Mark Martin driving for DEI

[LMITOUT]

Apparently Ginn Racing and DEI have merged and Mark Martin will be driving under the DEI company name this weekend. They called it a merger on TV, but it sounds more like a buyout by DEI if this is the case.

Menard will get the #14 points to lock him into the race and the #13's points may be sold to Kenny Wallace (Furniture Row) to lock him in.

[JohnMickish]

They didn't say who's engines they where going to use, Ginn leases engines from Hendrick and DEI has their deal with RCR. It also said that DEI would be moving into Ginns shop.

Hey, dosen't Ginn get their chassis from Hendrick as well?

[LMITOUT]

I would find it hard to believe that there isn't some sort of stipulation in Ginn's contract with Hendrick about this and letting DEI (or any other race team for that matter) get ahold of a Hendrick engine/chassis.....obviously Ginn wasn't getting the Grade A stuff that the Hendrick team runs anyway.

All the signs point to DEI acquiring Ginn. DEI had said that if they wanted to go to a fourth team they'd have to get a new shop anyway, so moving over to Ginn's shop just made sense if they have the room.

[JohnMickish]

I have to agree, it totally made sense and was probably alot cheaper this way. They said that they didn't know what was going to happen to Regan Smith, the future of the team and didn't Eric Almarola just get released from Gibbs to go drive for Ginn?

[LMITOUT]

Yeah, I also read over on ESPN that Smith could share seat time with Martin, since I don't believe Martin is running the full remainder of the schedule.

[OUTDOORNUT]

So does that make Mark the leading canidate for the #8 next year? What does this do for the talks of Kyle heading to DEI? Has to be one of the craziest Silly Seasons to date.

[harvey lee]

Seems to get better or crazier evry season. Always something to look forard too.

[TNFL]

Quote:

---

obviously Ginn wasn't getting the Grade A stuff that the Hendrick team runs anyway

---

Wasn't MM leading the points standings until he took a break?

Maybe the Ginn drivers aren't as talented?

[JohnMickish]

Not all the news is good news on this merger.

Ginn/DEI merger costs 124 jobs: There were 124 employees who lost their jobs following the recent Ginn Racing-Dale Earnhardt Inc. merger, former Ginn employee Slugger Labbe said Friday. Labbe was the crew chief for the #14 car driven by Sterling Marlin, but was laid off on Tuesday night along with most everyone associated with his team and with those on the #13 team which fielded cars for Joe Nemechek. Previously, Ginn had dissolved its Busch Series team. Labbe was at Pocono Raceway meeting with teams and looking for work after spending much of the week calling on behalf of his former crewmen. He estimated that 30 of those former Ginn employees have landed jobs so far, but acknowledged it was a small percentage.(SceneDaily.com)(8-4-2007)

[LMITOUT]

The nature of business and not surprising.