LEBANON, Tennessee – On the cusp of his team potentially winning its fourth IndyCar championship in five years and 16^th overall, Chip Ganassi will be downsizing his five-car stable next season.

And one of the most successful car owners in auto racing is perfectly fine with that – because it’s the byproduct of a new franchise-style model in the NTT IndyCar Series that will limit teams to three entries but hopefully deliver a more lucrative business model when implemented in 2025.

“We're just going to have three entries (next season),” Ganassi confirmed for the first time to a small group of reporters Saturday before qualifying for the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway (where points leader Alex Palou is aiming to deliver his third title in the past four seasons to Chip Ganassi Racing). “I think the charter thing is happening and it's as advertised, so I'm happy.

“It's a really good thing. And it's going to add value to every team. Granted it's not the size of the NASCAR charter guarantee. But it’s a hell of a start. It’s a hell of a running start. So I think it’s a great thing.”

Ganassi said Palou and Scott Dixon will return next season with a third driver announced after the season.

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This will be the second transition into a charter system for Ganassi and fellow team owner Roger Penske, also the owner of IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Penske and Ganassi each were given a pair of charters in the Cup Series when NASCAR introduced a similar system in 2016 that guaranteed spots in races and millions in annual revenue to its longtime teams.

When Ganassi left NASCAR six years later, he sold his stock car team’s assets and two charters to Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks. Though no terms were disclosed, individual charter sales in recent years have ranged from a minimum of $10 million to as much as $40 million, so Ganassi cashed out for a tidy sum in the eight figures.

While that might seem paltry compared with the multibillion-dollar valuations of NFL and NBA franchises, it’s serious money in auto racing, a sport where teams have been known to be sold for pennies on the dollar.

NASCAR is in the final stages of haggling over a charter system extension (which 13 of 15 teams have signed), and Ganassi believes the IndyCar proposal (which was delivered to teams last month) will have some significant enhancements.

"The IndyCar paddock is fortunate because I think Roger went through some of the speed bumps (in NASCAR) that we dealt with back in the day,” Ganassi said. “This paddock doesn't even know it because they weren’t in NASCAR then, but they’re benefiting from that, and it’s a good thing.”

Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles, who has spearheaded the IndyCar charter system, had hoped to have the structure formalized by the end of the season, but the proposal has been bogged down by billable hours as a small army of team lawyers have scrutinized contractual details.

“Every single question that everybody in the IndyCar paddock has about charter systems is like a repeat of 10 years ago when they did the NASCAR charters,” Ganassi said. “You feel like saying, ‘Don’t worry about that, this is what will happen.’ They are all valid questions that anyone with a modicum of business acumen would ask. But the net positive will just be incredible.”

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Charters are among several contentious issues that emerged in IndyCar during the ’24 season, the fifth under Penske Entertainment stewardship. NASCAR’s recent announcement of a Cup race in Mexico City next year drew a chorus of critics (notably star Pato O’Ward), and team owner Michael Andretti also has been vocal about Penske needing to reinvest more in the series.

Ganassi came to Roger Penske’s defense Saturday.

“I guarantee he's taking some unfair shots because I can tell you that you don't know the story,” Ganassi said. “And when you hear the story, you go, ‘Oh, OK, no problem.’ So it's all good at the end of the day. I don't want to mention any drivers' names, but they don't know the whole story either. So just tell them, ‘Sit down and shut up.’ Worry about what you should be worrying about and don't get involved in things when you don't know what's going on."

Ganassi speaks from the perspective of having rolled with the punches for more than three decades as a team owner. Though his IndyCar operations will contract next year, and his IMSA prototype team is losing its Cadillac support, Ganassi intends to keep “most” of his workforce.

He will have a home for some key personnel through a new team in the Indy NXT ladder series as well as a new technical alliance in IndyCar with Meyer Shank Racing next season.

“We have some quality people we want to keep around,” Ganassi said. “And we want to win races.”

As well as a championship at Nashville. Palou can clinch his second consecutive crown with a finish of ninth of better for a No. 10 Dallara-Honda team filled with longtime Ganassi loyalists such as Julian Robertson, Barry Wanser and Ricky Davis

Ganassi (who preaches “there is speed is tenure”) views the continuity as essential to CGR’s success, noting that Wanzer worked through a recovery from throat cancer last season while helping call strategy for Palou.

“You don't replace guys like that,” Ganassi said. “It’s about the team.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Chip Ganassi on the series' new charter system