Just a year and change after NASCAR's most popular driver vacated the No. 8 seat, that team is suspending operations thanks to a lack of sponsorship.
Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing will not be taking Aric Almirola and his Chevrolet team any further in the 2009 season after a dismal start has failed to yield more sponsorship dollars, though the team is still actively -- and probably hopelessly -- searching for more backers.
For Almirola, though, it's just a continuation of a string of bad lack in his climb to NASCAR's highest ranks.
Chip Ganassi has found a way to make his team not as pathetic as before and Dale Earnhardt Inc. has found a way to keep grasping at being a relevant Sprint Cup Series team.
That method? Join the two programs together to create strange bedfellows, cut costs and hope that a math equation of subpar plus subpar finally equals something good.
Yep, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates will be teaming up to make a four-car team in 2009.
Two of motorsports' biggest names – Earnhardt and Ganassi – will launch a four-car team beginning in 2009 through the combination of the motorsports operations of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Inc. (CGRFS). NASCAR stars Martin Truex Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya will drive the Nos. 1 and 42 respectively and future star Aric Almirola will be behind the wheel of the No. 8. The driver of the No. 41 will be named in the near future.
For those of you keeping track at home, this combination of forces currently includes 4 cars, 3 drivers and 2.5 sponsorships. Let's hope that changes before 2009.
Additionally, the overriding rumor is that Chevrolet will be the manufacturer for the organization, mainly because it's very likely Dale Earnhardt would rise from his grave to haunt anything bearing his name that doesn't bear a bow tie. Dodge, Ganassi's current partner, is apparently being shoved out.
After blowing up colorful projectiles in the name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.
With Casey Mears gone from Hendrick Motorsports after 2008, team owner Rick Hendrick doesn't appear to be wasting any time in announcing who will pilot the now vacant No. 5 Chevrolet.
HMS released a statement Tuesday saying that it will announce during a 12:30pm/ET news conference Friday at Daytona International Speedway who will indeed be behind the wheel of the No. 5.
Sources across the 'net are saying that 49-year-old Mark Martin will most likely be introduced as that driver -- in a full-time role for a one-off effort at a Sprint Cup title.
Coincidentally, Aric Almirola was confirmed as the full-time driver of the No. 8 U.S. Army DEI Chevrolet for 2009 and beyond, removing Martin from his part-time role with the team. Martin hasn't driven full-time in Sprint Cup since 2006.
Almirola slid the nose of his No. 8 coming off of turn four into Bobby Labonte on the outside, turning the No. 43 and blocking the track for the rest of the field. Riggs then gets turned by Gordon as the accordion effect takes shape, damaging the nose of the No. 24.
Team driver Jeff Gordon gave the racing media a chance to quit their barking about the HMS performance over the first five races by putting his No. 24 Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.
His seventh-career Martinsville Speedway pole -- yep, that's just one shy of the track record -- came quite solidly after picking up over two-tenths of a second from his fastest practice lap, enough to make his qualifying lap of 19.666 over a tenth quicker than 2nd-place Denny Hamlin.
The pole was Gordon's 65th of his career, 2nd of the season, and yada yada yada. In other words, Jeff Gordon is in normal form at Martinsville this weekend and barring a large concrete block hitting the front end of his car, he's gonna be tough as nails on the .526-mile track.
He went from having no Nextel Cup ride, to having a third-rate Cup ride to possibly taking over what is now the most popular Cup ride on the circuit.
According to Marty Smith, DEI might solve their "too many drivers not enough cars and lack of a new high-caliber driver to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr." with the most obvious solution: putting veteran Mark Martin behind the wheel of the #8.
"If there's anyone that would represent Dale Earnhardt Inc. and what the No. 8 means to this company it would be Mark Martin."
Martin doesn't want a full-time Cup ride, though, so he'd split the season with Almirola, but nothing is written in stone yet.
The car would be sponsored by The Army and presumably this means that Regan Smith could still have a job driving the #01 for 2008 with sponsor TBD. But, it sounds like DEI is keeping their "several options" open and is still looking at Greg Biffle for 2009.
Almirola will make his DEI debut Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in the #01. I don't know what to make of his racing abilities yet since I haven't seen him race too much and he hasn't completed even one full season in any NASCAR series. But I do know he's gonna have to work his a** off to get the same kind of love showered on the #8 car as it gets now.
Regan Smith is disappointed that he won't be starting his full-time Nextel Cup career this weekend at Indy, but the young'n is being smart about what he says out loud and that's wise, because all hope is not lost. Yet.
"I'm not worried, I'm not upset, I'm not frustrated. For me, I was extremely disappointed. On Monday, I was planning on going to the Brickyard and starting my full-time Cup career and getting to start it at one of the biggest venues that you could possibly start it at. I was extremely excited about that and looking forward to that. Then on Tuesday, things changed and [I] found out I wouldn't be racing [there]. I was disappointed from a personal standpoint."
I'd be a little more than disappointed--I'd be pissed after getting dissed like that. He's handling things a lot better than some drivers would and way better than I would. DEI hasn't even had the courtesy to sit down with him and discuss his future yet.
When Tony Stewart announced on his radio show in February that without Dale Earnhardt Jr. DEI will become a museum, many race fans agreed.
Others thought he was putting the nail in Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s coffin prematurely.
None--that I'm aware of--thought that DEI headquarters, aka The Garage Mahal, would literally become a museum overnight, but alas that is exactly what is happening.
That's the word coming from inside DEI this afternoon.
Tim Packman, former website editor of www.daleearnhardtinc.com, was a guest on Dave Moody's show this afternoon and said that DEI has finalized its merger with Ginn Racing. Under the deal, the #13 team's owner points will be transferred Paul Menard to lock him into the field.
Mark Martin will drive the #01 in Indy as planned and will presumably finish the season splitting with Aric Almirola, who just signed with Ginn.
The #14 team's owner points will reportedly be sold to Furniture Row Racing to lock Kenny Wallace in.
Ginn Racing's decision to cut veterans Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin was "sponsor driven." I suspect that the majority of fans accept that. That doesn't mean we to have to like it. And we don't:
Both Marlin and Nemechek are among the most popular drivers in the Nextel Cup garage. When word of their firings became public yesterday, internet message boards lit up with comments critical of Ginn Racing. Ginn's own Fan Forum was shut down late Tuesday, after fans clogged it with scathing criticism of the team.
Where is the respect for our elders? It's hard not to be critical of a team firing two veteran drivers maintaining position in the top 35 in owner points in the middle of the season. But the move is far from surprising--with change in ownership usually comes a change in key personnel.
Just a year and change after NASCAR's most popular driver vacated the No. 8 seat, that team is suspending operations thanks to a lack of sponsorship.
Chip Ganassi
With 
So what's all this talk about a drought for 
It's been quite a month for 
Regan Smith
When Tony Stewart announced on his radio show in February that without Dale Earnhardt Jr. DEI will become a museum, many race fans agreed. 
That's the word coming from inside DEI this afternoon. 
Ginn Racing's decision to cut veterans Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin was "
