Robert L Germain, Sr., was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 25th, 1923.
He was raised in Dearborn, Michigan, and his first job was as a tour guide for Ford Motor Company.
Bob served in the US Navy, where he won The American Campaign Medal with two Battle Stars, the WWII Victory Medal, the Phillipines Liberation Medal, and the United States Navy Unit Commendation Award.
He was also a graduate of the University of Michigan, and following graduation in 1947, he joined his father, Warren Germain, when he opened a Mercury dealership in Columbus, Ohio.
That dealership would be the start of Germain Motor Company, which Bob expanded to Florida in 1979, and today is one of America’s largest dealership groups.
Germain Motor Company owns and operates 25 franchises in Ohio, Florida, Arkansas and Arizona with over $1 Billion in annual sales. Germain Motor Company and its many affiliated companies are run by Bob’s three sons, Bob, Jr., Steve and Rick.
File this in the Makes No Sense Department. The co-owner of one of the top teams in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series has hired Paul Tracy to run later this season but the 2003 CART champion still can't get a ride in an Indy car.
A few weeks ago, P.T. tested Todd Bodine's truck at Chicagoland Speedway and impressed Bob Germain enough to get a one-off deal.
"Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown," said Germain, who along with his two brothers owns 19 car dealerships in Ohio and Florida. "He's our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike."
Tracy, who had a few rides in the old Busch series with mixed results, looks at his truck debut as something bigger.
"I figure it's an audition for 2009 with those guys, because I think Todd wants to go to the Nationwide series," said Tracy.
Currently, Germain runs Mike Wallace in the Nationwide series, plus Justin Marks and Bodine in the trucks (along with Chrissie Wallace, Mike's daughter, in selected events), and may be looking to expand.
"We're going to run Chrissie full-time in the trucks next year and we've got another year for sure with Mike (sponsored by Geico)," said Germain. "I know Todd would like to run the Nationwide series and we've got about a dozen different possibilities we'll be looking at. "And running Paul full-time in the trucks is one of those."
I have been writing lately that NASCAR needs to consider offering franchises. My argument is largely that 43 teams a year should get a franchise and everyone else should go Busch racing. The franchised Cup teams drivers would not be allowed to go Busch Racing. That would be one way to end the Buschwacking. It also ends Cup teams having to go home.
I have argued give one year franchises to the top 35 in points from the previous season and fill the last eight slots through a qualifying school. My qualifying school would consist of Florida races leading up to Speedweeks. Races would be run at Homestead, Lakeland, the streets of St. Pete and at Daytona.
It is nice to see a serious writer has his own take on franchising.
Seven years ago, I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Richmond, Va., having breakfast when Ed Shull, who worked with Gatorade’s NASCAR sponsorship program, joined me. As usual, we launched into a broad discussion about the future of NASCAR. After that conversation, I wrote a column about how NASCAR might move toward franchising. Some of the ideas were Ed’s, some were mine and some were the product of our collective noodling over omelets and hash browns.
“One of the issues bubbling under the surface of stock-car racing ... is the question of franchises. Should NASCAR set a limit on the number of teams in the top circuits?
“There are those who dismiss the idea as being totally contrary to tradition, the idea that anybody who wants can try to make a race. But racing hasn't been like that for years. ... Without franchising, a team owner ... gets dimes to the dollar on something he has worked on for a lifetime. That's not right.”
Every word of that is still relevant today, and the basic framework of what we drew up would work even better now. Since I don’t know the ins and outs of the laws that govern such things, “franchise” might not even be the right word. But it’s one we can understand, at least in concept, so I will use it anyway.
NASCAR establishes 50 franchises for the Nextel Cup Series. That’s 50 seats at the stock-car racing grown-ups’ table. Companies – not individual owners like a car owner and his mother, uncle and lawyer – currently with more than one team competing full-time in the Cup Series each get two slots. Single-car teams get one franchise. By my count, that would fill 37 of the available slots – there are 15 full-time teams with two or more cars plus seven full-time single-car teams.
The remaining 13 slots would be sold by NASCAR via sealed bid. Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush could bid for two additional teams since the current maximum is four teams. Going forward, however, no company could own more than three franchises, and nobody now at three would be allowed to move up to four.
Each year for five years, owners pay a fee of $1 million for their first team, $2 million for a second team and $4 million for a third team. After five years, and a maximum payment of $35 million, the owner is fully vested and becomes the outright owner of his or her franchises.
Marlin part-time? Many drivers seem convinced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will accept an offer to drive for Bobby Ginn [Racing #01,#13,#14], even though Ginn, a Florida real- estate developer, is new to the sport, with less than a year on the circuit. Ginn has been spending lavishly to turn the Jay Frye-run Chevy team into a top-flight operation. Driver Mark Martin led the Nextel Cup standings early this season and even after missing three of the year’s 12 races he’s still 15th in the points. Martin’s teammate #14-Sterling Marlin is planning to cut back to a partial schedule, and Ginn said that would open the 14 car and its top-35 exemption for Earnhardt.(Winston Salem Journal)(6-1-2007)
My current take is Jr. to the 14. Jr. has a lot of respect for Coo Coo Marlin and Sterling and would be proud to make the 14 a number that was truly his. Mark and Sterling could share the 01. That leaves Joe Nemechek in the 14. Regan Smith would get the new team. Craig Kinser would move up to the Busch Series.
Bobby Ginn has no problem with a beer sponsorship and is hotly pursuing NASCAR's most coveted free agent. Ginn has room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and has planned to expand to four teams since taking over majority ownership of the team known as MB2 Motorsports last season. The Florida-based land developer said several weeks ago he would pursue Earnhardt, and Ginn Racing has emerged as a viable option through on-track performance by Mark Martin and Ginn's desire to field a winner. Ginn said Saturday he's had "exploratory conversations" with Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, but has yet to speak to Earnhardt himself. He said he never would have taken it this far if he didn't think his organization was a perfect fit.
"If I had no ability to do it, I wouldn't have embarrassed myself or wasted his time," Ginn said. "I believe we can support it and I believe he wants to win and I want to win. You put two people together that are damned determined to get there, that's a combination that has generally led to successes. "I don't want to bring him here, if I had any opportunity to do it, and make him believe he can't win a championship." Jay Frye, general manager at Ginn, is a St. Louis native who once worked for Anheuser-Busch, the parent company for Budweiser. Ginn believes Frye's past relationship with A-B, and Ginn's entertainment ties to the resorts he owns and golf tournaments he hosts makes it a perfect fit. But he firmly believes Earnhardt is the most important part of the puzzle.
"You can build great cars and have great teams, but you've got to have that spark plug that is going to put you in the winning," Ginn said. "To go after a winner, even if we had no chance to get him, it's like asking a pretty girl for a date. You have nothing to lose, you might as well ask. But I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think I could support him."
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