Tuesday, July 1, 2008

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]

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