Indycar return for Franchitti unlikely

After his Sprint Cup team shut down earlier this week, there have been many rumors sprung up on what 2007 Indy 500 Dario Franchitti will do to get his racing career back on track. Dario will like everyone to know that a return to the Indycars is out of the question.

"Let's see what the future holds," Franchitti said. "I need to sit down with Chip and see where his head is, but NASCAR is where I want to be. I want to be successful here and I certainly don't want it to end like this.

"I made a big commitment coming over here and I'd like to get an opportunity to be successful."

"When I made the decision to come here (to NASCAR), I wasn't going to do the IndyCar thing anymore anyway, so this isn't a case of missing out on what could have been in IndyCar," he said. "That just wasn't a direction I wanted to go in. "Never say never, but it's unlikely I'll go back."

"We definitely struggled in the first couple of races, but we were getting there," Franchitti said. "The results have been this and that, but I really feel like we were getting there."

With a best finish of 22nd, yeah that is "getting there" alright.

"We were starting to run well, me and the No.40 guys all thought things were turning around."

Dario's misfortune has got him some sympathy from other drivers in the Sprint Cup garage.

"I think a couple things happened," Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton said. "Dario is an accomplished racecar driver and I think he can get it done in the Cup Series, but it's going to take time. The question is, how patient can people be? And at a time when we don't have a lot of new sponsors coming in it's hard to build a company that wants to be patient. People that are wanting to make that investment want success right away.

"I think a lot of things stacked up against him and it made it harder for him than if he would have been able to have success sooner. Unfortunately Ganassi have been a little down, too. They haven't been as good as you would expect them to be."

"It's really shocking to us to see a team shut down like that, and it's tough," Roush Racing's Greg Biffle said. "You don't want to see that. Dario, I think, is a great driver. He's improved tremendously. He ran very well at Loudon, and qualified decently, but I don't know. Their organisation has been having a tough time competition-wise lately, and it's sad to see them without a sponsor and having to shut that down temporarily."

Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon believes the U.S. economy is to blame for Dario's bad luck.

"I think it's certainly a wake-up call, you know, any of us are vulnerable," Gordon said. "I would have never thought that they would have struggled getting sponsorship. I'm sure Chip Ganassi thought they wouldn't struggle. They probably didn't think they'd struggle on the racetrack as much as they have either, especially on the road course. We all can be vulnerable and it just makes you appreciate what you have, the sponsors you have, and it makes you work that much harder to try to stay competitive."

Plans about Dario's future may be announced next week, lets hope the boys at CGR aren't wearing rose-tinted glasses like Dario is.

Cup drivers sympathise with Franchitti [Autosport.com]

Franchitti says IndyCar return unlikely [Autosport.com]

40 team shuts down, Franchitti out of a ride

Chip Ganassi decided today to shut down his no 40 team laying off most of the employees on the team and leaving driver and former Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti out of a ride. Ganassi reasons that lack of funds and sponsorship also with the lack of perfomance on all three of his teams were the reasons that Ganassi had to shut the team down.

"If I keep going I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don't want to do that," Ganassi told the Associated Press. "There's no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it."

Franchitti had struggled greatly this year in Sprint Cup with a best finish of 22nd at Martinsville and a 41st place position in points. Ganassi said Franchitti was "disappointed" when told of the teams closing, but Ganassi hopes that Franchitti will still particpate in his Nationwide car until his Sprint Cup program is built it up. But there are rumors that Franchitti might go into sportscar racing in 2009.

Lack of Sponsorship forces Ganassi to shut down Franchitti's team [ESPN.com]

NASCAR not in Wheldon's future

Dan Wheldon has ruled out a possible move to NASCAR in the future. The young (if you consider 30 being young) English driver who found victory lane last week in Iowa has changed his mind about making a move to stock car racing.

"Up until this year, I really did consider NASCAR and the reason I did is I'm a driver," Wheldon said. "I like to be on track and I like the fact they race so much. But with the merging together of both open-wheel series, the series is really fun to drive in right now."

Wheldon is in the final year of his contract with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and said he has talked with Ganassi about an extension of his original three-year deal. Wheldon said the deal isn't done yet, but he hopes it will be done soon.

