JOLIET, Ill. -- Auto racing is a team sport, but the accolades often are thrust only upon the most visible member of the group -- the driver.
So on a day when Scott Dixon is being feted for his second IndyCar Series championship, spare a thought for the other folks at Target Chip Ganassi Racing who made it possible -- starting with the over-the-wall pit crew composed of fueler Todd DeNeve, jack man Mark Sampson, and tire changers Adam Rovazzini, Rich Meredith, and Blair Julian, all led by crew chief Ricky Davis.
Don't forget engineers Eric Bretzman and Brian Welling, shock man Mike Cicciarelli, and mechanics Troy Scheller, Andy Schneider, Gilbert Swafford, Jesse Benbow and Wayne Westplate. And spotter Glenn "Packy" Wheeler.
Or, for that matter, the "bosses": team managers Barry Wanser and Scott Harner and managing director Mike Hull. Without their day-to-day leadership, Chip Ganassi -- the man whose name graces the side of Target/Ganassi Racing's Indianapolis base -- would not have been celebrating on his jet on the way back to Pittsburgh on Sunday night.
Ganassi is known for a gruff, tough-love approach, but there is no denying that his racing teams don't suffer from a lot of turnover and his people are immensely loyal. Ganassi believes that's not an accident.
"We certainly look for guys that are self-starters," Ganassi said.
"We talk about the 'three E's' -- energy, excitement and enthusiasm. I'd like to think we have a pretty good foundation to stand on. When you have some success, good people want to be with you, and when you have good people, you have more success.
"So it kind of builds on itself. When I look back to 1990 [when Chip Ganassi Racing was formed out of the former Patrick Racing], I wouldn't want to have to start over."
Dixon's latest IndyCar Series championship was the sixth in top-level open-wheel competition for the Ganassi organization. Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi (two) and Juan Pablo Montoya combined for four consecutive CART titles from 1996 to 1999, and Dixon won the IndyCar crown in
2003, the first year Ganassi's team mounted a two-car effort in the IRL.
Ganassi is one of the most diversified team owners in American motorsports, with entries in NASCAR stock cars and Grand Am sports cars in addition to his IndyCar effort. He's happy to pretty much step aside and let the individual leaders of those teams take care of the day-to-day business.
"My responsibility is to provide some leadership," he said.
"That's not to say that Mike [Hull] doesn't, but at his level, he needs to provide more management skills than leadership, whereas I'm the other way.
"The trick in this business is to make some initial success beget success. It's a constantly changing business. It used to be the business changed every 10 years, then every five years, then three, two. Now it changes from month to month, and pretty soon it's going to be paycheck to paycheck. It's a constantly changing business environment, and you have to adjust and adapt to it."
Hull, who has been with Ganassi from the start, believes success starts with having the right people on board. And as Ganassi alluded to, the team seeks and attracts a certain breed of racer.
"None of us are real high-profile guys, to begin with," Hull said. "We're all very dedicated to doing what we enjoy the most, which is racing. Which is what [Dixon] is dedicated to. It's his priority, just like it's our priority. Not to take away from anybody else in motor racing that we race with -- and that would include Dan Wheldon -- it just happens to be our M.O. And it works."
Hull contends that Dixon's No. 9 crew has enjoyed such a high level of success because it has found the formula for that indefinable element known as chemistry.
"One thing you can create is momentum," Hull said. "As a driver, Dixon is now at the point in his career in terms of experience that he is able to capitalize on what we give him totally. He's in the right place now at the right time, with the right amount of experience, with a group of guys who are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to get him a product that's good enough to win.
"It's no different than any other sport or anything in motor racing when you see that happen. It's a combination of many factors, and cohesiveness is certainly one of them."
Davis, who serves as crew chief and changes the outside front tire during pit stops, also subscribes to the chemistry theory.
"It only takes one guy to ruin chemistry between five or six people," he said. "One person can also bring five or six people to a higher level, and we certainly do have that here. The guys have been together for a number of years now, and you can see that they each know what each guy is doing and they go to the next step. Then they plan the next step ahead. Stuff happens so fast sometimes I can't keep up with it."
But the team backing Dixon goes beyond managers, mechanics and engineers. Ganassi gives credit to Dixon's new bride, Emma, a former champion long-distance runner from England, whom Scott married earlier this year.
"I was a little worried when he got married, but it just kind of put everything in focus for him," Ganassi said. "I couldn't be happier. I don't want to use the word 'transformation,' but just having a great partner in his life has really made him a great guy to be around off the track and has made him a better racer on the track."
Dixon gets additional support from his parents, Ron and Glenys, who mortgaged their New Zealand home to support their son's racing career. Both maintain an every-day presence at the track, but in a laid-back way that meshes perfectly with the low-profile Ganassi organization.
"Mum and Dad have been fantastic through my racing career," Dixon acknowledged. "Without them, I wouldn't be here! I definitely wouldn't be racing. Dad's passion for racing got me into it. Back when I was 7 or 8, I went out to see my cousins race go-karts, and from that day on, we've been at a racetrack pretty much every other weekend.
"It's been a long time with many years of racing, and they've always supported me through thick and thin. I definitely owe them everything, and it's just a pleasure to have them be able to be at the races."
After his last-lap-of-the-season loss to Dario Franchitti in the
2007 IndyCar Series championship, Dixon and the No. 9 team dedicated themselves to carrying home the title in 2008. Although Helio Castroneves and Team Penske made the final margin perhaps closer than it should have been, Dixon and his teammates celebrated "mission accomplished" Sunday night in suburban Chicago.
"It's a testament to Scott and a dedication to the men and women at Chip Ganassi Racing, what they did after coming back from Chicago last year," Hull said. "Oftentimes people spiral into Never Never Land when you get beat like he got beat last year here at Chicago. We actually took Monday off last year, but we were working on Tuesday.
"Everybody in the building got together and dedicated ourselves to do what we saw this year. It's nice when you can make that happen with the people that work for you."
And it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone if it happened all over again a little over a year from now.
John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.