Next out
One of the more intriguing stories Dustin Long wrote last year was about the Morgan-McClure team. (I can't find it online; maybe I'll post it later. In the meantime, here are McClure's stats as an owner and a brief Wiki history.) Morgan-McClure's drivers included Mark Martin before he was famous, Ernie Irvan who they made famous and Sterling Marlin, who gave them six wins in three years, including the 2004 and 2005 Daytona 500s.
And then ... nothing. As Hendrick, Roush and the rest expanded to two and three and more teams, Morgan-McClure stuck with one. Sterling Marlin gave the team its last win way back in 1998. Kevin Lepage, Mike Skinner, Jimmy Spencer, Mike Wallace and (this year) Scott Wimmer hasn't done much.
You have to wonder if Chip Ganassi and Robert Yates are on that same pace lap to irrelevancy.
More after the jump ...
For the second straight year, Ganassi will run a good part of the season with a driver whose heart (and future) is somewhere else. (Remember, McMurray announced during the 2005 season he was leaving Ganassi's No. 42 for Kurt Busch's Roush ride.) Here's the AP take on Ganassi's status:
But where is Ganassi's team headed? Certainly Victory Lane hasn't been one of those destinations. Neither is the bargaining table, where they can't lock up or keep the young, promising drivers they tried grooming into the kind of drivers that would turn this team into the powerhouse Ganassi once had in open-wheel racing.
And, no, Reid Sorenson and David Stremme aren't the answer, at least not yet.
What about Yates? Well, Jarrett's gone at the end of the year. Sadler's supposedly sticking around, but who knows? Maybe Sadler has developed a sudden interest in Ganassi. Maybe Ganassi makes a run at him.
Either way, you have two teams -- Ganassi and Yates -- who are struggling now, and there's nothing on the horizon that suggests they'll get better any time soon.
So if you're Chip Ganassi or Robert Yates, what do you do? Sell the team? Merge with someone else? Try to find a veteran driver? Develop young talent? Or both?
The bigger question: How much longer do you stick with it?
Comments (1)
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As a Sorenson supporter I tend to believe he is the future of Ganassi. I can't say the same for Stremme.
Posted on June 15, 2006 6:02 PM