Smack: More changes in store at Ganassi Racing?

1. What's going on over at Chip Ganassi Racing, where they just announced a swap of crew chiefs? And does swapping crew chiefs at mid-season ever really accomplish much, or is it a Band-Aid attempt at covering up bigger problems?

David Caraviello: It worked wonders for Dale Earnhardt. RCR was one of the first to try it, and swapping Larry McReynolds and Kevin Hamlin seemed to rejuvenate the Intimidator's career.

Joe Menzer: Well, I do have to say that sometimes a crew-chief change makes a difference. I certainly think it did last season when Pat Tryson jumped in at Penske Racing for driver Kurt Busch.

Mark Aumann: Well, it seems to work every once in a while -- and usually only is a short-term fix -- which is why teams try it. But to me, it's just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I think it's a precursor to making a major move. And Chip's never been shy about pulling the trigger.

Joe Menzer: In this case, you have to wonder what the problems are with those teams at Ganassi. Montoya is hanging in there -- 17th in points, I think -- but not making the big leap forward I thought he might.

David Caraviello: I think the swap is the first, logical thing to try. Maybe all they need is a fresh outlook on things. But of course, if it doesn't work ... then more drastic measures come into play.

Mark Aumann: Certainly Ganassi has to believe that he'd get more bang for his buck this season, with Sorenson getting another year of experience and Montoya now having run all the tracks.

Joe Menzer: And Sorenson has been terrible, except for in the Daytona 500. Franchitti has struggled about like I thought he would.

Mark Aumann: I'm guessing he thought Franchitti would perhaps equal Montoya's success last season, but we haven't seen it so far. He just looks lost right now.

David Caraviello: Montoya hasn't been terrible, but those other two cars have been severe disappointments. Sorenson is a head-scratcher. He seemed like a can't-miss kid coming up out of the lower ranks.

Autostock

Chip Ganassi

Crew chief swap

Trying to turn Reed Sorenson's season around, Chip Ganassi has moved Juan Montoya's crew chief, Donnie Wingo, to the No. 41 team and sent Sorenson's crew chief Jimmy Elledge to the No. 42.

• Complete story, click here

Mark Aumann: Wonder if it makes him pine for the days of Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears?

Joe Menzer: No one should have expected Franchitti, as talented a driver as he may be, to be able to drop everything and make a competitive jump as quickly and cleanly as Ganassi obviously thought he could. At least Montoya had a little bit of time in the car before jumping in full-time, and let's face it, more experience in other forms of racing prior to making the leap, too.

David Caraviello: But no one expected Dario to be utterly uncompetitive, either. He's in the back every week, Joe. JPM didn't struggle this mightily. And Dario has much more oval track experience, and Montoya to lean on. You've got to wonder, now that the U.S. open wheel series have been unified, how much some of these former Indy-car guys are thinking of going back.

Joe Menzer: Dario might be thinking of it more and more every week these days!

Mark Aumann: Rumors have swirled around Sam Hornish Jr., especially since Penske has a No. 77 entered at Indy. But I just can't see that happening if he's still in the top 35 by then.

David Caraviello: Either way, I think it's clear that the craze of hiring former open-wheel drivers has run its course. These guys need to do more scouting and find some of these short-track drivers looking for a break.

Mark Aumann: I don't see Dario going back because of Ashley's safety concerns. He did a Michael McDowell impersonation last season.

Joe Menzer: So getting back to the meat of this question, why the heck can't Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates get over the hump and win races consistently in this series? Is it because Chip keeps looking for shortcuts, like hiring all these open-wheel guys, when maybe he should have stayed the course with some others?

Mark Aumann: I think it's because they have three drivers without the depth of experience in this type of racing. There's no veteran leader -- Jeff Burton -- who can pull things together. And to be honest, the Dodges are way behind right now on intermediate tracks. There's no way Kurt Busch is this mediocre.

Joe Menzer: Do they have all the other resources together that they need -- meaning back at the shop? Visiting that place on the media tour two years ago, it sure looked like it.

David Caraviello: Remember, they would have won a championship had Sterling Marlin not gotten hurt. It's been all downhill from there.

2. The Nationwide Series heads to Mexico City again this weekend, but this time without defending race champion and South American hero Juan Montoya. Has this out-of-country experience outlived whatever usefulness it once had?

Mark Aumann: It's a cool trip to make once. But I'm not sure I'd like to have that become a permanent addition to my schedule. The facilities are spartan at best -- the media center is an old Quonset hut. And you have to bus back and forth between the hotel and the track.

