With Ganassi Folding the #40 Team, What Will Become of Some of the Others?
July 4, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Image details: LifeLock 400 served by picapp.com
Happy 4th of July, everyone! Along with celebrating America’s independence, since it just so happens to have fallen on a Friday this year, that means you’re also treated to a “special” edition of “Loose in Turn Three”. Along with me as always are Bruce Simmons from “Bruce’s Bits & Pieces”, and, of course, Charlie Turner from “On Pit Row”.
Earlier this week, Chip Ganassi announced that due to sponsorship woes, he was being forced to cease operations on his no. 40 operation, laying off 71 employees in the process and also putting NASCAR rookie, Dario Franchitti, out of a ride for the remainder of the season.
Ganassi has been fortunate to maintain sponsorship on all of his cars to this point in 2008, but there have been several other teams that have struggled with similar situations all season long. Yates Racing is perhaps the most publicized of these stories, running the no. 28 car of Travis Kvapil without a primary sponsor for most of the year, and the no. 38 of David Gilliland’s contract with freecreditreport.com is only for a limited number of races. BAM Racing also had to shut down operations earlier in the year, Bill Davis Racing shoved Jacques Villeneuve out of the series before he ever even got started, and Michael Waltrip Racing is known to have troubles on the horizon.
Q: With the recent folding of Chip Ganassi’s #40 operation due to lack of sponsorship, is this a trend we can continue to expect in NASCAR with other teams that have struggled with sponsorship … teams like Yates Racing?
TZ: I think it is. The economy’s really turned everything upside down, even in NASCAR. Many of NASCAR’s long-term sponsors are starting to see a substantial decrease in profits, which means that they’ve got to start cutting down on their budget in areas like professional sports. Then, on top of that, you’ve got some of the top-tier teams such as Childress and Gibbs with plans on expanding their organizations with an additional car, and before ya know it, there’s just not enough water in the kiddie pool anymore.
Bruce: If the team isn’t performing, the hood sponsor isn’t getting it’s $10 mil of advertising exposure, so yea, we just may see other teams lose sponsors. BAM was trying something interesting with their sponsor packages but then they jumped manufacturers and then suddenly took a break. I guess the sponsor program wasn’t the hit they were hoping it to be.
Charlie: Every indication is that other teams are on the brink of closing shop. Ganassi is one of the organizations that you would think to be stable. Chip may have just missed on a hunch that in Dario he could catch the Montoya lightning again. Regardless they failed with that car. I have a feeling that Yates will survive, but Waltrip could shrink by a car.
Franchitti has stated that he’d like to remain in NASCAR, and Chip Ganassi has since offered Dario the full-time seat in his Nationwide Series entry. No decisions have been made as to what they’ll do from here, but sources indicate that the two plan to meet and discuss Dario’s future going forward.
the Rest of the Discussion:
- Do You Think Kurt Busch Giving up his car points to Hornish hurt the team overall? (Bruce’s Bits & Pieces)
- What will become of Dale Earnhardt Inc? (On Pit Row)
