Sterling Marlin ran a special Ginn Resorts paint scheme at Daytona, designed by children. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Frye/Ginn

Co-owners of MB2 Motorsports excited about future of race team

REUNION, Fla. -- The ownership structure of MB2 Motorsports has displayed several faces in the Nextel Cup Series team's 10-year history.

But the partnership announced Wednesday at the Reunion Resort and Club best positions the current two-car operation for the future, its principals said after declaring that real estate developer Bobby Ginn would be the new majority owner.

	Bobby Ginn became new majority owner in MB2 Motorsports on Wednesday
	GINN BUYS MB2 MB2 Motorsports announced a change of ownership on Wednesday, as real estate developer Bobby Ginn purchased 90 percent of the team.  •   Complete story, click here

"I used to come by here going from my home in Lakeland to race at New Smyrna and Orlando Speed World, and there was nothing here but orange groves," said Joe Nemechek, a Florida native and one of the team's drivers. "Coming over here [Wednesday] morning after we flew in, I'm looking at all these big buildings and saying, 'Where did all this come from?'

"Bobby Ginn is the answer."

Veteran driver Sterling Marlin joined his teammate Nemechek and shared an equal amount of enthusiasm for the future.

"To look around here and see what Bobby has done with his resorts, it's easy to see that he's a first-class guy with a first-class company," Marlin said. "He's going to help this race team get back to where it needs to be."

MB2 CEO and general manager Jay Frye, who is one of the team's charter members, remains a 10 percent owner of the operation. He sat down with Ginn to discuss how the deal came about and what the future holds for MB2 Motorsports.

Q: Jay, what does this deal mean for the future of MB2 Motorsports -- and will the team continue to be known as MB2?

Frye: MB2 will continue with that name for the rest of this year, but the team's name will probably change for 2007. Outside at the announcement, I talked about 'graduating,' and what I meant was, MB2 has historically been an over-achieving team.

We've won races and we've won poles and we compete every week -- but it's not at a consistently high level. We think this will help us to consistently compete at a high level and to expand our operation.

This brings resources to us that we don't have -- not only in terms of equipment for the race teams -- but with the resorts Bobby has and the events such as golf tournaments they stage.

	Joe Nemechek is signed with MB2 Motorsports for a long-term deal. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Joe Nemechek's career stats Starts 414 Wins 4 Top-5s 18 Top-10s 59 Poles 9 Laps Led 1,226 Avg. Start 18.9 Avg. Finish 23.5 Earnings $26,391,244 • Complete stats, click here

The Ginn Sports Group has some brilliant sports marketing experts, and we'll be meeting with them to see how they can help us. It's just a lot of elements that, two weeks ago, we didn't have.

Now that we have some of them, speaking as someone who's been with the company since the beginning, this is pretty exciting stuff for our team.

Q: Jay, to what degree did Bobby's purchasing the team secure its future?

Frye: There wasn't so much a question about the future of this race team, but there were questions, whether it was a year from now, or two or three years from now, of what was going to happen with the sport?

The sport has changed very quickly. Toyota coming in has changed how people are going to do business. The big teams are getting bigger -- three or four years ago, a two-car team was a big team, but it's not now.

Five years ago we were a one-car team in an 8,000-square-foot building and we were OK. Now, we're a two-car team in a 144,000-square-foot building and we're behind. Now how did that happen?

We saw that this was possible about a year ago, and we said, 'What do we have to do to differentiate ourselves?' We had a lot of scenarios presented to us -- a lot of which were reported.

But the absolute best scenario happened, and it's just humbling -- and very exciting.

Q: One of the rumors involved some type of merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc. What was that all about?

Frye: It could have been any number of teams, because it was amazing the amount of people that called us, as soon as they heard we might be in play -- that something was going on with the company.

And it wasn't necessarily that we were in play, but when people hear things, they start calling. That was very flattering, and it was a compliment, because obviously if our team wasn't very good and our facilities weren't very good, nobody would want to buy your team or buy into it or partner with you.

The DEI situation had three or four different elements to it that could have gone three or four different ways. Again, everything happens for a reason, and what's happened for us is the best scenario, and we're excited about what we have going.

