FastCar Newsdesk for Daytona, week of July 4th, 2008
Though the top story at the end of this week likely will be the expected announcement of the pairing of Mark Martin and the Rick Hendrick No. 5 car, another big story from the beginning of the week resides at Chip Ganassi Racing. On Tuesday, Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates announced that they were shutting down the #40 Sprint Cup team of driver Dario Franchitti, due to lack of sponsorship. The approximately 70 employees working on the team also received pink slips. This has not been the year the Franchitti dreamed of, after winning the Indy 500 and IRL championship last year.
The season started with a question mark, as sponsor Coor’s decided to leave the team and sponsor the Pole Award. The team has run with an array of sponsors this season, but has not been able to secure a full-time supporter for the season. Franchitti and the team ran poorly from the start of the season, fell out of the Top 35, and thus have failed to qualify for several races. Franchitti also missed races due to a broken ankle he received in a crash in the Nationwide Series race at Talladega.
Ganassi and team co-owner Felix Sabates say that they are committed to Franchitti’s development as a stock car driver and have offered him an opportunity to run the remainder of the season in the team’s Nationwide car, a seat that Franchitti shares with rookie Bryan Clauson. Franchitti says that he is not considering a return to IRL, though Ganassi has offered to field a ride for him there, and he has not made his mind up yet about racing the Nationwide Series.
Tuesday was a sad day for a team that used to be among the elite in NASCAR. In 2002, one year after Chip Ganassi bought the majority of the Felix Sabates operation, driver Sterling Marlin led the points for most of the season, before crashing, sustaining a neck injury, and ending his season. Jamie McMurray substituted for Marlin and won in just his 2nd start, barely beating Bobby Labonte at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Since that time, the team has struggled.
After the 2005 season, Coor’s asked the team to hire a younger driver, so David Stremme drove the car for two sub-par seasons, before Franchitti began his short tenure in the car.
In an interview this week, Sabates said that they expected the Coor’s colors to be on the car this season, but the company backed out late in the season. The short time to search for a replacement sponsor, combined with the downturn in the economy, kept the team from securing a full-time sponsor for the team.
The cost for Cup sponsorship has soared in the past few years, as competitive teams have operating costs of around $20-30 million per year. This price inflation has priced out many sponsors, or caused them to cut back their programs to partial sponsorships.
Lack of sponsorship stretches far beyond Ganassi’s teams, as both Yates cars lack a full-time sponsorship and other teams like Robby Gordon’s No. 7 Dodge and the Gillett-Evernham Dodge of Patrick Carpentier still have races to fill. Rookie Regan Smith has only partial sponsorship for his DEI No. 01 Chevy and small teams like Front Row Motorsports and Furniture Row Racing have been searching for sponsors for years.
There is good news for Yates Racing, as both of its teams are well-within the Top 35 in the points and there is a rumor out now that Paul Menard and his Menard’s sponsorship may depart from DEI and go to the Ford team.
Martin and Henrick announcement today at Daytona; may be full-time
Rick Hendrick and Mark Martin have a press conference at Daytona scheduled for 12:30 p.m. today. They are expected to announce that Martin will be the driver of the open seat in the No. 5 Kellogg’s/Carquest Chevy. Last Friday, Hendrick announced that Casey Mears would not drive the car next season. He is the leading candidate to drive the new No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy next season.
The part of the announcement that is truly unknown is what kind of schedule Martin will run. Martin scaled back to a part-time schedule for the 2007, citing his disdain for the Cup schedule grind and the pressure of vying for the championship as reasons for this. He left his long-time ride in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford for the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevy at Ginn Racing. Ginn Racing merged with DEI in the middle of last season and Martin moved to the No. 8 car this season.
Martin is leaving DEI, because the company wants to run rookie Aric Almirola full-time next season in the No. 8 car. The two drivers currently share that ride. U.S. Army sponsors that car is still deciding whether or not it will return.
Martin has run for Hendrick Motorsports before, racing the No. 5 car in the Nationwide Series. Hendrick shares ownership of that car with HMS driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A full-time schedule is most likely for Martin, as Hendrick has fielded that car full-time since HMS opened and the sponsors likely want to be in the championship hunt. If Martin does run part-time, he likely would share the ride with Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski.
No. 1 car fails Daytona inspection
Another nail in the coffin of Martin Truex Jr.’s future at DEI may be in place, as the No .1 Bass Pro Shops car failed template inspections at Daytona and was confiscated.
