Director of Dodge Motorsports Mike Accavitti told Sirius NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway Tuesday that Chip Ganassi Racing will race Chevrolets as part of its recent merger with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Accavitti’s announcement was the first public admission of an anticipated manufacturer change by the Ganassi team. (Sirius NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway) AND The new Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team will run Chevrolets and work out of the Chip Ganassi Racing shop, a team spokesman confirmed. The team still has not named a driver nor a crew chief for the #41 car nor has it named a crew chief for the #8 car driven by Aric Almirola. It also still needs sponsorship for Almirola and a half-season sponsorship for #42-Juan Pablo Montoya. The new organization resulted from a merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing, which was announced in mid-November. Neither the shop location nor the engine package is a surprise. The Ganassi team has been a Dodge organization since 2001, the first full season after Chip Ganassi bought a majority interest in Sabco Racing from Felix Sabates. Dodge had a contract with Ganassi at least through 2009, but Dodge officials had indicated that they would let Ganassi out of its commitment if it was in the best interest of the team.(SceneDaily)(12-16-2008) UPDATE: The newly merged Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Team is keeping busy early in the offseason with the relocation of two of its cars to another shop. The cars for Martin Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola’s teams will be moving from the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. West shop to the Ganassi Racing shop in Concord, NC. “We’ve moved our equipment and we’re going to run out of Ganassi’s shop in Concord,” Truex Jr. said. “Things are moving along. We’ll just have to wait and see, but so far things have been going pretty well.” The move will combine the DEI teams with Ganassi’s #41 team and #42 team, of Juan Pablo Montoya, in the state-of-the-art 183,000 square-foot facility, which opened its doors in 2003. “Bono (Kevin Manion, Truex Jr’s crew chief) and Juan Pablo’s crew chief Brian Pattie are good friends, they’ve been for a long time and they’re really excited to work together,” Truex Jr. said. “I’m excited about that. So far everything seems to be going pretty smooth.” Sponsorship still needs to be set for some of the cars, including Montoya’s, which only has 19 races set with the Wrigley Chewing Gum company. As for Almirola, the search for sponsorship is still on after the U.S. Army departed the team to head to Stewart-Hass Racing in 2009. “We’ve got several sponsors that we’ve been talking to and we’ve been giving tours of the shop and wining and dining them,” Almirola said. “We’ve got several people interested so that’s good news, but, just nothing set in stone right yet.” The Ganassi cars will make the switch from Dodges to Chevrolets, which is the same manufacturer DEI has fielded since its existence. The team will still utilize engines from Earnhardt-Childress Technologies. “We’re continuing to get our motors from the Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies, which has been really, really awesome,” Almirola said. “Our motors last year were really, really good every weekend. It’s not very often you get a race car driver not complain that he wants more motor. We did not struggle for motor at all this past year.”(RacingOne)(12-17-2008)
