INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart and car owner Chip Ganassi have spoken about teaming up at some point in the future.

Ganassi fielded an IRL car for Stewart two years ago in the Indianapolis 500 and said Friday that partnership began a relationship that could lead to a merger.

Stewart’s current team, Joe Gibbs Racing, offered him a contract extension, but he has yet to look at it.

His deal expires at the end of the 2004 season and there’s been rampant speculation that Ganassi is trying to land him.

“Tony drove for us a couple years ago, and we’ve had an ongoing rapport since then,” Ganassi said. “And we have talked about the possibility of him driving a Winston Cup car for us some day if he ever became available.”

Stewart has repeatedly denied having any contact with Ganassi, and the car owner was not specific about when the two last talked.

The discussion of Stewart’s future has followed him to Indy, his home track, where is he preparing for the Brickyard 400 on Sunday.

Because Gibbs likes to renew contracts before they actually expire – teammate Bobby Labonte re-signed last month – the talks have started with Stewart.

“Any car owner on top of his game would be remiss not to try to talk to him,” Ganassi said. “There’s a big difference between a guy who can win races and a guy who can win championships, and Tony can win championships.”

NASCAR does not have rules prohibiting a car owner from pursuing a driver already under contract, although some owners will wait out of respect until deals are expiring before talking to a driver.

But because contracts can easily be bought out, others are more aggressive. So it’s hard to gauge just who might be currently chasing Stewart.

“We all would want a shot at him,” owner Richard Childress said.

“But we have to wait until his deal is up.”

If he wants to leave Gibbs at the end of 2004, I would think there would be a line of guys trying to talk to him.”

Gibbs is currently negotiating with sponsor Home Depot and crew chief Greg Zipadelli on contract extensions to keep the entire team together past 2004. Those deals are believed to be close to done.

“It’s not been a real pressing issue, because I still have another year on my contract after this year,” Stewart said. “So, for some reason, everybody else is putting a bigger press on that than I have so far.”

Stewart, a former IRL champion, has been with Joe Gibbs Racing since 1999. He has 16 victories and won his first NASCAR title last season. The speculation over his future has swirled through the garage area for the past month or so, and is now involving other drivers and teams. Earlier Friday, Dale Jarrett used a news conference honoring former Brickyard winners to tersely deny speculation that he would leave Robert Yates Racing to take Stewart’s seat at Gibbs if it opened up.

“I want to put to rest a lot of the rumors that are out there – I am at Robert Yates Racing and intend to be for quite awhile,” he said. “I have a contract through next year. We’ve agreed on 2005 and 2006, in principle.”

If Stewart does leave Gibbs, it could open up a lot of movement among drivers.The natural fit for Stewart would be joining Ganassi, who could enter him in the Indy 500 – the one race Stewart truly covets – every year.

Stewart has not run Indy since Ganassi gave him a car in 2001, focusing on his Winston Cup effort the past two years. But Ganassi said the two spoke the past two years about entering the race.

The car owner and driver both have highly competitive personalities and neither has many interests outside of racing.

“I think he and I both have a respect for what each other does,” Ganassi said. “He is somebody I respect very much, and I think he probably feels the same way about me.”

AP-ES-08-01-03 1825EDT