Mergers make for combined forces

ARIC ALMIROLA Signs with Ginn

INDIANAPOLIS -- When it comes to NASCAR these days, it's all about mergers and acquisitions.

Or so it seemed this week after NASCAR was gripped by merger mania of off-track business maneuvers involving several Nextel Cup teams.

It seemingly began at the season-opening Daytona 500 in February when Jack Roush entered into an equal partnership with Fenway Sports Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of New England Sports Ventures, which enabled Red Sox principal owner John W. Henry to join Roush at the drivers' pre-race meeting in Daytona as a NASCAR car co-owner.

"Our deal is a healthy organization investing in another healthy organization," said Mike Dee, FSG president and Red Sox chief operating officer who is listed as the owner of record on the No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford driven by rookie David Ragan.

"Long term, it's good for the sport. The healthier the teams are, the healthier competition is."

The competition seemed to become even more robust this week with the announcement of one merger and another partnership.

Thursday, Dale Earnhardt Inc., believed to be on the verge of implosion after Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced his decision to drive for Hendrick Motorsports next season, flexed its muscle by merging with Ginn Racing, which was on the verge of implosion after shuttering two of its three teams, to form a formidable four-car team.

"They served notice that they're here to fight," said Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing, which entered a joint venture with DEI on an engine program. "They're here to race, and I think a lot of people thought that when Junior left that they would just cave in and go away."

Nothing could be further from the truth. DEI will put drivers Earnhardt (No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet), Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevy), and Paul Menard (No. 15 Menard's Chevy) with Ginn Racing veteran driver Mark Martin and Aric Almirola, a former development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing who recently signed with Ginn Racing, in the No. 1 US Army Chevrolet. They will compete under the DEI banner for the season's remaining 17 races, beginning with tomorrow's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"It's been a stated goal of ours all along to get to a four-car program," said Max Siegel, DEI's president of global operations. "We want to be a world-class organization; we want to get more efficiency involved. We wanted to have a facility where we could run a state-of-the-art race shop. When the opportunity presented itself last week, we became hot and heavy in negotiations."

DEI's Cup teams will be housed in Ginn's 180,000-square-foot race shop 10 minutes from DEI's 240,000-square-foot shop in Mooresville, N.C., where the team's Busch Series, Busch East, and Craftsman Truck Series teams are expected to be housed.

"I look at this as a merger; I look at it as a way I can stay in racing," said Bobby Ginn, who last year acquired a majority stake of MB2 Motorsports and fielded a three-car team only to encounter financial woes that led to the shutdown of the No. 13 and No. 14 teams and release of drivers Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin. "I look at it as a way our team can go to a much higher elevation than we would have been able to do in getting through this year. It's obvious that our team was not sponsored through a lot of the races on the two cars that we had . . . This merger, if you think about it, makes all the sense in the world."

In announcing their partnership that produced a name sounding more like a law firm, NASCAR owners Doug and Robert Yates joined the principals of the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Champ Car race team -- actor Paul Newman, Carl Haas, and Michael Lanigan -- in a press conference at Indy to trumpet the new NASCAR Nextel Cup venture: Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

It marked a radical departure from the stance Yates took a month ago at NHIS where he expressed his frustration over the search for a partner and threatened to go it alone. Asked what had changed since then, Yates said, "We were looking for people that could help us race better. NASCAR is very attractive, but we wanted somebody that could help us race better, and it's not just cubic dollars that helps us race better. We have more responsibility to these guys because they want trophies and wins [more] than being responsible to somebody that gives us a lot of money."

Said Lanigan, "Newman/Haas/Lanigan has always been known as an engineering-driven team. Carl has guided that over the last 25 years. We think we can enhance the Robert Yates organization and being that today you put four tires on it and a wing, we think we know a little bit about it. Although it's different racing, it's a lot heavier car in NASCAR, but you need to get the same result, and that's to give our drivers a good car in and out of traffic, figure out how to give them good tire wear, and the journey is an ongoing journey.

"We believe in engineering and we believe we will be taking small steps," Lanigan added, "but our ultimate goal is to win."

As far as Yates is concerned, that was the win-win aspect of his partnership with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. "To me, a merger -- and I started looking at this over the past year -- a merger of equals is where somebody loses their job," Yates said. "This is not where anybody loses their job. This is a partnership, so we grow it and not end up losing that . . . This is a partnership, not a merger."

It was quite evident who the big winners and losers were in the DEI-Ginn deal.

Among the losers: Nemechek, who lost his ride after his car placed 34th among the top 35 in the owner point standings; Marlin, who also lost his ride after placing his car 30th in the owner points; and rookie driver Regan Smith, who split time in the No. 1 Chevy with Martin, only to get relegated to a Truck Series ride and an uncertain future with DEI after he was aced out by Almirola's signing with Ginn Racing.

The winners? Almirola, who went from a development driver who railed against his role as Denny Hamlin's Busch Series stand-in at Milwaukee.

"For me, it's all about getting to work with Mark Martin, that's the biggest thing," Almirola said.

Then there is Menard, who failed to qualify in six of the first 19 races this season after languishing 39th in the owner points. The merger with Ginn immeasurably affected Menard's season, altering its complexion when he inherited the points from Ginn's No. 14 car, thus moving into the top 35.

"We can go race now," said Menard. "We're locked in. The start of the year, we were obviously outside the top 35, and it was a huge struggle to get in. We had to focus so much on qualifying; it obviously hurt our race performance."

Team owner Ray Evernham publicly acknowledged his relationship with 26-year-old Busch Series driver Erin Crocker may have damaged her career and that she might be best served by changing teams. Crocker has been driving for Evernham since 2006 in the ARCA and Busch series. She also raced trucks last year when the two first were rumored to be romantically linked.

"I don't think it's any secret that because of the personal relationship between Erin and I it hurt her career," Evernham said. "The proper thing to do, and something her and I would like to do, is move her to another race team."

It was odd seeing Martin show up for the DEI-Ginn merger announcement with the DEI crest on his shirt. Asked what it meant to wind up driving for the team the late Dale Earnhardt built, Martin said, "When you open the doors to DEI and you step inside, if you're old school like me, you realize the legacy and what it means. It means more to me than to someone who didn't. My character, as a driver, was shaped by competing with Dale Earnhardt. And I have enormous respect and appreciation for everyone, for Teresa [Earnhardt] and everyone at DEI for their tireless efforts in continuing that legacy." . . . Another odd sight at the Speedway was 83-year-old Newman, who made his return to the Brickyard as a partner in a new stock car team. Newman, who had not been to Indy since the divisive open-wheel split between the Indy Racing League and the Championship Auto Racing Teams, vowed never to return to the track for the Indy 500. When Newman/Haas Racing brought its champion driver Sebastien Bourdais here in 2005, Newman boycotted the race, saying he has "a problem with the management." Yesterday, he was asked about his thoughts on NASCAR racing. "I started in silent films and I had hoped to continue in that tradition," Newman said, drawing laughter from the crowd. "This is very exciting for me. This is the marvelous part about speaking last because everybody has already said everything, but I really look forward to this partnership and I think we have departments that will complement [Yates's]."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report; Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.