To varying degrees, a lot of the people who called were trying to take advantage of what MB2 had built more for their benefit. But what has happened with Bobby coming in is that MB2 maintains its integrity and its ability to move ahead into the future.

And there were other scenarios besides DEI, and all of them were good to some degree -- though maybe it was 60 percent good and 40 percent bad, or whatever. But what we've done is 100 percent right and a great thing that's happened to us.

So that's the difference. If you looked at the elements of the DEI thing and how they would line up, it was really a good fit for both companies, but sometimes things just don't work out.

And thank God it didn't work out, because the best thing happened after that didn't work out. If that had happened three months ago, this deal with Bobby never would have happened.

Q: Being in the new facility for about 10 months now, how has that worked out and what is the best thing Bobby's involvement with the team will enable you to do?

Frye: The Ginn Sports Group and the assets that it has, such as the facility we're at today -- which is incredible -- can only help us. We have a very nice racing facility, but Bobby is in business to wow people -- everything he does has the 'wow factor.'

I'm sure our facility will be changed some over the next year -- not the structure of it so much, but just the wow factor. It's just good stuff that we'll be able to do that will enhance our position in the sport.

This is our 10-year anniversary as a team, and those first 10 years have been both exciting and a struggle. We look at it as the next 10 years are going to be the best 10 years we've ever had.

Garage PassBenny Parsons talks after his first day of cancer treatment Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

We've always tried to do things right, but this just enhances everything that we'll be able to do.

Q: These days, people talk about a two-car team not being enough, so at the risk of being premature, what scenario would have to present itself for MB2 to expand beyond where it is now?

Frye: You have a short-term and a long-term plan, and our ideal short-term plan would be to have a third team for 2007 and a fourth in 2008.

That way, you're managing your growth -- you're not just growing to grow, because then, sometimes you grow too fast and that can affect the other two programs -- the two stable ones.

You have to have a systematic approach to growing, but that would be a nice scenario if we were able to do that. But this process has all just started, so I'm not going to sit here and say we'll have a third team in 2007 -- because maybe that will be 2008 and 2009.

Q: As with everything else, is sponsorship the most critical element to being able to do that?

Frye: Yes, definitely, because if you have a third car and it's not funded properly, all it does is affect your other two cars that would have been OK without the third, because you're taking money from them to subsidize the third.

Q: What's the status of your drivers, Joe and Sterling, for 2007?

Frye: We should be the same in 2007 with no changes. Sterling's deal is through next year and Joe is with us for multiple years.

Q: How about sponsorships -- is the U.S. Army deal year to year?

Frye: The Army is coming back next year. Waste Management, we anticipate that program will remain the same for next year, or maybe grow. It's all good stuff with them, and they've been a great partner.

	Sterling Marlin is 31st in points. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Sterling Marlin's career stats Starts 695 Wins 10 Top-5s 83 Top-10s 216 Poles 11 Laps Led 4,260 Avg. Start 19.1 Avg. Finish 18.3 Earnings $38,909,918 • Complete stats, click here

We're sitting down within the next couple of weeks to discuss with them what they want to do -- not so much 'if' but how they want to implement their program. Maybe it will get bigger and maybe they'll do more with it.

Q: Do you plan to continue your driver development and diversity programs?

Frye: We're going to expand it and we're going to expand it soon. We want to have our own in-house diversity program, while continuing with the D4D [Drive for Diversity] program with NASCAR.

Along with the drivers' side, we're trying to create an in-house program for others like marketing, PR, licensing, mechanics and truck drivers -- whatever. I'm not aware of another team that has a program like that, because it's not just about the drivers.

There are other opportunities within this sport to do other things, and we want to create a program that will be different from what others are doing.

Q: Structurally, will the team change?

Frye: The team won't really change -- there's really no difference in what we are now compared to what we had been. Again, we'll have more resources and more assets and more things that we can use to help us be better.

The day-to-day stuff probably won't change very much.

Q: Back when Bobby came in and was going to sponsor Bill Elliott for the Daytona 500 -- was there any talk about him becoming an owner? How did this develop?

Frye: Not back then. That worked out well, so it expanded into a three-race deal with Sterling. So that was great and it was going the right way -- we were growing the partnership.

