Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan to join Chip Ganassi’s team in 2014

Veteran IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan, winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500, next year will join one of the sport’s strongest teams, Chip Ganassi Racing.

Ganassi announced that it signed the 38-year-old Brazilian to a multi-year deal to become the team’s fourth driver.

The others are four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, two-time title winner Scott Dixon and Charlie Kimball, a Camarillo native who won his first career IndyCar race this year at Mid-Ohio.

“I couldn’t be happier to join this organization,” Kanaan said in a statement. “They are the gold standard that all IndyCar teams measure themselves against.”

Kanaan, who currently drives for the team KV Racing Technology, has 16 IndyCar wins in his 15-year career and was the 2004 series champion. He’s 11th in this year’s title standings.

Separately, Ganassi said his team next year would switch to Chevrolet engines from Honda. The NASCAR team that Ganassi co-owns, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, already uses Chevrolet engines.

“There are a lot of synergies that we will be able to realize in working with the same manufacturer across the two series,” Ganassi said.

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