FanHouse JoeNemechek

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Joe Nemechek (above) is renting a race crew for his pit stops and driving a hand-me down Toyota with no corporate logo on its hood with only the No. 87 on its doors.

A year ago the 45-year-old veteran was starting on the front row of the Gatorade Duel qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway, a shoe-in for the Daytona 500.

Joe Nemechek and the Furniture Row Racing team were the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team to see some significant cutbacks as the sport heads into what could be the most anxious and interesting off-season it has ever seen.

Nemecheck, driver of the No. 78 Chevrolet who won the April pole at Talladega Superspeedway, was notified that his team is looking at the high-probability chance of not competing in 2009 -- just days after the team owner indicated the team would compete but with a reduced schedule.

Aside from Nemechek and Furniture Row Racing's situation that very likely saw a number of the team's employees at the shop located in Colorado get laid off this week, NASCAR teams have been letting team members go left and right in the past week.

We saw last week that Dale Earnhardt Inc., and Chip Ganassi Racing merged to a four-car operation and eliminated 116 jobs from the new Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing operation and the news continued in full force after the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last Sunday.

The Sprint All-Star Race XXIV is scheduled for Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. As the teams prepare for the winner-take-all non-points event, stay with the FanHouse all week for plenty of All-Star coverage.

"The Winston" in 2004 was the beginning of the end, you could say, for Kurt Busch at Roush Fenway Racing. The elder Busch from Las Vegas would go on to win the championship that year, but his antics in the all-star race sure didn't make him any friends.

Greg Biffle, his teammate, was likely at the top of the list as he got wrecked by Busch to set off a massive crash in turn one. Watch below at 0:46:



One lap after a restart, Busch got a big run down the frontstretch behind Biffle. By the time they passed the start/finish line, Busch was trying to push Biffle ahead, but instead, lifted Biffle's wheels off the ground. Biffle couldn't hang on, and lost it.

The ensuing crash took out many of the race's contenders including Biffle, Busch, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, and Joe Nemechek.

Biffle's comments afterward definitely summed up Busch's move to the fullest extent.

Now that we've got NASCAR, Sprint, and AT&T to settle their legal differences, it's only appropriate to get another going, right?

A few former employees of Ginn Racing think so. And good for them, too.

Former drivers Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin in addition to former Ginn crew chiefs Peter Sospenzo and Richard "Slugger" Labbe have filed suit claiming breach of contract because Ginn apparently hasn't paid what's due to them.

Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek have sued Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. for alleged breaches of their contracts, which included a base salary of $1.2 million apiece.

The separate suits, filed Sept. 7 in Cabarrus County, N.C., do not specify how much they have been paid or what they exactly are owed.

Ginn Racing and DEI joined forces prior to the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in July. Some folks in the garage area estimated anywhere from 70 to over 120 employees at Ginn were terminated in the merger that lacked in the merge department.

It was essentially a DEI takeover of all things Ginn.

Hopefully the rest of the employees who worked the nine to fivers out of the spotlight are taking action against Ginn as well.

They deserve so much better than an outside real estate mogul buying into NASCAR and failing to realize the massive responsibility of the sport.

A merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing would require an immediate reduction from a total of six cars to four in the Nextel Sprint Cup Series. Eliminating Ginn's cash-strapped #13 and #14 teams seems the obvious answer to some, but it's probably not quite that simple.

The current layout/forecast:

Ginn
#01 - Regan Smith/Mark Martin - current plan is for Smith to run Cup full-time in 2008 and Martin to split season again with driver TBD
#13 - Joe Nemechek - car in top 35, driver expendable (sad but true, not attracting enough sponsor $$)
#14 - Sterling Marlin - ditto

DEI
#1 - Martin Truex Jr. - signed through 2008
#8 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. - leaving, open driver seat for 2008, currently rumored to be going to Kyle Busch
#15 - As long as Menards is on the hood, Paul Menard is probably behind the wheel

I'm sure both teams recognize the value of the owner points so it's obvious that Menard would take over one of the Ginn cars in the top 35, and they could probably still sell the other to another team.

So Ginn Racing didn't close both the #13 and #14 Nextel Cup teams this week, just their Busch team, which amounted to roughly 30 people losing their jobs, save the spotter who was promoted to Cup. But, even though they haven't closed the books, Bobby Ginn seems to have made both team's numbers available on the open owner market, with the likelihood of selling the #13 to the highest bidder.

And what owner might be willing to buy its way into the top 35? Teresa Earnhardt is the leading runner. Paul Menard isn't going to be able to climb his way into the top 35 himself if he can't qualify for a race. DEI's got the cash to compensate. You put it together.

Speaking of DEI's cash ... Budweiser is ready move on next year, but not with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser is reportedly setting their sites on Kasey Kahne now. Score Ray Evernham!

That leaves Junior wide open to Do the Dew, which I think means he would also give up his personal appearances contract with Bud, which is good considering he'll need time for Sony and Adidas now. Wow. Junior really scored on the upgrade of free goods, huh? Also ... look for Junior to give the #14 team's displaced spotter, his buddy T.J. Majors, a shot on the #? Mountain Dew Chevrolet next season. Reminder: Free the #8!

What that means for Kellogg's I have no idea, but about the Kellogg's driver ...

A source tells me that Kyle Busch has already decided on Richard Childress Racing and is expected to take a lot of his crew with him. By a lot, I take it to mean his crew chief, Alan Gustafson (making room for Tony Eury Jr.), and whoever else wants to come along. Maybe the sponsor will follow, too.