Hall of Fame Racing hoping to finalize sponsorship to avoid cutbacks
Hall of Fame Racing has told its 40 employees that if it does not get more sponsorship for 2009, it will have to lay them off at the end of November until sponsorship is found for its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team next season, team general manager Tyler Epp said today.
Epp said he has partial sponsorship from DLP for next season but needs more to run the entire schedule.
“At this point, I don’t have enough money to run next year, but I feel very good about what I’ve got going on,” Epp said. “We just had a really honest conversation [with the employees]. I didn’t want to walk in the day before Thanksgiving and say, ‘Thanks for the year. Don’t come back after tomorrow.’ ”
Epp said it was unlikely his team – whose ownership group is led by Arizona Diamondback executives Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel – would merge with another team for 2009.
“It’s been a rough year of transition, but that doesn’t change the intent and the model we’re trying to build,” Epp said. “Whenever you merge two different groups, you have to compromise on things, and we don’t want to compromise [certain] things.”
As far as a driver for next year, Epp said he has had talks with at least six drivers whom he would be interested in having for 2009. The team started 2008 with J.J. Yeley until his release with 15 races remaining. P.J. Jones, Brad Coleman, Joey Logano and Ken Schrader drove the car during the final three months of the season.
“I can’t say enough about Ken Schrader and the job he’s done this year,” Epp said. “He’s certainly on the list.”
Epp added that the team most likely will not be an affiliate of Joe Gibbs Racing next season, but he would like to remain with Toyota. He said the team likely would contract a body hanger, and the team also would need to find an engine supplier.
Epp also said the team also is working on extending its lease for the building from Herzog Motorsports. The lease runs through December.
