Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Dixon joins with CART’s Ganassi

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

The CART Fed Ex Championship Series resumes this weekend in Milwaukee with a slightly different look after a monthlong layoff for the Indianapolis 500.

Scott Dixon, the 2001 CART Rookie of the Year, has joined Target/Chip Ganassi Racing for the remainder of the season and will join drivers Kenny Brack and Bruno Junqueira on the three-car team.

The 21-year-old Dixon moves to TCGR from PWR Championship Racing, which two weeks ago announced that it was parking one of its two cars, driven by Oriol Servia, because of a lack of sponsorship. PWR team owner Bruce McCaw now is expected to field a car this weekend for Servia.

"There is no question that Scott is one of the most talented drivers in open-wheel racing today," Ganassi said. "One look at his resume and his performance on the track speaks for itself. He has proven that he can win races and championships, which is the reason why we signed him.

"Our goal this year is to win the CART championship and Scott gives us another legitimate shot of reaching that goal."

Last year, Dixon became the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing history when he won at Nazareth Speedway in his third career CART start. The New Zealand native had one other podium finish -- a third-place showing at Milwaukee -- and finished eighth in the championship.

"Its great to be a part of Team Target," Dixon said. "This team has shown over the past decade that they know how to win races and that's what I'm all about -- winning races.

"Its unfortunate that things didn't work out with PWR, but its exciting to stay with the Toyota family. They have committed a lot of resources to building a world-class engine and I can't wait to get up to Milwaukee and begin this exciting new chapter in my career."

A less drastic change has taken place at Team Kool Green, where drivers Paul Tracy of Las Vegas and Dario Franchitti will debut new paint schemes on their respective cars this weekend. The familiar green, gold and white colors that made the cars of Tracy and Franchitti virtually indistinguishable on the track since 1998 will be replaced by colors that reflect sponsor Brown & Williamson Tobacco's new marketing strategy.

Tracy's car now will feature a green and silver paint scheme while Franchitti's car will sport a blue and silver paint job. Tracy, who has had more than his share of run-ins with CART officials over the years, joked that the new paint schemes will benefit Franchitti.

"Its a great look for the team and it's probably a really good thing for Dario," Tracy said. "Now he won't have to worry about being mistaken for me by CART officials ever again."

The Mexico Gran Premio 2002 now will serve as CART's season finale this year.

CART also announced this week that it would shorten the weekend formats for its Chicago and Rockingham, England, races from three days to two.

The CART Grand Prix of Chicago at Chicago Motor Speedway will be held June 29-30. The Rockingham 500 at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, England, will be held Sept. 13-14.

Gaughan qualified at 145.849 mph and earned his best starting position in six races this season. Rick Crawford won the pole with a lap of 150.414 mph.

Harvick's crew chief, Kevin Hamlin, will move to the No. 31 while former Gordon crew chief Gil Martin will switch to the No. 29. Childress made no changes on the No. 30 Richard Childress Racing team for driver Jeff Green.

"Were making this move to help the GM Goodwrench Service and Cingular Wireless teams and all of RCR," Childress said. "The results of our performances this season have not been up to expectations.

"Jeff Green and the America Online team have had the best results so far and are showing a lot of promise for the second half of the year so we're not going to change what they have been building on. But the 29 and 31 teams are down enough in the points right now that it makes the most sense to make some changes between the two."

Going into this weekend's race at Dover International Speedway, Green is 23rd in points, Gordon is 29th and Harvick is 33rd.

Roush, who fields cars in the Winston Cup Series for drivers Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth, was expected to hold a press conference with Larry Hicks, the man who rescued Roush after the crash and is credited with saving his life.

Collins, who races in the featured Trophy Truck division, and Herbst, who competes in Class 1, will put their streaks on the line Saturday when they take part in Round 3 of the six-race SCORE series.