THE INDY 500 DREAM TEAM SET TO ROCK THE BRICKYARD
A top-secret plan involving two American sporting icons, a legendary motor sport team owner, and a driver with unfinished business, will create a 'dream team' assault to capture one of the greatest prizes in racing - the Borg Warner Trophy that goes to the winner of the Indianapolis 500.
Although yet to be officially revealed or even acknowledged by those involved, the American heroes are one of the most idolised and revered NFL players in football history, seven-times Superbowl winner Tom Brady, and the other is NASCAR legend and seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
But the star power does not stop there, as the dream team will also include IndyCar team boss Chip Ganassi and former star driver Sebastien Bourdais for an entry in this year’s 109th running of the 500-mile classic around the Brickyard.
It promises to be the biggest thing to happen in the Indy 500 since Fernando Alonso first turned up and made America lose its goddamn mind.
The entry is guaranteed to create a media frenzy across all of America’s 50 states and probably around the world.
It means Chip Ganassi Racing, which has already announced the entry of its three regular IndyCar series contenders for the May 25 showdown – reigning champion Alex Palou, veteran Scott Dixon and youngster Kyffin Simpson – will take on the extra workload.
Bourdais, an always smiling but grimly determined French driver, is hailed as one of the fastest drivers to contest the Indy 500 but with only a fifth place in 2018 as his best result in a race that always seem to taunt him. He even guested in Supercars in the days of the two-driver races on the Gold Coast.
While an out-of-the-blue fourth entry for Ganassi and Bourdais would normally see an interest peak of around a two on the 'give a . . . meter', when you throw Tom Brady and Jimmie Johnson into the mix it’s enough to send the needle past the redline and well into the 'my head’s about to explode' zone.
When the veil of secrecy surrounding this ambitious project is finally lifted you can expect a social media meltdown rarely seen in any category of motor racing and even the legacy media – which has shown a rather distressing habit of moving with glacial swiftness in recent years – will definitely awaken, wide-eyed to milk this story until the cash cow is emptied.
At the centre of the storm will be, of course, Tom Brady, the supernaturally talented quarterback who led the New England Patriots to six Superbowl crowns in his 20 seasons with the team before retiring in 2020.
Then he un-retired and joined the hardly-rated Tampa Bay Buccaneers only to, geezus, win a seventh Superbowl before finally – and really this time – calling it quits in early 2023.
Now 47, Brady’s list of stats in his NFL career is basically just a long list of record breaking, including being voted MVP in the Superbowl no fewer than five times.
He was also married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen from 2009 until 2022 and is worth something slightly north of $480 million. Oh and he’s also tall , handsome and as hard as it may be, really likeable.
Fellow co-owner Jimmie Johnson is another of those damn over-achievers sent to earth to really annoy we mere mortals.
His chosen career was kicking the living daylights of those unfortunate souls who crossed his path on the NASCAR cup trail which, by the time he called it a day (at least in a full-time capacity) in 2020 had seen him capturing the championship title seven times.
Then in 2022 he decided, just for fun, to have a crack at being a full-time IndyCar driver with, in case you hadn’t guessed, Chip Ganassi. Thankfully, this showed us that Johnson may be a mortal after all, because he wasn’t all that good.
OK, his best-placed finish was fa ifth and he did win the Rookie of the Year award at the Indy 500, but all-in-all, his single-seater experience proved he was a damn fine NASCAR driver.
Johnson is only worth around $240 million, so he probably makes Brady pick up the tab at dinner and tip the concierge when their car is brought to the front of the restaurant.
Given that you’re reading a website called Race.news, it’s probably not too big a stretch to think that you have some idea of who Chip Ganassi is and what he does.
Alongside Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing is very much a top-shelf team in any category it dives.
Ganassi's team has four Champ Car titles, 12 IndyCar championships (including the last two with Alex Palau) and five Indy 500 victories.
Add to this his Daytona and Le Mans 24-Hour titles as a factory team for the likes of Ford and Cadillac, not to mention countless other victories over the years, and it’s easy to understand why he is the man Roger Penske fears most in a competitive sense.
Penske has the bragging rights at Indy, having won the last two 500s with Josef Newgarden, but Ganassi’s Honda-powered Dallaras are always in the mix and, no matter what, will be again in 2025.
Which is why both Brady and Johnson will be handing over something approaching $2 million to have Chip Ganassi Racing supply, fettle and put together a crew for their one-off assault on the Brickyard.
Not that they’re likely to find themselves out of pocket, for you’d have to think that sponsors will be falling out of the trees waving big cheques to get a slice of the action and cash in on the publicity juggernaut this entry is bound to create.
Wheel man Bourdais, a 45-year-old who was born and bred at Le Mans in France, is fast running out of time to win one of the few races to elude him in an impressive career.
The four-time Champ Car title winner (2004-07) has 37 career victories in that series and IndyCars combined, had 27 starts with Torro Rosso in Formula One and was a LMGTE winner at Le Mans in a Ford GT for the Ganassi team.
Most recently, Bourdais has been one of the lynchpins of the Cadillac sports car assault on both the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans, as well as IMSA in the USA, driving again for Chip Ganassi.
It all adds up to a neat-and-tidy package which makes sense on every front.
Now we only have to wait for an official entry announcement, although this probably won’t come until Brady and Johnson smooth-talk a naming rights backer to jump aboard with the Indy 500 dream team.
The queue starts here . . .
