Earnhardt Ganassi Racing still looking for sponsorship for Aric Almirola

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has suspended operation of the No. 8 NASCAR Sprint Cup team and driver Aric Almirola. The team is still searching for sponsorship in order to get Almirola enough races to make his potential return to the track later in the year a productive one.

EGR President Steve Lauletta said the No. 8 car “will be on the track [again] – trust me,” but had no timetable for that.

“The one-[race], two-[race] situation is not going to be a solution for us,” Lauletta said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We need to find somebody that is willing to step in – whether it’s eight, 10, 12 or 14 races – to get us a nice consistent rhythm going. We’re in a lot of good conversations with people, deeper than initial talks.

“But it’s still a difficult economy and it still takes a lot of time.”

EGR has been searching for sponsorship for a third car since the merger of Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. in November. Almirola was a DEI driver and had been slated to drive the No. 8 car this year. The team eventually paired its Target sponsorship with Juan Pablo Montoya while Bass Pro Shops remained with Martin Truex Jr.

“Every conversation [with sponsors] is different – every reason to do it is different and every reason to not do it or wait is [different],” Lauletta said. “I can’t put my finger on one reason other than, for the 8 in particular, we needed a window that was about two times the size of a window that we had. Many of the partners that came on board … are relationships that we had had or had been working on for six to 12 months.

“The first time we [at Ganassi] met Aric Almirola and started to talk about people for him was in November. It’s a matter of needing to have a little more time.”

Almirola, who had 18 Cup starts prior to this year, is 37th in the standings.

“The goal from the start was to find the company that would believe in Aric as the young talent that he is and our team and everything we have to offer with teammates such as Juan and Martin and the Dale Earnhardt name and what Chip has to offer in IndyCars and Grand-Am – the opportunities that we provide as an organization [are] really, really strong,” Lauletta said. “We were up against a timeline of starting late in November, and we all communicated internally and held hands and said, 'Let’s give this a try and go as far as we can go.'”

The team could not keep everyone from the No. 8 team while it searches for sponsorship, but Lauletta would not say how many people were laid off.

“The goal was to find the right fit for everybody if we could,” he said. “There are several people who worked on the 8 who would remain with us. We told everybody who was on the 8 that we couldn’t keep that I feel like they’re talented enough that they’re going to get snatched up.

“If we were able to put that car on the track, we’d call every one of them first and try to bring them back. … We are all proud of how the 8 guys handled a very difficult situation. They all probably had opportunities where they could go to other organizations before the start of the season and they knew it would be based on how well we could perform on the race track and how well we could find funding for that and they all went into it with the goal of doing just that. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there collectively.”

Lauletta realizes that the No. 8, which Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove for much of his career at DEI, has a fan following.

“We talked about the history of the 8 and we felt like that was something that was positive for us to talk to sponsors,” Lauletta said. “We talked to [team co-owner] Teresa [Earnhardt before the season] about what it would mean because we don’t have the full funding if we had to suspend the operation of the 8, we talked through all that stuff and still felt like we wanted to move forward by putting it on the track and running it and doing what we needed to for as long as we could.”

Not having a third car on the track shouldn’t impact the existing two teams, Lauletta said.

“It sometimes is a distraction for everybody in the organization wondering who’s going to be on the car for an upcoming race or how far can we go with the 8 – that sometimes is a little [more] top of mind for everybody than you’d like,” Lauletta said. “I don’t think it will have a negative effect at all on the 1 or the 42.”

Truex has used old DEI cars this year, while Montoya has run updated Ganassi cars. The teams have compared notes and the first race where both will run similar chassis will be next week at Phoenix, Lauletta said. Montoya is 13th in points while Truex is 24th.

Lauletta also said he had no concerns that having only two teams could impact the future of Truex, who is in the last year of his contract, or sponsor Bass Pro Shops.

“I think we do a really good job of proactively communicating with everybody that is involved in our organization, whether it’s our drivers or our partners,” Lauletta said. “I don’t have any doubt that everybody is on board with what we’re doing and we’re doing it for the right reasons and we’re doing it to improve our performance.”

As far as Almirola, he talked to a potential sponsor Tuesday. If an opportunity came up where Almirola could get some seat time, Lauletta said discussions would be held.

But for now, the focus is to get Almirola in the No. 8 car with a sponsor.

“We had a couple of sponsor prospects with us in Texas and we’ll continue to talk to all the companies we’re talking to about all the options we have,” Lauletta said. “Everybody that has dealt with Aric and the team to date has loved the experience, and so we’re trying to build on that and get somebody to come on board with us for a large enough number of races that we can get the car back on the track.”