With 71 employees already in the unemployment line, Chip Ganassi Racing is looking to cut another 30 jobs from its stock-car operations, several current employees said Saturday. The team shut down the No. 40 Dodge earlier this week after it wasn’t able to find a sponsor for driver Dario Franchitti. With that came layoffs, some of them surprising.
Several team sources confirmed that department heads often weren’t included in the decision-making process. Some employees who were laid off had been with SABCO Racing long before Ganassi bought the team from Felix Sabates in 2001.
Those left behind now are bracing for more cuts. Many of those who lost their jobs last week apparently didn’t take the news well. In fact, the team had 12 police officers on hand to keep order.
- No more contracts for Ganassi crewmembers
- Ganassi could lose Target as sponsor
- Possible merger between Ganassi and Waltrip?
- Hmiel joins Ganassi
- Ganassi looks to expand to four cars, Wheldon to move from IRL?
Wow. I hate that for all these people that in the shop that worked day after day just to watch Chip bungle and mis-manage things to the state they’re currently in. Hopefully they’ll all get picked up by other racing teams or land of their feet soon! Ganassi can’t leave NASCAR soon enough, IMHO.
If Chip didnt spend thousands of dollars on high priced girls he could pay his guys.
I would be surprised if Ganassi Racing in NASCAR is still racing in 2010. Ganassi Racing has championship winning teams in the IRL and Grand American - Rolex Series, but in NASCAR, there a back of the pack teams and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bought out by Penske Racing and Gillette-Everham Racing (GEM) period. At least if there bought out, hopefully the crew members will still have jobs.
Actually I predict a switch to Toyota. Remember His Grand-Am teams are already Lexus which is a Toyota Marque.
the word is that he is not going to be in NASCAR in 2009
Ganassi should quit while he still has money left. I predict him selling the #41 and #42 to GEM, Penske, Petty or some other Dodge team and God knows what would become of the Nationwide program
wrote:
why do you think Roger, Ray, or Richard would buy out Ganassi at the price of millions of dollars, they are struggling themselves. what buy the cars, the shop equipment, if he goes out it gets auctioned off like any other team that goes out.
^The two top-35 statuses are very valuable assets however.
Howie Motorsports Photography wrote:
I dunno, like Wolf Packer said, the point, equipment, better shop space
Ganassi was never a good fit in NASCAR. Felix did alright for a while, fell behind and also kept Kyle Petty when no one else wanted him. Ganassi has to be embarrassed because he’s always succeeded in everything he was involved with. Much like Dario was. For years, many of us here have commented about the junk Ganassi puts out on the track. Outdated. Antiquated. Crap. He jerks around guys like Wingo and fires Elledge. The problems are at the top my friend. The Chipster was led to believe he had top notch equipment when he bought in. Moron! And Marlin was his stud driver WAY too long. He dumped Stremme and Coors dumped Ganassi. What goes around, comes around.