Chip Ganassi Racing withdraws No. 40 Dodge, Franchitti from all-star race
With driver Dario Franchitti still on the mend, the unsponsored No. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing team will withdraw from the NASCAR Sprint Showdown non-points event, which is scheduled for Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a Chip Ganassi spokesman confirmed.
Franchitti, the defending Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series champion, broke his left ankle in a crash during the Nationwide Series race April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway. The team has used David Stremme, Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin in his place.
With the car not having sponsorship for the all-star event and with Franchitti still nursing the injury, the decision was made to withdraw. Franchitti will be re-evaluated to see if he can drive in the Coca-Cola 600 next week.
The team will have sponsorship from Nintendo's newest video game, "Wii Fit," along with Target, at Charlotte. It also cannot afford to miss the race or it would be in danger of not making future events where qualifying is rained out. The team currently is 38th in owner points.