"When you have more cars like that, it's definitely fun to drive," Wheldon said. "So I would say with the fact I think they're going to continue to build the schedule and from what I understand they're going to allow more testing during the season . . . that's what I'm looking for. . . . I definitely think I will be in IndyCars for certainly the next three years after this one."

NASCAR? Wheldon says no [Richmond Times Dispatch]

I'm baaaaaaaack, back in the saddle again

Chip Ganassi Racing continuing with the theme of video game sponsorship in the 2008 season will have Guitar Hero sponsor the #40 car driven by Dario Franchitti at New Hampshire in a couple of weeks. Rock band Aerosmith will also be on the car for the race which will certinally spring back memories of when the band did the theme song for ESPN's NASCAR coverage:



My God, Steven Tyler's face will give me nightmares tonight.

CGRFS Partners with Activision and Target to Sponsor No. 40 Dodge (CGRFS PR)

Villeneuve rumour denied

Barry Green quickly denied the report from the French-Canadian newspaper "La Presse" about a new team forming between himself, Jacques Villeneuve and Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault in NASCAR. Green says his only invovlement with Villeneuve is to him find sponsorship to get a NASCAR ride.

"We're trying to find a primary sponsor for Jacques," said Green, who has been working with Villeneuve on the business side of his NASCAR career. "The Sprint Cup series is very competitive and to launch a new team doesn't make much sense."

Green also says that Legault is also working with Villeneuve in the same capcity and trying to get him a ride for the Nationside race in Montreal in August.

Green denies Villeneuve team ownership reports (tsn.ca)

Jacques is back?

Former F1 and Indy 500 champ Jacques Villeneuve may be back in a stock car soon. Reports from the French-Canadian paper "La Presse", which translates into "decent toilet paper" in English, say that Villeneuve has teamed with his old Indycar owner Barry Green and the promoter of the Canadian Grand Prix, Normand Legault, to get him back into NASCAR racing for the first time since he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500. Supposedly, all the team needs is sponsorship and maybe help from another Cup team, Chip Ganassi Racing is rumored to be aligning themselves with this new team.

I think this is a good thing since poor Jacques hasn't had much to do lately since he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500. I mean yeah he did that one Speedcar Race over in Asia and he has a ride for the 24 hours of Le Mans with Peugeot coming up in little over a week from now. But anything, anything that keeps him from singing will be much be appreciated:

Article about Villeneuve, it's in French and proably smells funny (cyberpresse.ca)

Penske and Ganassi together? What?

They call it the silly season for a reason, but this rumor is just plain ridiculous. Apparently there is a rumor going around that Ganassi and Penske Racing will merge their teams together into one effort to get a strong Dodge effort in NASCAR going. When Mike Accavitti, director of Dodge Brand and SRT Marketing Communications, was asked Sunday about the rumor. He gave this response: "Absolutely preposterous.That would be like putting the Hatfields and McCoys together."

I was thinking more along the lines of a putting a cat and a dog in a box. Boy, would that be fun!

Is the feud alive? (Sportingnews.com)

Montoya to Joe Gibbs Racing?

Juan Montoya is still not happy over the firing of crew chief Jimmy Elledge and in a face to face meeting with car owner Chip Ganassi, Montoya let his feeling about the decision be known.

"I told him everything I was thinking and how it was," said Montoya, who finished 30th in the Coca-Cola 600. "The hope of the meeting is that everything that has happened turns into results. I need to run better. That's what will calm me down."

There is now rumor surfacing that Joe Gibbs Racing, who may lose Tony Stewart at the end of the year, is looking at Montoya as his replacement.

Montoya gives Ganassi an earful (Chicagotribune.com)

Is that Octane 93 you're wearing?

Jeremy Mayfield is back in a Sprint Cup car this weekend subbing for Dario Franchitti who is not quite ready to drive his Sprint Cup car, but will compete in the Nationwide Series race this weekend. That means Bryan Clauson who has been substituting for Franchitti in Nationwide Series will be driving Randy MacDonald's #81 Dodge this weekend.

