Car owner Bill Davis [#22 Toyota] has been open to selling part of his team to an investor – or even more – but all he has to show are “a couple of near misses.” The economy is making it more difficult to close a deal with banks less likely to lend large sums of money. “Money availability seems to be the problem,” he said. With the season coming to a close, Davis is uncertain of his team ‘s future. He started the year with two cars but Jacques Villeneuve was unable to get sponsorship and the second car quickly went away. Caterpillar leaves as sponsor for Dave Blaney’s team to join Richard Childress Racing and Davis hasn’t found a replacement. ” I’m an optimistic person, but I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s pretty tough times out here. There are not a lot of sponsors.”(Virginian-Pilot)(11-9-2008) UPDATE: Team owner Bill Davis said this weekend that a possible merger involving his Sprint Cup Series team has fallen through. Widespread reports in recent weeks had Davis negotiating with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports majority owner George Gillett about a merger or outright purchase of Bill Davis Racing’s Cup operation, with a possible move by Gillett-Evernham to the Toyota camp. Sources told Sirius Speedway this weekend that Gillett has been unable to secure financing for the deal, and that talks have now stalled. Davis did not comment specifically on a rumors of a merger with GEM, but admitted that he thought he had a potential merger done recently, only to have it fall through.(SIRIUS Speedway)(11-11-2008)