Still, to get from there to where we are today, having a new ownership partner and now, 10 more races for Sterling with Ginn sponsorship, is a pretty big jump.

Q: There's got to be a lot of pride there, that MB2 was an attractive enough property to get this attention?

Frye: That whole thing about good things are supposed to happen to people that work hard and do the right thing, I feel, is what's happened here. That's our team, and this is a really good thing that's just happened to us.

We've got people who have worked for us for 10 years -- since we started. And this team deserves a break. This company deserves a break, because we've worked hard for it.

Bobby is our break. I don't know how to say it differently.

Bill Elliott drove the Ginn Resort's No. 36 car for MB2 in the Daytona 500, sparking the relationship between the sponsor and team. Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Q: Bobby, for a South Carolina guy that's always enjoyed NASCAR racing, this seems like a dream come true -- so is that the case?

Ginn: It is a dream, it really is. I may look back on it one day and say that it was a dream that really did happen because to me it is a dream come true.

Q: How did you go from a one-race sponsorship with Bill Elliott to being the majority owner of a Nextel Cup race team?

Ginn: It really isn't that strange. When we did the Bill Elliott thing, it was something that we had been contemplating for a long, long time.

It's funny sometimes how life just serves it up for you. If I had gotten the call at 11 o'clock that night saying we had a no-name driver that was going to drive for a no-name team and we could put our name on a car and run last in the Daytona 500 -- I never would have responded.

But when I got a call saying Bill Elliott was going to be driving a car for MB2, which I obviously knew about, and he was going to come out of retirement for a one-race deal in the 500, that made a difference.

For it to be Bill Elliott, who is statistically the most popular driver ever to drive a racecar, and to be the great driver that he was, and the great person that he was, for us to be able to do that at Daytona was just one of those things that worked out.

That was something we had been trying to integrate into what we did. But what caused it to move forward was the response that I had from employees and from owners and from the people that we do business with.

It was unbelievable -- a tidal wave of responses. People just couldn't stop asking me when we were going to do it again. I bet 75 percent of this company was watching television that day during the Daytona 500.

So we thought about taking it to another level and taking the next step, and we did that with Jay. But then we pretty much decided that we wanted to see if there was a team out there that we could invest in -- not to just be a sponsor, but because we were NASCAR fans, too, we thought it would be an opportunity.

Q: How did you go about that?

Ginn: We talked to a couple of other teams -- good teams -- and some of them were very serious, and some were casual. But Jay and I didn't talk about it for six months or so, but we kept moving forward.

But then the thing that probably really forced me into it was when I realized that there were teams that could be purchased. And when I did, I realized that if you ever were going to come in at a time when everybody was going to have a little hiccup in cars, it was going to be with the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow.

That would mean that everybody would have to re-tool and build new automobiles, and every team would have to go through testing and some glitches along the way.

Right now there are four teams that really dominate and even less than that -- and then there are a couple teams that pick up a couple races that are left. Bringing in the Car of Tomorrow was going to be a leveling of the field that may never occur again.

I knew I couldn't build a team -- that wasn't even part of my thought process. The barriers to getting into this sport like a good old boy pulling an engine out of something with a come-along and going racing ... well, that just doesn't happen any more.

This is a sophisticated sport in which a tenth of a second means the difference between first and 20th, with automobiles that are designed by computers and driven by guys that are a different breed today.

Q: Do you see this as the perfect synergy between the racing organization and your sports and resort businesses?

Ginn: What we're going to bring to Jay is some realize to his time, to go after sponsors and to put together the event-side of a NASCAR team. We're in that business and we understand that business so that's a natural for us and we'll be a part of that business.

Jay's been around the tracks for 10 years and not one person that I've spoken to has ever said a bad word about Jay. The feeling of the crew that he's got and the drivers he's got and his family, and our family -- there's a natural synergy there that fit in with what we're doing.

I don't profess to be knowledgeable enough to even think I could run the racing side of it, and that was one of the reasons that we decided that MB2 was the right pick, because here was a team that has been run by Jay for 10 years.

Nelson [Bowers, owner Ginn bought out] was supportive and helpful, but he wasn't a day-to-day guy. And I feel fortunate to have found this situation to get involved in.