HAMPTON, Ga. -- Steve Hmiel was introduced Friday as manager of competition for Chip Ganassi Racing -- and made no bones about why he made the move from Dale Earnhardt Inc.

A 30-year veteran in the sport who has been a part of multiple championship teams, Hmiel said he grew tired of NASCAR's new-school mentality where multi-car operations prevail and corporate bigwigs make decisions from corner offices in major metropolitan cities instead of tracks. Today, Hmiel said, it's difficult to "locate the guy who actually owns the place."

"At Chip Ganassi, you can make a phone call to Chip and say, 'Hey ...' It's the comfort of being able to contact the owner at any time," Hmiel said.

Hmiel will oversee the day-to-day operations -- building the cars -- whereas director John Fernandez will focus on long-term strategic planning. Both Hmiel and Fernandez will report directly to Chip Ganassi.

"I'm happily terrified," Hmiel said. "I intend to race another 20 years and I'm anxious to meet new challenges. Chip Ganassi has a real nice operation over there."

Despite a handful of high-profile brass leaving DEI for perceived greener pastures and alliances, team officials say the other 450 employees are committed to and focused on the new direction in which the organization is headed.

"We certainly have had some people leave a month ago, but it is because they wanted to go work for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports or they didn't want to race in an organization that didn't have Junior in it," said John Story, vice president of motorsports at DEI.

Hmiel and DEI parted company last week on amicable terms (complete story). However, Hmiel said the mid-season merger with Ginn Racing and lack of one-on-one communication contributed to his departure.

In July, Ginn and DEI combined resources to become a four-car Nextel Cup organization. In addition to losing Earnhardt Jr., his long-time crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr., announced his departure from DEI in September.

"Some people walked away, some people dropped out, some people lost faith and I had an opportunity to do some other things where it was a little bit smaller, a little bit more personal," said Hmiel, who was sporting a new black Ganassi Racing-emblazoned jacket around the Cup garage at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday, his first day on the job.

After Hmiel and DEI failed to agree on the direction of the company -- which is operated by Dale Earnhardt's widow Teresa -- both parties decided to go their separate ways, Story said. "It was an amicable split," he added. "Steve is very brilliant racer and did a lot of great things at DEI ... it was just time for a change." (Continued)