Dario Franchitti...

[fishinchicks]

has lost his ride in NASCAR due to "lack of sponsorship funding" effective immediately, according to NASCAR dot com. Ganassi officials say they are "committed to Franchitti's continued stock-car development."

Interesting that they would shut his team down in the middle of the season.

[jwhjr]

What a shame, and it was going so well for him too

[Neighbor_guy]

Just another guy who made the transition to fast. Should have spent some more time in the support classes first. Most of the open wheelers should.

[lawdog]

That's what Ganassi wants him to do now is drive their Busch car until he finds a sponsor for the 40. I don't think there is anything "interesting" about shutting the team down if you haven't found sponsors for it. I has to be obscenely expensive to run one of these teams.

[fishinchicks]

The part I found "interesting" was the fact that they started him in Sprint Cup at all this year if they didn't have the funding. Why waste the time and resources if you are only going to run for half the year?

[lawdog]

I'm sure they were hoping to pick up a sponsor and I think they had a few one offs or smaller packages on that car didn't they? I think I remember Fastenal being on there if I remember right...

[metrojoe]

I would think it would be better to run half the season than not at all. Does he have a ride for the Nationwide series?

[fishinchicks]

That's the thing. Although he hasn't run a full schedule, he has a ride for Nationwide, and they intend on keeping him running there. So why throw the money into a Sprint Cup car, when you can groom a driver in a Nationwide car that you already have sponsors in place for? You could be spending that money on improving your other cars.