INDIANAPOLIS — When Roger Penske bought the Hulman-George company out and took over all of their assets, some within the NTT IndyCar Series community could have had some resentment. See, Penske is a large rival of Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti in terms of competition in Indy Car. The “Big 3” have combined to win 17 of the last 20 Indy 500’s and every series championship since 2003.

So, for an owner to now own the series and the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, some could see it as a conflict of interest.

But, Chip Ganassi doesn’t look at it that way. He could kick and scream and whine his way to focus all of his attention on NASCAR, but that’s not who Ganassi is. He likes winners, remember?

Penske is a winner on and off the track. Ganassi knows that and is 100-percent content with everything that Penske is doing for the series. He says that being an owner too actually helps Penske in a leadership role of the series and all their teams involved right now.

“My hat’s off to the ownership of the Speedway and the way they’ve been handling this odd season,” Ganassi said on Fast Friday. “But, I mean, when it comes right down to it, whether it’s 2020 or COVID pandemics, it’s still the same. You still have to do the same things when it comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in terms of the car setup, in terms of how you approach the race, in terms of how you approach these practice days and qualifying, the race itself. We’re looking forward to it. It’s a little bit of normalcy in a somewhat odd year. We’re happy to be here.”

Ganassi, said that he thinks everyone within the paddock and community is very happy with how Penske has come in and approached the season on behalf of them. He’s thrilled that Penske is thinking long term here and not just a short term opportunity. That’s why he feels like they will get through this when the pandemic is all said and done.

“Obviously he’s had to make some very difficult decisions.,” Ganassi continued. “But, I mean, I don’t think they’re in this for one or two years. It’s a generational thing. When you take that view of it, I don’t think anybody could be happier with how they’ve approached it.

“Just being around the Speedway, it looks different to me from the air. You fly over it coming into the airport, it just looks different from the air. It looks better. It’s typical Roger. Everything is done in a first-class manner. Really, really couldn’t be happier.”

Ganassi, says that he’s not here to get into the specifics into the business aspect side with Penske, but he will say that this is as good as its ever been in the series.

“I will tell you that it’s been probably the best communication that we’ve ever had with any ownership group in any series I’ve ever been in,” Ganassi said. “I think that’s because Roger started as a team owner. He understands the questions you have as a team owner.

“Four or five times now we’ve had an email that said, We need to have a quick owners meeting here, this afternoon, tomorrow morning. You have a call-in, it’s all organized.

“It’s really good because he’s kind of letting us know when he knows about certain things. He’ll say, Hey, this is what I know, this is what we’re doing. What do you think? Anybody have any questions?

“I don’t know that there’s been any huge difference of opinion really from the ownership to how Roger feels. I think it’s more or less a welcomed thing to be asked the question. He’ll say, Hey, this is what I’ve decided, I hope you all agree. Does anybody have any questions?

“It’s been pretty good. I don’t want to get into any specifics. The communication is great. Like I said, I don’t think the Speedway or the series could be in any better hands right now.”

Ganassi, said he’s extremely proud of how his organization has performed during the uncertainty of the situation and thrilled about the growth, but also notes that they’re not fully out of the woods just yet either.

“Yeah, it’s been a challenge,” Ganassi said. “I mean, you start off in terms of the shutdown, we were all scrambling to figure out how long it was going to be, what was on the other side of it, are you even going to have a business on the other side of it. There was a question if we were going to have any races at some point. All those sort of unknowns…

“I can tell you, I had a lot of sleepless nights. We’re still not what I would call completely out of the woods. My hat’s off to the people at INDYCAR, the people at NASCAR for dealing with these government officials or local municipalities, county governments, state governments, getting them all lined up for the return of sports.

“At the same time you have that sort of going on in the business going forward, then on the other side it’s the same old thing. You have your business on one side and you have the sponsors on the other. They’re not having an easy time of it either. It’s a challenge. They’ve obviously made commitments to the team. We’re trying to give them an honest return on their investment. There’s always that question. We want to give them the biggest bang for the buck.

“But fortunately most of the sponsors have hung in there with us. They understand it’s a difficult time. It’s through no fault of the teams to be in the position that we’re all in. Fortunately they’ve hung in there with us. That’s the thing about having great partners.

“But there is that not really knowing next month, next quarter, next year. There’s a lot more unanswered questions than there are answered ones still.”

One thing that Ganassi hopes to answer soon is another Indy 500 triumph. They’ve won 112 times in Indy Car competition but has no Indy 500 victories since 2013. While he has seven championships over the last 12 seasons, Indy has been missing lately.

Scott Dixon was fastest in the final race practice of the week on Thursday and is looking like he’s well on his way to a second Indy 500 win. Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson are feeling more and more confident too.