Target Chip Ganassi Racing

The cast: Drivers – Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. Chief engineers – Eric Bretzman (Dixon), Chris Simmons (Franchitti). Race strategists – Mike Hull (Dixon), Chip Ganassi (Franchitti).

Twitter: @scottdixon9, @DarioFranchitti, @TCGRTeams

The cars: No. 9 Honda-powered Target Chip Ganassi Racing (Dixon), No. 10 Honda-powered Target Chip Ganassi Racing (Franchitti).

Snapshot: Franchitti’s brother Marino and wife Holly recently welcomed their first child, Luca.

The stats: Dixon finished third in the standings, supported by two victories and nine top-10 finishes overall. … Started season with runner-up finishes in three of the five races and then won at Belle Isle. … Led a series-high 456 laps in nine races. … Posted three podium finishes, including win at Mid-Ohio, in final four races. … Franchitti won his third Indianapolis 500 and finished seventh in the standings. … He posted six other top-10 finishes and earned three consecutive poles. … He had a six-race streak of qualifying on the front row. … He earned podium finishes in two of the final three races. … He followed Indy 500 victory with runner-up finish to Dixon at Belle Isle after starting 14th. … He enters 2013 with nine consecutive top-10 starts.

The gist: Dixon, the longest-tenured driver for Target Chip Ganassi Racing (joined in 2002 CART season), will team with Franchitti for a fifth consecutive year. They have combined for six series driver championships in the past decade. “How do you bet against those guys going into the season?” team owner Chip Ganassi said. Both drivers (Franchitti will turn 40 in May and Dixon will turn 33 in July) are moving up the charts of the Indy car record book.  Franchitti is tied with Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy for seventh with 31 victories. He’s also tied for eighth with Dixon and Helio Castroneves with 29 runner-up finishes, is tied for fifth with Bobby Rahal and Al Unser Jr. with 88 top-three finishes, is tied with Will Power for eighth with 29 poles and is eighth in top-five finishes with 112. Dixon is tied with Rick Mears for 10th with 29 victories.

They said it: “The last few years (I’ve) been strong; since ’07 I’ve finished in the top three,” Dixon said. “Last year was decent; we had lots of ups and downs. We (had five DNFs) and we had our thing (penalty) at Milwaukee and I stepped on my toes at Texas, and we only lost the championship by 35 points. If we fix those two issues, we should be looking good. Reliability and a little bit of consistency are needed (to contend for his third title).”

Added Franchitti: “We have prepared the best we can and with the Target team. We have an excellent team behind us and Honda has done a lot of work with the engines over the winter. Although the car may look the same outside, underneath there will be a lot tiny details that will be different and hopefully give us an increase in performance. My goals are another championship and another victory in the Indianapolis 500, and we are doing everything possible to achieve that.”