NASCAR's silly season spins out of control for Ganassi

After bringing in reigning IRL champ Dario Franchitti failed to bring financial backing, Chip Ganassi's third team spiraled downhill. Icon SMI

The old saying goes, "Stick and stones can break my bones -- but names can never hurt me." Not so fast. At a time where NASCAR's rumor mill is reaching its peak, try telling that to Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

This is the time where "Silly Season" in NASCAR really does get silly, as the gossip surrounding driver and team movement borders on out of control. For every rumor proven true, there are five that never get off the ground -- and another 10 that are just plain made up. It's a game of separating the scoops from the scams, the impressive from the imaginary, where anyone's name could find themselves a false front page story with the click of a button.

As this year's speculation heats up, CGRFS knows the pain of public guesswork all too well. IndyCar champions this season with Scott Dixon, the NASCAR side of Ganassi's operation has been midpack at best, mediocre at worst. Primary driver Juan Pablo Montoya has had as many Top 10 finishes as crew chiefs (3), while teammate Reed Sorenson hasn't had a Top 5 run since the Daytona 500. In his third season on tour, the 22-year-old Sorenson was once considered one of racing's top prospects. Now, he's on his way out the door at Ganassi, signing with rival Gillett Evernham Motorsports for '09 after failing to jumpstart his fledgling career.

But it's Ganassi's third Cup team -- the No. 40 -- that really started their rumor mill buzzing out of control. After losing longtime backer Coors Light, the team hoped for big things and a big sponsor from reigning IRL champ Dario Franchitti. The team hoped the success of Montoya would rub off on the Scotsman; but the rookie struggled in his transition to stock cars. By April, he was out with an ankle injury after a serious crash at Talladega -- making it difficult to near impossible to find financial backing. By the time Franchitti returned in June, the team was in serious financial straits, suspending operations at the end of the month. More than 70 employees were released -- a massive cutback -- as the team refocused its Cup operation on just two cars.

As the team took steps to stop the bleeding, the news kept getting worse. Sponsor Texaco/Havoline's decision to leave at the end of 2008 created a sponsorship void for Montoya's No. 42, and a replacement has yet to be found. Sorenson announced his move to GEM the end of August, and Franchitti returned to open-wheel with Ganassi's IRL team.

All of that leaves a few question marks for the future of the organization, more than enough to put them front and center for a Daily Dose of Silly Season trauma. Since early July, Ganassi's future existence has been linked to a merger with virtually every multi-car team left in the sport. The car owner had lunch with Michael Waltrip at Daytona; immediately, rumors sprouted up the two were joining forces. Since then, rumors have swirled that anyone from Roger Penske to Robby Gordon was buying Ganassi out, or that the owner was looking to get out of the business altogether. Like Gordon's team, CGRFS is a prime target for any interested owner due to his organization's "locked in" qualifying spots (both are in the Top 35) as well as his race shop's prime real estate. Built in 2004, the top-notch facility was built right next to the Concord airport, and is just a heartbeat away from Charlotte for teams looking to move closer to racing's central hub.

But Ganassi's team is growing weary of the "what ifs" as they're busy focusing on the "what is." Business as usual has become a business of shooting down false rumors day after day, making life difficult for day-to-day operations to focus on turning the program around.

Speculation peaked on Thursday, when multiple sources told SI.com Ganassi was planning to join forces with Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Gillett has been looking to add a fourth car since buying a 50 percent share in Evernham Motorsports last season. Rumored to be brokering a deal to buy Bill Davis Racing this week, negotiations on that side have fallen through. Bill Davis Racing officials had no comment on the process, but all indications are their organization is still up for sale -- just not to GEM. (A spokesman for Gillett Evernham Motorsports said the team won't comment on any merger speculation).

That prompted a strong response from Ganassi, who told SI.com he adamantly denies anything's going on with Gillett. Ensuring SI.com he's here to stay in NASCAR for the long haul, Ganassi claimed in an exclusive interview he has no plans to merge with any organization at this moment -- with plans to run his two cars full-time in 2009.

The rest of the conversation will remain private, but the fact Ganassi has to go public to put out these fires shows the depth of his current problem. These days in NASCAR, it's clear a slump just doesn't come with poor finishes, but concerns about your future survival -- and when your team is busy worrying about job security, it's nearly impossible for them to 100 percent focus on their tasks at hand. Instead, the team gets busy on turning around the court of public perception, with Montoya among several loyal employees trying to quiet the firestorm by maintaining the team's on the verge of a turnaround.

"Chip is working very hard to get us better," Montoya told the Associated Press this month. "Are we there? No. But things are starting to click and there's a lot of things coming, and when all those things arrive and you put them in place, we'll be in good shape."

Montoya didn't elaborate as to what those "things" were. But to speculate would be silly ... because for this team, Silly Season's already spun out of control.