Mayfield to compete for Franchtti in Best Buy 400 at Dover (Scenedaily.com)

Dixon on cloud nine, but ready to return to level ground

Scott Dixon is on top of the world right now after wining Sunday's Indy 500, but the high of winning one of the world's biggest races won't last long as Dixon will be back at work trying to duplicate a feat that has happen in the three previous years, win the Indy 500 and then win the Indycar series championship.

"We definitely knew that (tradition) because of last season," Dixon said on the morning after the biggest victory of his career. "And we were definitely trying to stop that tradition. Unfortunately, we came up short. This year, we won the 500, and it sounds like a pretty good tradition. We're going to try and carry that on, come away with the championship."

Dixon leaves Indy with a 15 point lead over Helio Castroneves, but the will be no rest for the victor as the Indycar Series heads off to Milwaukee for a race next Sunday.

"We have another championship to win this year," Dixon said. "That is something we get on in Milwaukee. Having won a championship in 2003, that was a long time ago. So I need to get on my game and try and capture another championship for the team and everybody involved. That's exactly what they want to do. We're going to have great memories from this day, and we're going to treasure those for sure, but Thursday, Friday we're back on the game for the championship."

Quick Celebration (Indycar.com)

Ganassi trying to calm Montoya

Things have become even more frustrating for Juan Montoya. Thursday night, Montoya posted the second slowest lap in qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600. "What did you expect?" he asked. "Seriously, what did you expect?" Montoya is still reeling from the midweek firing of Jimmy Elledge, a personnel decision that's given the Montoya his third crew chief in a month. Frustrated that his opposition to the dismissal went unheeded, Montoya is now worried that his team is ill-prepared for Sunday's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Because new crew chief Brian Pattie had just two days to dissect Elledge's setup on the No. 42 Dodge, changes were made on the fly during a difficult Thursday practice session that saw Montoya post the 45th slowest speed and starting 42ndon race day.Team owner Chip Ganassi sympathizes with Montoya's frustration, but said Elledge's dismissal was warranted after the crew chief engaged in a heated argument with competition director Steve Hmiel during last week's All-Star race. "We had an employee step over the line, and I'm sorry it happened because I like Jimmy personally, but it had to be done," Ganassi said. "I know Juan is upset and he comes out on the short end of this deal. I apologize for that, but unfortunately it was unavoidable collateral damage." Elledge declined to comment on his dismissal, but Montoya has been vocal in his opposition of the decision. Elledge had only been atop his pit box for four races, dating back to an earlier crew chief swap that sent Donnie Wingo over to Reed Sorenson's slumping team.

Ganassi working to calm Montoya after stressful week. (ESPN.com)

Crew Chief Change for Montoya?

Rumors have surfaced that Juan Pablo Montoya's crew chief Jimmy Elledge has been released. If this is the case, this will be the second time within a month that Montoya has switched crew chiefs. I don't know about you, but a team can only take so many crew chief changes before the finger of blame starts pointing to the driver.

Marlin to drive for Franchitti for another week

It looks like Dario Franchittti will sit out another week while recovering from his injuries in a Nationwide race at Talladega. So Sterling Marlin will drive the #40 Dodge at the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday. "It's the same old thing -- drivers think they aren't that hurt when they're hurt," owner Chip Ganassi said. "They think they'll be back in a week, and so we all kind of said 'OK, great, it's going to be a week or two. I think he's starting to realize that it's not going to be that quick and it looks like Sterling Marlin is going to be driving the car here next week for the 600 and we're kind of taking it one day at a time after that."

Story courtesy of the AP.

40 team to sit out Sprint Showdown, to get "fit" for 600.

Dario Franchitti and the 40 team will choose to sit out this weekends Sprint Showdown as Franchitti continues to recover from his injuries he received in the Nationwide Race at Talladega. Franchitti has yet to be cleared to drive again and team is evaulating his condtion on a week-by-week basis.

Also, the 40 team will sporting a Nintendo Wii Fit scheme at the Coca-Cola 600 in two weeks.

Boy, I'm sure glad the Wii Fit is coming out, now children across America can still play video games and not have to bitched out by mom or dad. Gee, isn't technology magnificent.
Credit to Jayski and Chip Ganassi Racing.