This caused the team to miss the first practice for this impound race and Happy Hour was rained out Thursday night. This means the team will be forced to use their un-practiced backup car, which ran in the Daytona 500. Truex obviously was frustrated.
Truex, of course has been in the rumor mill for much of the season, as both he and sponsor Bass Pro Shops are rumored to be leaving DEI. His name has come up as being a possible candidate to fill seats at Penske Racing, RCR, Hass/CNC with Tony Stewart, and others.
Speaking of Cup practice, Daytona 500 runner-up Kurt Busch led the only Cup practice, but lost a tire late in a fuel-mileage run, hit the wall, and will have to use a backup car. In that practice, David Ragan was 4th fastest and Reed Sorenson was 30th.
Gibbs discusses possible 4th team for 2009…Montoya?
If there was not enough going on at Joe Gibbs Racing, there should be now. Speaking to the media, Gibbs said that he and the upper management at the company will discuss the possibility of having a fourth team next year. If they sign off on it, it could happen.
Tony Stewart’s contract situation obviously affects this decision as many expect him to defect from JGR one year before his contract expires, and drive a car and buy into for Hass CNC Racing. A rumor surfaced this week that sponsor Office Depot is ready to join Stewart if the deal does happen. An announcement on this situation is expected at Indianapolis during the Brickyard 400 weekend.
A reporter did ask Gibbs about possible drivers for the speculated 4th team. Juan Pablo Montoya, who had been rumored to be a driver for the No. 20 car, was mentioned as a possibility by Gibbs. Gibbs says that Montoya is still under contract with Ganassi, but could come the operation in 2010, when Stewart’s contract runs out, if Stewart stays with the team through the end of that contract. Joey Logano also is a likely candidate for either the new team or the No. 20 car.
TNT’s “Wide Open” coverage in place again for this year’s Summer Daytona race
TNT’s revolutionary racing and advertising mix that debuted at last year’s July Daytona race resumes this year. Instead of interrupting the race broadcast with commercials, several major sponsors will be featured throughout the coverage, covering the broadcasting bill. The few commercials that will occur will be shown in a split-screen format, the same format that IRL used a couple of years ago. The race airs at 6:30 p.m. on TNT. Check out my Tuesday column on Frontstretch.com for a rundown of that race coverage.
Randy Moss’s dollars purchase half of Morgan-Dollar Truck team
NFL wide-receiver Randy Moss has another sport to interest himself with. This week, he and Morgan-Dollar officials announced that Moss had bought a 50 percent stake in the team. The team uses the No. 46 currently, but will switch to Moss’s NFL number, No. 81. The team will debut at Kentucky with same personnel, including driver Willie Allen, who ran the truck recently at Memphis. Sponsorship for the team has not been announced.
Another Earnhardt racing at DEI in NNS
Kerry Earnhardt will pilot a No. 8 Chevy in tonight’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona. He has never made a start for the company, but holds a position there.
Nice run for Sorenson at New Hampshire
Sometimes being on the hot seat suddenly gives a driver a lead foot. Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 team used pit strategy and benefited from inclement weather, to finish 6th. Sorenson also started in that position, but fell back in the pack as the race wore on. The team moves from 35th to 31st in the Owner’s Points. Sorenson has been rumored to be on the outs at Ganassi, but says that he has been presented with an offer from the team for next season.
David Ragan was having a good day at New Hampshire, as the No. 6 team adjusted on his Ford through the race. He was running in the 13th position, before getting caught up in a wreck at no fault of his own, with teammate Jamie McMurray. He finished 40th, fell to 17th in the points, and is 128 points out of the Chase.
Kurt Busch won the race at New Hampshire, using the same strategy as Sorenson. Michael Waltrip finished 2nd and J.J. Yeley placed 3rd.
Ragan ran well in the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire, finishing 6th, behind race-winner Tony Stewart. He is 5th in the standings. The NNS races at Daytona tonight.
In the Truck Series race at Memphis, Shane Sieg ran in the Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota and finished 9th. Ron Hornaday won the race. They race next at Kentucky in two weeks.
Tune in to the Bellamy Strickland 120 this Saturday, for all of the latest updates from Daytona, this Saturday, from 2-4 p.m., on News/Talk 750 WSB and on wsbradio.com.
