INDIANAPOLIS—Chip Ganassi said Friday he doesn’t believe he’s the right car owner to help Danica Patrick move to NASCAR, and he advised the driver to accomplish her goals in IndyCar before switching formulas.

Ganassi, who owns race teams in IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am, was one of the few car owners with the ability to offer Patrick a slow transition into stock cars that also allowed her to stay in open-wheel racing. But speaking before NASCAR practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he said he’s not the right car owner for her potential move.

“My counsel to her was she’s pretty close to making that last step in IndyCar racing, and she could easily do that in the next three or four years and still do [NASCAR],” Ganassi said.

Patrick is in the final year of her three-year IndyCar contract with Andretti-Green Racing.

In other auto racing news, Jeremy Mayfield is back under suspension for a failed random drug test after an appeals court ruled in NASCAR’s favor Friday, issuing a stay on the injunction that gave the driver the right to return to the race track.