If teams are talking to others in the garage area about merging, the owners and executives weren’t talking about it Sunday in the Sprint Cup Series garage. “I can save you a lot of time here – I can’t talk about any of this,” said Chip Ganassi, co-owner of Chip Ganassi Racing at Phoenix International Raceway. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, but I can’t talk about all this stuff.” Ganassi’s team reportedly has been in talks with Petty Enterprises and Dale Earnhardt Inc. – two teams that also have reportedly been in discussions with each other. Petty Enterprises [#43, #45] CEO David Zucker politely declined to talk about any merger possibilities. DEI [#01, #1, #8, #15] President Max Siegel wasn’t at the race track. “We are having multiple discussions about ways to sustain a strong racing program,” Siegel said via e-mail. “We will make an announcement about our future plans in the next two weeks.” Hall of Fame Racing [#96] and Wood Brothers Racing [#21] also have been mentioned as potential candidates for mergers. “We’re working hard to make sure that we’re [here and competitive] – that’s what we’re working hard to do,” Hall of Fame Racing co-owner Tom Garfinkel said. “I hesitate to put a timeline on it because it’s not all within my control.” Bill Davis Racing [#22] said Saturday that he thought he had a potential merger done but it didn’t look like it would happen. Robby Gordon [#7] said his team is not involved in any of the merger talk.(SceneDaily)(9-10-2008)
