Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and Dale Earnhardt Inc. have entered discussions that could lead to a merger between the two organizations.
Such a union would bring together the Nos. 41 and 42 cars of Ganassi and the Nos. 1 and No. 8 cars of DEI, according to the report.
Juan Montoya drives the No. 42 car, but Ganassi has not named a driver for the No. 41 car. Martin Truex Jr. is the driver of the No. 1 car, and Aric Almirola drives the No. 8, which has not named a sponsor for next year.
So how would a merger with DEI help Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates?
“They have a sponsor for one and a half cars and we have a sponsor for one and a half cars, that makes three cars, doesn’t it?” Sabates said. “The same thing with Petty. They’ve got one car. There are other people out there, too.”
Ganassi has also talked with Petty Enterprises about a possible merger.
What this merger mania is all about is simple—a dramatic shortage of sponsorships. Running a top-flight NASCAR Sprint Cup operation costs $25 million to $30 million a year. In the current economic climate, new money is hard to come by, and some old money is drying up.
Now it appears that Ganassi has only the $22 million Target sponsorship and a 12-to-15 race Wrigley’s sponsorship ... and Juan Pablo Montoya, an ex-Formula One star.
Putting Montoya in a Chevrolet would seem a big-game move by General Motors. But GM is in the midst of potential merger talks of its own with Chrysler, and that has everything about Dodge up in the air.
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