DEI Details Plan For Four Car Team
Dale Earnhardt Inc., already one of the world’s premier racing organizations, has become even stronger through a merger with Ginn Racing. Effective immediately, the team will feature the Chevrolets of Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and Aric Almirola.

Martin and Almirola will combine to drive the No. 01 Army Chevrolet for the remainder of the 2007 season as well as the entire 2008 season. Menard drives the Menards Chevrolet, Truex drives the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet and Earnhardt handles driving duties of the Budweiser Chevrolet.

All four entries are inside the coveted top 35 in Nextel Cup points heading into this weekend’s Brickyard 400. Regan Smith, who was originally slated to drive the Ginn Clubs and Resorts Chevrolet in the Brickyard 400, will instead compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park Friday night in the Ginn Resorts Chevy Silverado. Specific schedules for Martin, Smith and Almirola will be announced later.

In addition to NASCAR Nextel Cup Series competition, the company will continue to field entries in the NASCAR Busch Series, the NASCAR Busch East Series and will analyze its future involvement in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. “This merger is great for both companies,” said Max Siegel, president of global operations for DEI.

“Our stated goals included an expansion to four cars as quickly as possible and, in order to do that, we had to acquire more shop space. This relationship with Bobby Ginn and his company allows us to accomplish both which makes this a perfect transaction.”

The numerous teams of Dale Earnhardt Inc. will operate from both the original facility built by Dale and Teresa Earnhardt as well as the nearly 180,000-square-foot facility currently housing Ginn Racing’s teams. The buildings are less than five miles apart in Mooresville, N.C.

“When I purchased Ginn Racing last year it was done with a goal of fielding a multi-car effort capable of winning races and championships,” said Bobby Ginn. “We came very close to winning the season’s biggest race earlier this year with Mark (Martin) and today we feel as if we have done one better by partnering with a company with the legacy of Dale Earnhardt Inc. Our performance has been strong, as evidenced by our top-10 position in owner’s points with the 01 car, but we know that having the opportunity to be part of a four-car effort provides significant benefits.”

Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s current management team will be responsible for all day-to- day activities and transition plans have already begun to develop. John Story, vice president of motorsports operations for DEI will oversee the expansion of the company’s racing efforts.

“The combined resources of the companies are tremendous,” Story said. “Ginn Racing just completed the installation of a seven-post rig. With our recently formed R&D team, as well as the combined efforts of two strong engineering programs, we will be able to accelerate our learning curve. Both companies have many smart and talented people. All of our teams will undoubtedly become stronger.”

In completing this merger, points on Ginn Racing’s No. 13 car, which was 34th in NASCAR Nextel Cup owner’s points, have been eliminated. "NASCAR's cap of four teams per company meant we had to give something up," said Ginn. We felt so strongly about this merger that we surrendered the intangible value of the 13 car. We all were completely comfortable that the benefits of working together far outweighed the value of points." “There are three huge benefits to us – the real estate, Mark Martin and an ability to work with Bobby Ginn on strategic development projects that Teresa has been planning for years,” Siegel said.

“The value of additional square footage is easy to see, but the value that Mark will bring to our company is harder to measure and may be even more impactful. Mark has pledged his complete support to our young drivers and our entire company in an effort to make us all better. Given his stature in the sport, this type of benefit cannot be quantified.

“Teresa and Bobby have discussed some very high level strategies concerning her development objectives and who would be better to partner with than Bobby? This is a win-win relationship in its truest form.”

DEI Will Buy Ginn Racing
According to a report by NASCAR Scene, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing will announce this week that DEI will absorb Ginn Racing. The merger will make DEI a four-car team as it adds the No. 01 car primarily driven by Mark Martin. It is expected that the No. 14 team of Ginn will have its owner points transferred to DEI's Paul Menard, who currently is outside the top 35 driving the DEI No. 15. The points transfer would put him in the top 35 in owner points and guarantee a starting position in the field.

That could leave Regan Smith, who had shared the No. 01 ride with Mark Martin until being named driver of the No. 14 team last week, out of a job. It was unclear whether Smith or Aric Almirola, recently named as the co-driver of the No. 01 car, will share the driving duties with Martin the rest of the season. The No. 13 team of Ginn, which was driven by Joe Nemechek until his release last week, will be eliminated along with the No. 14 team because DEI cannot have more than four full-time teams, according to NASCAR rules.

Bobby Ginn bought MB2 Motorsports last year and expanded the two-car Nextel Cup team to a three-car operation along with a Busch Series team. But only the No. 01 team sponsored by the U.S. Army had full sponsorship. The No. 14 team had a partial sponsorship, and the No. 13 team had virtually no sponsorship. DEI will eventually move its Nextel Cup operations to the Ginn Racing headquarters, according to a source close to the situation.(scenedaily.com)
EDITOR'S NOTE... An announcement is expected later today.

Fans Will See The Air With New Inovation
For years, NASCAR fans have heard about the effects of drafting on high-speed racetracks and how certain drivers, such as the late Dale Earnhardt, were so good in the draft it was said they could “see the air.”

Now, as NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing returns to ESPN with Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, a technical innovation developed by ESPN and SportVision will allow NASCAR fans to see the air when they watch ESPN’s coverage of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and NASCAR Busch Series.

Beginning with Sunday’s telecast of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ESPN, which has televised more NASCAR Cup Series races than any other network, will enhance its NASCAR coverage with Draft Track, a special effects package that will provide to viewers a never-before-seen effect that shows airflow created by NASCAR race cars.

