Zippy

I know that they are concerned about Big 3, and I understand that some of the teams are even having some money issues, but is it that bad?

Testing

Ganassi-Sabates and Earnhart racing teams are merging because of a lack of sponsors.
Wow, Nascar is the richest racing circuit in the US and they seem to be having some real issues.

Ganassi Earnhart

tof

wow...Looks like IRL and CHAMP merged just in time. I doubt both would have survived if the economy is really impacting the sport to the degree implied by these articles.

OhioRacer

Read between the lines. They can still test at tracks they don't run the top 3 series at. Example: Kentucky Speedway is often used for testing. At least that's the way I read it.

Tadashi

Wow, a bit shocking to see Ganassi having to merge! He has Target sponsorship. They seem to have alot of money.

And I thought Earnhart was some kind of Nascar "god"

gomarlins3

I don't think Ganassi 'had' to merge, I think he viewed it as an opportunity to have more teams in his stable. Teresa is running DEI into the ground.

gomarlins3

He is/was. It is his 2nd wife Teresa that is killing the organization.

zzziippyyy

Who is earnhart? I know who earnhardt is but never heard of the earnhart guy


Nascar has made these moves not because they are in trouble. They made them to try and keep parity in the series. Some of the multi car big teams have no $ issues what so ever and can afford to test every week at every track if they want to. Some teams do have sponsorship issues and cannot afford to do the testing therefore Nascar by banning it is trying to keep expeditures down to keep parity within the series. Now the problem is Nascar cannot control what happens at un sanctioned and private tracks around the country so the well heeled teams will just be spending the track testing r&D $$ at non-nascar tracks. They money will still be spent and I predict the better teams now will only be that much better later.

You can bet that hendricks and rousch will still be spending millions of dollars on testing this will not slow them a bit.

Zippy

Did I miss something?

In hopes of helping its teams save money, NASCAR has banned testing by its top three series at tracks that host Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman races next year.

**Quote from Autoweek article.

I have been reading for the past couple of days that there are issues with money,.

In another sign of the economic hardship hitting the nation and the difficulty remaining competitive in auto racing in such an environment, Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced they will join forces next year.

**mLive.com

Tough economic times have led Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to merge and form a four-car team in 2009.

Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing, both unable to secure sponsorship to fully fund their teams in 2009, will merge to form a four-car operation.

** ESPN

These articles have been flying about for the past couple of days.

Zippy

Carmen, I understand, but I think that they are trying to keep competition in line for the tier 2 teams, and maybe even the tier 1 teams too. Who would have thought that Ganassi and DEI would have issues with sponsorship.

OhioRacer

Agreed Ken. But as the other zippy said, the big money teams like Hendrick Motorsports will test at Kentucky and other tracks. I think this will have the effect of giving them an even bigger edge and will do more harm than good as far as leveling the playing field. Like every other major sport, money will eventually ruin NASCAR.