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November 12, 2008
DEI, Chip Ganassi Racing to Merge into Earnhardt Ganassi Racing
To the horror of many fans the Associated Press is reporting that DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing have (finally!) agreed upon a deal to merge. The new organization will be called Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and feature a driver line-up of Martin Truex, Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, Aric Almirola, as well as another unknown driver. One of the sticking points to this merger happening is that both DEI and Ganassi are with different manufacturers, but it appears that they've agreed to align themselves with Chevy next season. Given the rumors of Dodge pulling their support for their Cup teams I can't say I'm surprised that they opted to go with Chevy. Although that manufacturer has plenty serious issues of their own, they've had more recent success in Cup.
Many fans are absolutely freaking out over this news because they view it as the end of DEI. Some are going so far as to compare it to Dale Earnhardt dying again and saying that Junior and his sister must be horribly upset that DEI is being merged with another organization instead of being sold to them. I say - get a grip!! Either DEI merges or partners with another organization or there was a chance they could fold given their sponsorship issues. Would it be better if the Earnhardt name ceased to be on a Cup organization rather than make a move to keep the company going? Good thing for Junior and his sister that Teresa didn't sell the company to them otherwise they might be facing some of the same issues DEI and other organizations are right now in relation to sponsorship. Junior can't find sponsorship for his Nationwide team, just exactly where would he find sponsors willing to spend even more money on the Cup level? And there is most certainly no comparison between someone's death and two organizations trying to work together for the future.
It's been rumored that DEI has no choice but to enter into some sort of merger or partnership because there's a clause in Truex's contract that requires them to field at least three teams next season otherwise his contract becomes void. Some fans are hoping that this merger/partnership doesn't happen so Truex will become a free agent, but I'd say that both Truex and his fans should be hoping that it happens. If Truex's contract becomes nil and void just exactly what team is he going to race for next season? There are very few open rides and none of them are with top-tier competitive rides. Some will say that of course a sponsor will step up to sponsor Truex, but I don't see sponsors running to get involved in Nascar right now - even Stewart-Haas Racing seems to be having trouble nailing down all the sponsorship they need for next season. So at this point, Truex's best bet is probably to stick with DEI.
I think that this merger is a good one for both organizations. A driver line-up of Truex, Montoya and Almirola is a pretty strong one. Truex and Montoya are capable of winning races and Almirola, while still developing as a driver, has shown that he has some talent behind the wheel. It's been rumored that Scott Riggs might be talking with DEI about a ride and that he may have sponsorship from State Water Heaters to bring with him so I would guess that there's a good chance that he'll get the 4th car, though I think A.J. Allmendinger would be a better choice.
Posted by silverdsl at November 12, 2008 04:09 PM
Comments
But don't you know Deb, if Teresa had given Jr 51% of DEI, things would just be wonderful fantastic and awesome? But I thought the same thing as you about things not being any better with Jr at the helm, based on the situation with his NW team.
I couldn't figure out why the Jr fans were hoping for the demise of DEI to void Truex's contract either. But I think they honestly believe that Stewart (because he's a friend of Jr's) would just snap his fingers and make a 3rd team appear for him (because he's also a friend of Jr's, too) and that Truex and the BPS sponsorship would go live happily ever after at SHR. LOL! More than likely, Stewart would just snap up the BPS sponsorship for the partial program he is still missing and leave Martin flapping in the breeze.
It will be interesting to see what they do with the ECR engine program as I have read that Ganassi is keeping his engine program.
Posted by: Carol at November 13, 2008 11:36 AM
Stewart is very smart not to have gone with a third team. For one thing that car would have no owners points - why would Truex leave a team where he was racing decent and locked in for a brand-new team with no points where it's an unknown as to how competitive they'd be? And just exactly how was Bass Pro Shops going to get out of their contract with DEI? Usually sponsors can only opt out for performance related issues and the performance of that car hasn't been that bad. But you're right some were under the impression that Stewart was a magic man!
That Junior doesn't yet have sponsorship for his Nationwide team and Tony doesn't have full sponsorship for his second Cup car in spite of them both having talented drivers should be a wake-up call for sure for some people about the state of things.
Posted by: silverdsl at November 13, 2008 01:23 PM