Joe Menzer: It's interesting to me that Montoya is out and Dave Rodman is in. I would love to be a fly on the wall there this weekend to see our esteemed NASCAR.com colleague's reaction if a fly lands in his soup -- or something worse happens.

Adrian Fernandez

• By the Numbers: Mexico
• H2H: Mexico race good idea?
• Track Page
• Race Central

David Caraviello: I don't think this race has outlived its usefulness -- at least not yet. Let's remember, the goal here isn't to win fans in Mexico City. It's to win Hispanic fans in the United States. Whether that's happening, I'm not sure. But JPM not showing up is no reason to pull the plug.

Mark Aumann: I realize that Mexico City is the capital, and business center of the country. But I'd love to see that race in Monterrey. It'd be a shorter haul, safer and you might get U.S. fans to attend.

Joe Menzer: I must admit that I'm a little surprised JPM didn't find a way to go back there. I understand that Ganassi wants him to focus on Cup racing only, but in this case, especially since he won it last year, I think they should have found a way to have him in the race.

Mark Aumann: I think he realized how precious these off-weeks truly are. And he's shown that once he accomplishes something (like winning Indy), he's not that hot on worrying about repeating.

David Caraviello: I'm sure as usual there will be a strong showing by Hispanic drivers, as there usually is. Now, they may not be threats to win, like Montoya was, but the locals will have people to cheer for.

Joe Menzer: Well, there are six Mexican-born racers in it, right? And Adrian Fernandez is driving for JR Motorsports, which makes him a popular pre-race favorite two ways.

Mark Aumann: Well, if Adrian Fernandez finally pulls it off, the place will go crazy.

David Caraviello: But you'd think a strong JPM run at Mexico could give the Ganassi boys a little positive momentum. They'll probably take all they can get right about now.

Joe Menzer: I think, just to be different and because my wife is 100 percent Irish, I'm going to be pulling for Max Papis of Italy.

Mark Aumann: But you have to believe that Scott Pruett is now the odds-on favorite. He had that race in the bag before Juan gave him the chrome horn.

David Caraviello: Oh lord, not this argument again. Pruett came down on him. Juan had inside position.

Joe Menzer: I love that expression -- "the chrome horn."

David Caraviello: I loved it that time at Riverside when Weatherly gave Flock the chrome tuba.

Mark Aumann: Now wait just a minute.

Joe Menzer: Getting back to locals to pull for in Mexico, one thing's for sure: Ruben Pardo is no Juan Montoya. Is Ruben related to the game-show host guy, Don Pardo? Now if Don Pardo was doing the P.A. announcing ...

David Caraviello: The big question here is going to be attendance. We've seen the crowds for this race drop quite dramatically from that massive turnout they had for the inaugural event. You wonder if the novelty has worn off.

Mark Aumann: The grandstands were pretty barren. But as someone said, that's not a great spot to see much action. Still, if you think the economy here is hurting attendance, it's got to be worse there.

David Caraviello: And even if they draw, say, 40,000, that's a huge improvement from what standalone Nationwide events have drawn at some U.S. tracks. Remember that one at Martinsville a few years ago? Ghost town.

Joe Menzer: Speaking of economic issues, what about the massive costs incurred by teams that go there to race. From what I understand, it's a logistical nightmare for all of them -- and financially as well.

David Caraviello: It is a terrific expense, Joe. Swapping out trucks, meeting for the convoy at Laredo, heading to Mexico City escorted by national policemen, the additional insurance ... it ain't cheap.

Joe Menzer: I agree with Mark. If you must keep going to Mexico to race, find another track somewhere near a resort area and race there. Then you could rotate the venues. I just don't know if such alternatives exist there.

David Caraviello: And you could still court the U.S. Hispanic market, maybe even more effectively. But is that facility up to speed? The place in Mexico City is a former Formula One track.

Mark Aumann: The hotel costs there are right up there, too. And guys like Jack Roush are riding the bus to the track with their crews. That's not something you see every week.

David Caraviello: Hey, they've seen Man on Fire. Hope Dave didn't watch it before he went down.

Mark Aumann: I hope Dave took a dictionary of Spanish phrases.

3. Are BAM Racing's sponsorship woes indicative of the economic situation as a whole? Is this a sign of things to come for smaller teams?

