What a shakeup, racing in NASCAR is more than just having the talent to drive a racecar, its has to do with having a team owner believing in you and having the best equipment and people behind you and all that has to do with backing, backing from a sponsor. Sponsors just about pay for everything and if you have no sponsor you may find yourself on the outside looking in, that is currently the case for two drivers after Ginn Racing announced there 2007 restructuring plan due to lack of sponsorship, we know something on this was coming.
Ginn Racing has just signed Aric Almirola to share the driving duties in the #01 with Mark Martin effective immediately and his first Cup ride is at Watkins Glen. Almirola will also have to finish his part-time Busch schedule with Gibbs racing. All this in turn moves Regan Smith over to the #14 ride giving Smith a full-time Cup ride starting at Indianapolis. With all of this shakeup, two drivers namely Marlin and Nemechek were released and now looking for work.
Continuing on with Ginn Racing news, they are currently in talks with DEI, yes Dale Earnhardt Inc. about a merger, the two problems in these talks are who is going to run the organization and NASCAR only allows four Cup teams per organization, DEI already has three and Ginn Racing now has two, so what could happen is DEI runs everything with DEI/RCR motors, Ginn brings over the #01 (Martin/Almirola) and #14 (Smith) and DEI keeps the #1(Truex Jr.) and #15 (Menard), that’s four teams and no need to hire another driver. Interesting merger idea and most think that it will happen before Indy, but who knows, DEI-Ginn Racing, interesting ring to it don’t you think.
One note, if that merger happens, it could mean that the #8 will be free and it could go to Dale Jr., just thought, I through that in to the mix for the people over at DEI.
Ginn Racing is talking to several teams about merger.
Looking towards Indy, Terry Labonte is doing just that as it was announced that he would be driving at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen subbing for Michael Waltrip in the #55 NAPA Toyota. Specking of teams, John Andretti will also be at Indy (awaiting a sponsor..) in a new team with the number 08, E&M Motorsports is owned by NASCAR veteran John Carter.
So what about Marlin and Nemechek, no news has come out about Nemechek, but Marlin could return to Morgan-McClure Racing in a possible second car, again there’s that word again sponsor.
I will have to say that that is only the tip of the ice burg in news being announced and rumored on before Indianapolis in two weeks and with Indy looming, the ESPN/ABC Nextel Cup TV package also looms, from here on out both the Busch Series (as they have all season long…) and the Cup series races will be either on ESPN/ABC, I can’t wait to see what’s next on how there coverage looks.
Finally, just wanted to put a cap on last weekend’s Cup race at Chicagoland, what a race and what a move by Tony Stewart, grabbing the victory and climbing the fence for all of the fans in the stands to see, could this be another push for the championship, I wouldn’t count SMOKE out, all he has to do is get into the top 12. See Yeah!
Credit: Used these sources for press releases to write this piece. Autoracingsport.com, Jayski.com, NASCAR.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment