 as well.Does Vasser know the owner of Penske Rental, Dale Coyne, Newman Haas Racing, Michael Andretti, Team Kool Green, or Dario Franchitti.

[@jaybraxton5625]

Great job Marshall.

[@lonewolf2513]

Having family friends who worship open wheel and the Indy 500. I showed them this interview and they were shocked

[@JuanGarcia-bk7he]

i love u zanardi

[@MrBigCLW]

Would love to see a teammate interview of Mario and Nigel...please set that one up.

[@dschoene57]

Probably not going to happen. Nigel and Mario really didn't get along at all. Nigel Mansell wasn't the easiest team mate to begin with, but I also suspect that Mario couldn't quite cope with Nigel stealing the attention off him.

[@aurorebeaureal]

Did Jimmy meet Bill Lester, Danny Sullivan, or Willy T Ribbs.

[@mpmonzon]

One of the best moments on Indycar history , late nineties , so sad for Zanardi accident , he should stay instead going back to F1

[@6lemans10]

The Williams F1 team was TOXIC in 1999.

[@robminmonaca]

Shame they came in when indycar was split and Alex never got to race in the Indy 500. The 25/8 rule really still hurt Indycar today.

[@lindachrisman915]

Hurt Vasser too - he would have won Indy, without a doubt if the split hadn't happened. No doubt, either, it needed to hapoen.

[@juanmanuelbonzano]

Morris Nunn wanted Norberto Fontana? Are you serious? We could 've had the best Argentine driver at the moment driving for Ganassi in 1996 in CART but didn't happened because Sauber said no. Damn it!

[@mpmonzon]

He must be racing on iracing too

[@bonecosdobrunocomicsbybrun577]

Thank you Marshall!