When ESPN’s producers activate Draft Track, viewers will see air flowing over and behind race cars as they speed around the track, whether there is one car or a multi-car pack on the television screen. The Draft Track airflow visualization will change as the cars, in relation each other, change position in real time on the racetrack, including passing, racing side by side or when cars are lined up nose to tail. The new effect will initially be used on replays.

“We continue to be fascinated with showing viewers things that you cannot see – the line of scrimmage in football, the strike zone in baseball, and the airflow in motorsports, especially relevant to NASCAR, known as drafting,” said Jed Drake, ESPN senior vice president and executive producer. “Draft Track brings to life for the viewer an element of NASCAR racing that has been a much-discussed but unseen part of the sport for decades.”

Draft Track was created by ESPN in collaboration with SportVision, the nation’s premier innovator of sports and entertainment products for fans, media companies and marketers and the creator of the pointers and telemetry used in ESPN’s NASCAR coverage this season. Using computational fluid dynamics information and wind tunnel data, SportVision developed a comprehensive model of the airflow as it affects cars in relation to each other. The system uses positioning data derived from SportVision’s patented RACEf/x system and the Draft Track computers calculate and determine the profile of the airflow many times per second on cars traveling at more than 200 mph.

Once the calculations are done, the airflow effect is then locked to the highlighted cars using SportVision optical tracking technology, and a visual representation of the airflow is inserted into the video that ESPN viewers see. The density, color and velocity of the airflow help illustrate the effects of drafting on car performance, and the effects vary with the behavior of the airflow.

“When we can show things that can't otherwise be seen, then we have really accomplished something very special for our viewers, and for our company,” Drake said. “We're incredibly pleased that SportVision is willing to walk in lockstep with us to make these projects reality.”

ESPN and SportVision worked together to create the “First and Ten Line” in football coverage, now used by nearly all networks, as well as the “K Zone” in baseball coverage. ESPN worked with another company to create the “Shot Spot” that is used in tennis coverage to track the path of the ball and where it hits the ground. All three of these have earned Sports Emmy Awards for ESPN for technical innovation.

The Indianapolis race is ESPN’s first NASCAR Cup race since 2000, but the network covered 262 Cup races during a 20-year period starting in 1981. ESPN and ABC will have live coverage of the final 17 races of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season, including all 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup on ABC. In addition, ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Busch Series all season, and its races are being televised with the same standards of production and effects that will be used in the Cup Series.

“We’re not finished experimenting and finding new technologies,” Drake said. “It’s a hallmark of ESPN to constantly push the envelope and seek new ways to satisfy our curiosity and that of our viewers. NASCAR is one of the most exciting and dynamic sports on television and we will continue to seek out ways to make it even more appealing.”

20 Finalist For Hall Of Fame
The field has been narrowed and only 20 finalists remain for induction into the Class of 2008 International Motorsports Hall of Fame, IMHOF officials announced today. The final five inductees will be elected when the last round of voting begins July 30th, 2007.

“I think the selection of this year’s top-20 finalists shows what an amazing job the voters have done in choosing individuals who have made a significant impact in each of their sports,” said Talladega Superspeedway President and IMHOF Executive Director Rick Humphrey. “This is a group that includes everyone from Ralph Seagraves, the man responsible for bringing the Winston brand to NASCAR racing and who really helped catapult that sport into national awareness, to internationally renowned driver’s like Rene Dreyfus who has won at some of the most famous races in the world. The voters certainly have their work cut out for them in narrowing this group down to only five.”

This year’s nominees come from a variety of motorsport venues. From NASCAR are drivers: Red Byron, Jerry Cook, Cotton Owens, Marvin Panch and Rex White. Also representing NASCAR is a unique group of non-drivers: owner Carl Kiekhaefer, chief mechanic Maurice Petty and promoter Ralph Seagraves.

The Sprint Car Series has three drivers up for nomination: Tommy Hinnershitz, Joe Leonard and Jan Opperman. Also from the open wheel ranks are chief mechanic Clint Brawner, chassis builder Frank Kurtis and IndyCar drivers Pete DePaolo and Tommy Milton. From sports car racing fame are drivers Rene Dreyfus and Brian Redman, as well as, engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov. Drag racing brings driver Art Arfons and chief mechanic Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins.

Tire Auction Raises $20,000
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company , the exclusive tire supplier of NASCAR's top three racing divisions, announced that the Goodyear 'Get there'(TM) Charity Auction raised $20,000 for The NASCAR Foundation and its driver affiliated charities. As a result of the funds raised through the auction, Goodyear was awarded with the honor of being named a "Champion Friend of the Foundation" for the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season -- the highest level of participation that can be achieved by a one-time donor.

"As a long-standing supplier of NASCAR, we're very proud to help support The NASCAR Foundation and its important mission," stated Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of global race tires. "Goodyear would like to thank all the fans who bid on these unique race-used Eagle tires and helped us raise so much money for The NASCAR Foundation."

The Goodyear 'Get there' Charity Auction provided fans the opportunity to bid on 43 authentic Goodyear tires individually autographed by the top NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers. Each autographed race-used Goodyear Eagle tire was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, which included the driver's name and car number, the race in which the tire was used, the driver's finish in that race and the tire's RFID number. The top ten most popular tires in the auction belonged to Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Juan Montoya, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.

This was the largest collection of certified, autographed race-used Goodyear Eagle tires that The NASCAR Foundation and Goodyear have combined to offer at auction.

"We are grateful to Goodyear for helping us make this auction such a huge success and are proud to welcome them as a Champion Friend of the Foundation," said The NASCAR Foundation Executive Director Sandy Marshall. "The winning bidders should feel good knowing that the proceeds generated from the auction will go a long way in helping the Foundation achieve its mission of making a difference in the lives of those who need it most."