Earnhardt + Ganassi = New Nascar Math

An economy makes for strange bedfellows... NASCAR is no different...

It appears, according to those wire services and other sources that are around, that Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi will be merging their race teams to create a mega-squad for the 2009 season. The new venture will be called "Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing."

The four drivers in play are:

Martin Truex, Junior- He has a fully-sponsored ride for next year from DEI.

Aric Almirola- He does not...

Juan Pablo Montoya ((pictured, thanks chipganassiracing.com))- He's half-sponsored from the Ganassi side of the family.

Some fourth driver to be named later during the Silly Season- This would be to drive the Ganassi #41 car. It has a fully-sponsored car but, obviously, no driver.

The only other questions... other than sponsors and drivers... is what exactly they'll all be driving. DEI fields Chevrolets. Ganassi drives Dodges.

The idea is for all four to drive for the bowtie...

“In this ultra-competitive era of NASCAR, it is necessary to build and sustain the strongest team possible and our combining with the people and equipment at Dale Earnhardt Inc. will help create a strong four-car program for years to come,” said Chip Ganassi. “This is a win-win for both organizations as well as all of our partners.”

The release from Ganassi Racing can be found in black...

Putting The Medal To The Pedal Is A Bad Idea

Busy day in NASCAR... Bad day for Joe Gibbs Racing...
He is pictured ((thanks, nascar.com)) and he is not a happy man...

The short version- Both Tony Stewart and Joey Logano's Nationwide Series cars were found to have magnets on the bottom of the gas pedals of both cars to mess with the dyno test procedures during testing at Michigan International Speedway. They're both out 150 points. Gibbs is out 150 owners points.

JD Gibbs has suspended both crew chiefs, Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff respectively, for the remainder of the 2008 season, and seven crew members have been indefinitely suspended.

From Joe Gibbs, ahem... quote...

"We had come to the conclusion that we would add to any NASCAR imposed penalties with the minimum being suspension for the remainder of the season for those involved, including our two Nationwide Series crew chiefs. There will also be an additional monetary fine beyond the amount announced by NASCAR earlier today, which will be the responsibility of those involved."

The gory details are hyah

And that's not all...

Just as Ganassi Racing is trying to re-sign Reed Sorenson to the #41 car for another contract, his crew chief Donnie Wingo has been fined $25,000 for "actions detrimental to NASCAR." Apparently, Wingo "improperly attached a weight" at Michigan as well.

Whoops... wasn't that why NASCAR brought in Robin Pemberton as their Competition Director in the first place...? To detect these kinds of things...

Remember... it's the pedal on the right...
And some cars were made to do things others were not...