About 100 crewmen at Ginn Racing are expected to be fired this week, according to team sources, who say that would make a total of 160 people dropped from the roster in a two-week span. Team owner Bobby Ginn fired drivers Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin on July 17th, citing sponsorship problems, and last week Ginn said he was merging the rest of his operation, including driver Mark Martin, with Dale Earnhardt Inc. DEI officials said they would be moving all their Nextel Cup operations into Ginn’s shop at the end of the season and turning DEI’s current facility into a Busch operation.
While Ginn and DEI executives and Martin have been putting a positive spin on the merger, privately some Ginn crewmen are upset and say they’ve been kept in the dark on most of the business details.
One big question is the future of Jay Frye, the veteran general manager who has been running the Ginn operation and who owns 20 percent. Frye, who didn’t wear a DEI shirt at last week’s announcement, is the man who originally built the team for its first owners Read Morton, Tom Beard and Nelson Bowers in 1997. Ginn bought the operation last year.
Bookmark to:
- Ginn hires marketing firm to find sponsors
- Ginn to build test track in South Carolina
- All 4 court cases against Ginn dismissed
- Labbe: Ginn/DEI merger costs 124 jobs
- NASCAR: Ginn Buys MB2 Motorsports
Man that’s really going to stink for those 160 regular folks… Forget about the poor millionaire drivers who are past their prime and should probably be looking at retirement anyhow. What about that regular Joe Schmo working for Ginn fabbing body panels who has a wife and kids to feed?
I find it hard to have much compassion for Sterling and Joe’s situations (who I don’t have a problem with, but I think they’ll be ok) when all these regular working stiffs are going to be in the unemployment line. Hopefully DEI can put a bunch of them to work, since they’re adding a 4th team and running 2 separate shops!
Well, i’m sure that some will be sent to RCR for their 4th team, and furniture row is looking for a second team, so i’m sure they won’t be out of a job too long.
I agree. It is sad, but like Steve said, they should
find a good job soon.
Yeah, I bet they’ll find a job too, with DEI and RCR adding cars (plus their engine partnership), and JGR and Penske possibly adding cars as well.
More than anything I just meant that a lot of people were upset about Ginn releasing Sterling and Joe, but I seriously doubt they need that gig to feed their families next week. All the little people that make racing possible could soon be without jobs, and I don’t hear anyone lamenting their fate in this whole deal!
I’m trying to remember who it was this weekend that basically said the drivers should suck it up a bit. They are hired knowing the possibility that they might not have a ride for the full season depending on financial circumstances, especially vetererans like Marlin and Nemecheck should understand that. It’s the guys in the shop that get into a company and stay there for long stretches of time more than drivers do and they walked into Ginn hearing him talk about his 5 year plan and it didn’t even last 1 year.
That really really sucks. Ginn better work his a__ making calls trying
to help these people out, cuz he’s seriously screwing them over.
Your last comment shows how mature you are and the undertsanding you have about life ‘basics’.
People get laid off and no, they rarely, if ever get help finding a new job.
No sh__ sherlock. I kind of know that seeing as my dad was jobless
for about two years and my Mom got fired after suffering severe brain
damage in a car accident and is now on ssd for life.
My point was, if he was a decent person he’d make calls to Childress,
Hendrick, Gibbs, all the other major owners and try to help seeing
as he’s the one who f__ked them over. I never said he’d actually do it.
We all talk about how bad Rick Hendrick is for getting rid of Kyle Busch and the whole Honda thing
but he helped Joe Nemechek land that ride at MB2 so not everyone just kicks people out the door.
And Ginn is a disgraceful man. I feel sorrry for everyone who bought into his $h!t
If Jay Fry knew how to run a team he would have been able to find a sponsorship for the 13 and the 14 along with realizing that it was time for Joe and Sterling to hang it up and put rookies in the driver seat. At least with rookies in the driving seat the teams may have finished better than 20th or worse. Companies may have wanted to sponsor the cars but not the drivers. Both drivers did not have the passion that the younger guys did and it showed out on the race track. There are some very talented pit crew members on both those teams who went out there every weekend and did their best. They were able to gain spots on pit road only to have thier drivers loose those spots when they were on the track. The drivers always complained about the car and blamed it on everything except what the real problem was, the driver. especially the 13 car. If I was a company I would not want to sponsor a driver who has lost their hunger to win and did not drive hard while on the track.
As fo Bobby Ginn and Jay Frye, I do not have much respect for them. There were a lot of promises made to the guys and they had the guys bought into thier 5 year plan. Then to have it all come to an end. Jay Frye should have been smart enough to know that it takes time to build a good team and adding on as fast as he did with out being able to land sponsorship deals was not in the best interest of the team. But then again what does he care. He was making the big bucks and will continue to profit from this merger. No one thinks about the guys who work thier butts off in the shop, on the road and every Sunday. They have families that they hardly see, they spend 38 to 40 weekends out of the year racing. (Yes I know that they chose this sport as thier lively hood, and yes I know that they have a choice to stay in it or leave the sport). If it wasn’t for them and the desire that they have to work hard for thier team then the fans would not have anything to watch on the weekends.
Bobby Ginn I am sure didn’t have a clue to what he was getting himself into buying a race team. Racing is an expensive sport, but to allow your GM (Jay Frye) who wasn’t performing up to par and could not even get a sponsor for the cars, but kept spending Bobby Ginns money is not as business savvey as everyone made him out to be. The pit crews, road crews and the shop guys all deserve the money that they were promised in thier contracts when they were first signed at the beginning of the year. (Which I hate to inform everyone they do not make anything close to the same money that crew chiefs, car chief and Jay Frye does or even the drivers and they are the one’s jumping out in front of moving cars with other cars whizzing around them). I understand that many companies go through down sizing and perform mass lay offs, and yes it is unfair, but thier are not many companies that I know that have guys jumping out in front of moving cars. If Bobby Ginn has enough money to send his blimp to the races like he did this past weekend then he has enough money to pay these guys what they deserve for the good jobs that they have done since the beginning of the season while working with drivers who do not know when it is time to retire and a general manger who was running the race team into the ground. Actually he did run it into the ground and Bobby Ginn allowed this to happen all the while telling fans and employees of the team that things were ok nothing to worry about while being sleezy and selling out/merging with DEI. DEI is a great team and I am sure everyone would like to work with them but the way this whole deal has gone down is bad and sleezy.
Anonymous you are a genius
Nailed it on every point.
Thank you!
Companies screw employees over all the time. Doesnt make it right. Personally Ginn should at least try and help these people find jobs. He has the connections. He bit off more than he could chew it looks like. Comes in throws around alot of cash and quickly runs out.
The other teams will contact them if they ae needed.
Many of these employees will find work in the racing community soon but might not get the same pay or benefits packages they had. It might be less than they’re accustomed to but still better than not having a job. Was Bobby Ginn a con man or in way over his head?
I think racing is harder then it looks from the outside.