Chip Ganassi founded his team in 1990 from the assets of Patrick Racing, immediately securing Target as primary sponsor. The team's early IndyCar decade was built on CART success: four consecutive series championships with Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997, 1998), and Juan Pablo Montoya (1999) made Ganassi the first car owner to win four straight CART titles. Montoya's dominant 2000 Indianapolis 500 victory was the team's first in that race, achieved while Ganassi was among the first CART organizations to cross back into the rival Indy Racing League for the event.
After transitioning to the IndyCar Series full-time for 2002, the team signed Scott Dixon — a midseason addition to the CART program that year — as its lead driver going into 2003.
Dixon won three races and the IndyCar Series championship in his first full season, immediately announcing himself as a generational talent. His teammate for that year, Tomas Scheckter, struggled and was released. Tony Renna, set to replace Scheckter, was killed in a testing accident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the offseason, casting a shadow over the team before the 2004 season began.
For 2006, Ganassi signed 2005 Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon away from Andretti Green Racing to partner Dixon. The team also switched to Honda engines under the IndyCar series' standardized engine supplier arrangement. The partnership produced consistent results, with Dixon taking four wins in 2007. The 2008 season was the team's strongest to that point, with Dixon winning at Homestead, Indianapolis, Texas, Nashville, Edmonton, and Kentucky to claim the championship. Wheldon won at Kansas and Iowa, finishing fourth overall.
Wheldon did not return for 2009, replaced by three-time champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti of Scotland.
Dario Franchitti's arrival completed the most successful lineup in the team's history. Franchitti had won two IndyCar championships and two Indianapolis 500s before joining Ganassi. The pairing with Dixon delivered four consecutive IndyCar titles: Dixon in 2008, Franchitti in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 with the team in 2010 and again in 2012, when he and Dixon finished first and second at the Brickyard.
Dixon claimed a third title in 2013, with Franchitti narrowly missing a fourth championship before being medically forced to retire following a crash at Houston later that season. Target's sponsorship remained central to the team's identity and visual presentation through this entire stretch.
Without Franchitti, Ganassi restructured around Dixon. Tony Kanaan was brought in for 2014. Dixon won a fourth title in 2015 on a tiebreaker with Juan Pablo Montoya after winning at Long Beach, Texas, and Sonoma. The team switched to Chevrolet engines in 2014 before returning to Honda in 2017.
Target ended its IndyCar sponsorship in 2017. Dixon's fifth championship in 2018, under PNC Bank sponsorship, was built on wins at Detroit, Texas, and Toronto. Ed Jones, signed as Dixon's partner, was replaced after one season by Felix Rosenqvist.
The 2020 season saw Dixon's sixth IndyCar championship, won emphatically with wins in the first three races of the shortened pandemic season. Marcus Ericsson joined from Formula One that year. Alex Palou replaced Rosenqvist for 2021 and won the championship in his first season with the team, becoming the third Ganassi driver since the IndyCar transition to claim the title. Ganassi also expanded to four full-time entries in 2021 for the first time since 2017, with Jimmie Johnson driving road and street course events.
Dixon continued as the team's anchor through subsequent seasons, accumulating wins and adding to his record total.
The team's Indianapolis 500 victories span both eras of its history: Montoya in 2000, then Franchitti in 2010 and 2012, Dixon in 2008 and 2015, Ericsson in 2022, and others across the broader team history, totaling six wins. The Ganassi operation has been a consistent front-row presence at Indianapolis, and the Target-sponsored cars through the 2000s and 2010s were among the most recognizable entries in the field.
The Scott Dixon era transformed Chip Ganassi Racing from a CART powerhouse into the benchmark of IndyCar professionalism. Dixon's six championships make him the most decorated IndyCar driver in history by title count, surpassing A.J. Foyt's four. The team's record in open-wheel racing — 17 total championships across CART and IndyCar — places it among the most successful organizations in American motorsport history. The Target sponsorship years gave the team a visual identity that became synonymous with consistent excellence in the series.