Coral Gables, Fla. — On Wednesday, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates announced they were “launching a combination of racing operations” for 2009, collectively planning to race four cars in 2008.
According to a press release issued by the two teams, Martin Truex Jr. will drive the No. 1 for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing next season, Aric Almirola will drive the No. 8, Juan Pablo Montoya the No. 42 and a driver to be named later will pilot the No. 41.
Left unsaid were almost all the important details:
• What brand of cars the teams will campaign.
• Whether Ganassi’s crew will supply engines or whether Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies will.
• Whether the team will be run out of DEI’s shops in Mooresville, N.C. or Ganassi’s complex in Concord, N.C.
• Who will be in charge and which executives will remain from the two teams.
• Who will sponsor the No. 8, which has no announced sponsors or the No. 41, which has sponsorship for only half the season.
• And, most importantly, whether Teresa Earnhardt or Chip Ganassi has the final say in the operation of the newly merged organization.
Apparently, most of those questions remain to be sorted out. While it is expected that the new entity will, in fact, campaign Chevrolets, sources close to the situation insist that the two parties have not yet worked out many of the critical details in the agreement.
So why announce it now if it isn’t sorted out? Sources say that DEI’s deal with Bass Pro Shops requires the team to field a minimum of three teams and that if it fails to do so, the sponsor could walk. And in this brutal economy, losing yet another sponsor is the last thing DEI could afford, figuratively or literally.
Rest assured many eyes will be focused on how well the shotgun marriage of Earnhardt and Ganassi actually works out in the days and weeks ahead.
