Chip Ganassi had driven in the IndyCar World Series but had his career cut short by a crash at Michigan in 1984. In 1989 he joined Pat Patrick as co-owner for Emerson Fittipaldi's Marlboro IndyCar team, which won the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Championship that year. When Patrick changed his mind about retirement but honoured the sale, Ganassi took over the remaining assets — including the 1989 Penske chassis — and renamed the operation Chip Ganassi Racing. He signed former Formula One driver Eddie Cheever and raced full-time in the IndyCar World Series with Target as primary sponsor.
In 1992 Ganassi expanded to a two-car effort for the Indianapolis 500, adding Arie Luyendyk. Michael Andretti joined for 1994, immediately after his failed Formula One transition, and scored Ganassi's first IndyCar victory at Surfers Paradise on the opening race of that season. The team then rose to the top of the CART series through the mid-decade, winning four consecutive championships: Jimmy Vasser in 1996, Alex Zanardi in 1997 and 1998, and Juan Pablo Montoya in his rookie season of 1999 — making Ganassi the first car owner to win four consecutive CART championships.
In 2000, Ganassi became the first CART team to break ranks and return to race in the Indianapolis 500, part of the rival Indy Racing League. Montoya dominated the race and also became the first driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the Michigan 500 in the same year since Rick Mears in 1991. Despite leading the series with 867 laps led and seven pole positions, mechanical failures limited Montoya to three wins and a ninth-place championship finish, as a switch from Honda to Toyota proved costly.
Ganassi moved to the IndyCar Series full-time in 2002. Scott Dixon — a midseason addition in 2002 — was paired with Tomas Scheckter for 2003; Dixon won three races and the series championship. Dan Wheldon, signed from Andretti Green Racing, partnored Dixon from 2006, and the team switched to Honda engines and Dallara chassis that year. Dixon took four wins in 2007; the 2008 season yielded the championship for Dixon again, with Wheldon finishing fourth overall.
Dario Franchitti joined as Dixon's teammate for 2009. The Target Chip Ganassi car driven by Franchitti won the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500 on 30 May 2010. At the 2012 Indianapolis 500, Franchitti and Dixon finished first and second; it was Franchitti's third Indianapolis 500 win and his second with Ganassi. Dixon added a third IndyCar title in 2013, overtaking Hélio Castroneves with four wins in the second half of the year. Franchitti was medically forced into retirement following a crash at Houston that same season.
Dixon won his fourth title in 2015 on a tiebreaker with Montoya, and his fifth in 2018 with wins at Detroit, Texas, and Toronto. In the 2020 season Dixon won the first three races at Texas, Indianapolis, and Road America, then Gateway, to claim his sixth IndyCar championship. Teammate Felix Rosenqvist scored his first win at Road America that year.
For 2021 the team expanded to four cars, with seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson driving road and street courses and Tony Kanaan handling ovals in the No. 48. Álex Palou took wins at Barber, Road America, and Portland to win his first IndyCar championship that year, becoming the first Ganassi driver other than Dixon to win the series title since 2011.
In 2001, Ganassi purchased a majority stake in Felix Sabates' Team SABCO, which had operated since 1989, entering NASCAR as Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. In 2009 he partnered with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. owner Teresa Earnhardt to merge NASCAR operations, running as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates; the Earnhardt name was dropped in 2014. Notable drivers through the programme included Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, and Ross Chastain. In 2021 Ganassi accepted an unsolicited offer from Justin Marks and sold the entire NASCAR operation to Marks' Trackhouse Racing Team.
CGR initially fielded a Lexus-badged Toyota-Riley in Grand-Am, with Scott Pruett and Max Papis as drivers. The team won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2006 with Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, and Casey Mears; in 2007 with Pruett, Montoya, and Salvador Duran; and in 2008 for a third consecutive year. Also in 2008, CGR won their third Grand-Am Championship, with Pruett and Memo Rojas. Rojas was the first Mexican to win a major road racing title in North America. Pruett and Rojas won nine of twelve races in 2010 to take another Grand-Am championship. In the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona, Pruett defeated Dixon by two seconds after a late caution, making Ganassi the first team owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400, and 24 Hours of Daytona within the same twelve-month span.
In 2016, CGR moved to the GTLM class with the new Ford GT in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with Joey Hand and Dirk Müller in one car and Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook in the second.
On 12 June 2015 at Le Mans it was announced that Ford would return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 with a factory-supported four-car effort operating as Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, marking Ford's return to international road racing after an eleven-year absence. The WEC programme ran under Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK via a joint venture with Multimatic Motorsports Europe. Ford achieved podium finishes in the FIA GT manufacturers' category in both 2016 and 2017.
Ganassi announced a Global RallyCross Championship team in March 2015, based in the NASCAR shop in Concord, North Carolina and led by former Ford World Rally Team engineer Carl Goodman. Steve Arpin and Brian Deegan drove M-Sport Ford Fiestas; Arpin earned the team's first GRC win at Daytona in 2016. Ganassi shut the programme down in 2017, with the team's assets acquired by Loenbro Motorsports.
In May 2020, CGR joined the Extreme E electric racing series for its inaugural 2021 season. Sara Price was the first confirmed Extreme E racer and the first female driver in CGR's history. The team raced as GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing from 2022 after a GMC sponsorship deal. CGR recorded their first Extreme E victory on 7 July 2022, with Price becoming the first woman in the organisation's history to drive a race-winning car. The team left Extreme E after the 2023 season.
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