Ford working on Bourdais sub for Le Mans

The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team knows the clock is ticking to find a replacement for Sebastien Bourdais at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Frenchman, a first-time winner last June in his home town with the class-winning Ford GT GTE-Pro entry shared by Joey Hand and Dirk Muller, is out for the rest of the year as he recovers from a brutal crash on Saturday while attempting to qualify for the Indy 500.

With pre-race practice coming up in just a matter of week at Le Mans, and the race less than a month away, identifying a substitute for Bourdais has become a new priority for FCGR.

"We don't have anybody at this point lined up, and out of respect to Sebastien, we'll give it a couple of days," team managing director Mike Hull told RACER.

Although there are many candidates to consider, the search could be rather academic. RACER continues to hear CGR IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan, who raced with the FCGR team earlier this year at IMSA's Rolex 24 at Daytona, is atop the list of candidates to step in for Bourdais. Provided the 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner gets the nod, he would make his first start at the legendary French endurance race on June 17.

"We don't have a dedicated reserve driver, but our expectation is we'll have a driver of merit who represents everything that Sebastien Bourdais has brought to this organization," Hull said. "His replacement will have big shoes to fill, but we will help them in every way possible to contribute immediately to the success of the Ford program."