Sitting 8th in the point standings, Mike Wallace looked forward to arriving in Loudon, NH, and making up ground on the Top 5. Unfortunately, the Germain Racing team raced with heavy hearts, as team owner Bob Germain’s father passed away at 85 years of age in Naples, Florida, on Friday night.
After the green flag dropped Mike, Wallace and the Gecko immediately found themselves in danger when Brad Coleman caught their right front fender, causing damage that the GEICO pit crew would work hard to repair. Also, Mother Nature proved that she has a sense of humor when she provided temperatures in the 80’s on Friday during practice, but on Saturday she provided 64-degrees. This affected the set up of the race car and Wallace battled it all afternoon.
Wallace and the Gecko ran as high as 11th and ran solidly in the Top 15 for the balance of the afternoon. Consequently, when the checkered flag waved under overcast skies, Wallace recorded a 15th place finish. While the finish is not what the GEICO team was hoping for, it still kept Wallace in the 8th position in the point standings.
“We had a good points day, but we were hoping to get another Top 5 for GEICO and Sport Clips,” Wallace said. “It was unfortunate to learn of Bob’s (Germain, team owner) father passing away on Friday night and we are keeping the Germain family in our thoughts and prayers. We will be making the trip to Naples this week to attend services and pay tribute to such a great man.”
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Daytona Beach, Florida, which is the site of Wallace’s last win. On July 2, 2004, Wallace passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Jason Leffler coming out of Turn 4 to hand GEICO and Sport Clips their first NASCAR victories.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Ginn Racing is not broke. Ginn Racing will be racing all three Cup teams at Chicago Speedway next weekend. Ginn Racing is not selling off the Nos. 13 or 14 for points to other teams. However, Ginn Racing did let go of seven people earlier in the week, is expected to discontinue a full-time effort in the Busch Series after Daytona and is currently revisiting preseason talks of a merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc.Bottom line: Ginn expanded too quickly and it was time to cut the fat. At least Ginn could afford to do that.
Ginn GM Jay Frye has been forthcoming with the media. When the season started he expected to have three fully-funded race teams. That didn't happen. Panasonic didn't come through. Ginn Resorts was the sponsor of record on both the Nos. 13 and 14.Even without outside funding, Sterling Marlin and crew chief Slugger Labbe accomplished what no other team outside the top 35 in 2006 owner points could do — qualify for the first five races. Still, Frye humbly admits he'd be better off with two strong teams rather than three diluted squads.
A Ginn-DEI marriage provides positives for both organizations. Ginn can benefit from DEI sponsor and marketing relations. DEI acquires the long-needed space it's desired along with owner points for Paul Menard from the No. 13. With the newly formed DEI/RCR engine development program, there would be eight cars to pull data from instead of six. RCR is currently putting the pieces together for a fourth team as well. Part of Hendrick Motorsports success stems from the amount of feedback it receives from providing engines for nine teams. DEI/RCR hopes to make similar gains. At the least, DEI could pick up one team from Ginn and continue a satellite partnership in similar fashion to Hendrick and Haas.
NASCAR's top-35 rule protects its strongest organizations. That hasn't been a problem for Ginn — yet. The Car of Tomorrow, that was billed as the great equalizer, has widened the gap between the three tiers of Nextel Cup. Perhaps this was the simple solution to weed out the weaker teams if NASCAR moves to franchising in 2009.
Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, which rents space from Ginn as an East Coast satellite, has been rumored to be running Marlin on a limited schedule next season but would like to use the affable Kenny Wallace to garner new sponsorship for the 78 and move Furniture Row to a second team. Ginn has denied Marlin's owner points would be part of that package.
However, there was pre-season talk of a DEI/Ginn merger, and that story has heated up again. Keep in mind the "four" factor. If NASCAR contracts to 44 franchised teams and 11 owners - DEI/Ginn - on the radar screen. Could be expedited quicker by Ginn merger.
Lee sounds a little confused. She says Ginn is not selling off numbers for owner points. Then she says in a merger with DEI, that company would acquire the owner points from the 13 from Ginn for the 15.
Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time the Sporting News/Fox writer got it wrong. She better hope I don't win the NGS contest. I can write about NASCAR better than her. And that would have to suck for her. 'Cause as all of y'all know, I ain't worth a damn.
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