Joe Menzer: All you have to do to answer that question is look at what happened to Petty Enterprises. They lost their General Mills sponsorship and, well, I hope they have something else lined up, but who knows? And that's Petty Enterprises, fellas. The most storied organization in NASCAR history. And they got dissed by a sponsor and don't appear to have another heavy hitter lined up -- at least not yet.

David Caraviello: This is completely indicative of the economic situation as a whole. With so much corporate involvement, NASCAR is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to a recession.

Joe Menzer: Ah, the canary in the coal mine -- almost as good as "the chrome horn." I guess you could say General Mills gave the chrome horn to Petty Enterprises and killed the canary in the coal mine in the process.

Beth Ann Morgenthau

Bye for now

BAM Racing was supposed to return to the Cup Series at Talladega but s primary sponosr issue has forced the team to hold off racing until the fall.

• Complete story, click here

Mark Aumann: It's not like we haven't been seeing this coming. We've lost Cal Wells and Morgan-McClure in recent years.

David Caraviello: Correct, Mark. This is nothing new. Sponsorship dries up in tough economic times, especially for struggling teams like BAM.

Mark Aumann: The Yates folks are running two cars without sponsorship.

Joe Menzer: Yeah, how long can that go on with Yates?

Mark Aumann: Well, I guessing Ford's keeping them supplied -- and as long as they're in the top 35, there's no reason for Doug to pull the plug.

David Caraviello: Strange thing is, some of those Yates cars have been running pretty well. They've had some top-20 runs of late, not bad for a team with no backing. That keeps hope alive. Makes you wonder what they could do with a sponsor.

Mark Aumann: It's just so hard when large companies put together their marketing plan months in advance -- so if you don't hit their window, you're out of luck.

Joe Menzer: They deserve sponsorship, as does, obviously, Petty. But in Yates' case, at least, I'm not sure that means they get any of the heavy hitters to come on board in these bad economic times.

Mark Aumann: And it comes down to "how much exposure am I getting for the money?" If you're running 30th and never getting mentioned on television, can you get $12-15 million from a shrinking pool of folks willing to hand over that kind of scratch?

Joe Menzer: I think the bigger picture of concern here is this: is it getting so expensive that ultimately all the little guys will be completely run out of the sport? And then you have like six or seven mega-teams and a few fillers each week? That could lead to smaller fields, say maybe 40-car fields, down the road.

David Caraviello: And this BAM thing, as difficult as it is, is no different. It's survival of the fittest out there, boys.

Mark Aumann: I guess I'd agree, David, except that Ganassi's still looking for full-time sponsorship -- and Childress may need someone to step up for the No. 31 in '09. It's hitting more than just the bottom-feeders. And yet fully-funded teams like Red Bull are still fighting to make every race. It's a mystery.

David Caraviello: Also playing into this is the fact that so many big teams have so many sponsors. Roush, it seems, has three or four for every car. Why would you sponsor BAM for a full season when you can get a piece of Matt Kenseth for a fraction of the price?

Mark Aumann: And that seems to be the wave of the future. The costs are rising faster than the number of folks willing to pay full freight. Look at Home Depot, selling off a few races to Subway.

Joe Menzer: That right there says it all. Why would you pay the bigger dollars to get on a car that isn't going to get the exposure? The simple answer: you won't.

David Caraviello: And then there are the Nationwide sponsors, who get their Cup driver in that series, rather than paying the price for Cup. The little teams are fighting all of this.

Mark Aumann: It's just beginning to price itself out of the market. So what's the answer, guys?

Joe Menzer: As nice a story as the top-20 runs are for Yates Racing, I'm pretty sure even that is not enough exposure for the folks who might be willing to invest the $15 million or whatever it takes to be a primary sponsor.

David Caraviello: Isn't the new car supposed to lower costs and make everyone more competitive?

Joe Menzer: I think what we're finding with the new car is what many folks said we would -- I remember one conversation in particular with Ray Evernham -- if you save X on one side of your program, you're just going to spend X somewhere else.

Mark Aumann: But the rolling stock is probably the smallest item on the budget. I'm guessing personnel, transportation and testing take up the overwhelming majority of each team's budget. And that's something that's going to be hard to reverse.

Joe Menzer: What I'm saying is that if you give a team $20 million to spend, they'll find a way to spend $20 million -- no matter what car is being run. Same if it's $25 mil or $10 mil. And the big boys like Hendrick and Roush and Joe Gibbs Racing are always going to be getting the most money. Maybe RCR, too.

Mark Aumann: As they say, want to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writers