Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will field 3 full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup cars

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing President Steve Lauletta says that the organization will field three full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup teams.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

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CONCORD, N.C. – Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will field full-time Sprint Cup teams for Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola, team president Steve Lauletta said Tuesday.

Montoya will have sponsorship from Target on the No. 42 and Truex will have most races sponsored by Bass Pro Shops in the No.1, Lauletta said. Sponsorship for Almirola in the No. 8 will be announced at a later date. The team also plans a fourth car, with driver and sponsor to be announced, for at least the Daytona 500 and possibly for additional races.

The team originally had hoped to run four full-time cars this year following the merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing.

Wrigley's, which had been slated to sponsor the Montoya car for half the season, will be an associate sponsor, Lauletta said.

“We’re still facing a very difficult sponsorship environment and a very difficult economic environment,” Lauletta said. “And so the decision-making takes longer. … We took on this partnership and had about a year’s worth of work to do in two months and it’s taken us until today to get to the point of where we’re ready to say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’

“The reason it has taken us until today is because it’s a lot of hard decisions and it’s a lot of work and a lot of moving parts.”

Lauletta stressed that Almriola, whose status seemed questionable without sponsorship, will run the full season and never was in danger of losing his ride. He said Almirola's sponsorship would come from multiple sponsors.

Last year, Ganassi suspended operations of a team after sponsorship fell through for Dario Franchitti, but Lauletta indicated that Almirola could run without sponsorship.

“You’ve got to keep in mind that sponsorship is a piece to the puzzle,” Lauletta said. “It’s a pretty big piece of the puzzle, but there also are other things that have happened. Look at DEI with the 01 [with Regan Smith]. They ran that car. It had sponsorship. It may not have had a main sponsor on the hold all year, but they ran it all year (last season).”

He did say it was disappointing to lose Bobby Labonte to Hall of Fame Racing.

“We couldn’t commit to him for a full season,” Lauletta said. “We were honest with him to say, ‘Look, if you have an opportunity out there that’s going to put you in a car for a full season – our plan would be to do that – but if you have that opportunity, you’ve got to do what’s right for you.’

“So we wish him the best.”

Lauletta stopped by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Media Tour to talk to media Tuesday. He had addressed shop personnel – he said there are still more than 200 employees – earlier in the day.

Lauletta said that Chip Ganassi will be the primary overseer of the team. Lauletta remains president and Chad Warpula, DEI’s general counsel and executive vice president, will work with the new organization.

“Chip and [team co-owner] Teresa [Earnhardt] are in charge, and Chip, as managing director, is going to be the person making a lot of the day-to-day decisions,” Lauletta said. “The bigger decisions will be with him and Teresa.”

Steve Hmiel, who had worked at DEI before landing at Ganassi, will be in charge of the competition side and Rex Garrett, who was with DEI at the time of the merger, will be in charge of car manufacturing.

Steve Lane, a former crew chief on the Ganassi side, will be the crew chief for the fourth car, Lauletta said. Doug Randolph will be the crew chief for Almirola.

The former Ganassi engine program is no longer producing engines and all the engines will come from Earnhardt Childress Racing Technologies, Lauletta said.