The state of Sprint Cup racing is such, in these trying economic times, that a 28-year-old whose best career finish and only top-10 is seventh, might have a profound effect on two organizations -- Yates Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- whose desire is to number seven race teams total in 2009.

Menard on the move

"I think a lot of what Doug Yates and Max Jones are doing over there is building for continued success. I'm excited to be a part of their future," Paul Menard said as he announced he will drive for Yates Racing in 2009.

• More

On Tuesday it was announced that Paul Menard would leave DEI, the organization for which he's made all but one of his 68 career Cup starts and about 90 percent of his total starts since graduating to NASCAR's national tours in 2003, to facilitate a third team in 2009 at Yates Racing.

For Yates, whose co-owner and general manager, Max Jones, said on Saturday at Kansas Speedway that his organization was already prepared to run its No. 28 and 38 Ford Fusions next season for drivers Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland, it marks the next step in a systematic process.

"When Doug and I started this, it was a two-car team, and our hopes and dreams were to eventually make it a three-car team and a four-car team -- that's the ultimate goal," Jones said. "Any time you start off, that's what you want to do, and to be healthy in this sport, I think you have to."

Even before Menard's deal was consummated, Jones was optimistic, saying "we're on target to run three cars if we can put the sponsorship together," though running four was beyond the team's immediate capability, he said.

While Jones said Yates Racing was in position to scramble and run two cars for Kvapil and Gilliland already, the sponsorship provided by Paul Menard's father, John Menard Jr., who was ranked 127th on the 2008 Forbes' Billionaires List with a net worth of $7.3 billion thanks to his business empire that includes the Midwest-based chain of Menards home improvement stores, secures its short-term future as a three-car operation.

Jones said the plusses of having another teammate to assist Kvapil and Gilliland, who are currently 24th and 27th in the Sprint Cup owner points, respectively, far out-weighed the cost.

"There's a lot of infrastructure in place at Yates that we've established, with the two cars," Jones said. "There's an incremental cost, obviously, to start a third team because you've got to build cars or buy cars and hire people and get pit carts and trucks and trailers and capital expenditures.

"But the data and the information and the third driver -- that's why you have multi-car teams and that information is valuable enough that I think it would bring our team up to the next level by having another teammate in there to help."

But as secure as Jones says Yates has become, DEI is currently faced with one of the most confounding and downright alarming facts of Sprint Cup racing late in the 2008 year.

Seven races from the end of the season, and with four race teams solidly entrenched in NASCAR's "magical" top 35 in the owner standings, the organization is looking at beginning the 2009 season in five months with only one of its four teams sponsored.

"The goal still is to run four teams out of this facility in 2009, and we do have assets that very few race teams in our sport have, which is four cars in the top 30," DEI's vice president of motorsports, John Story, said. "Those are tremendous assets to have on our side, and there's a tremendous amount of value to be placed on that.

"And the reason that we have four cars in the top 30 is that we have four really strong race teams. And our program is far better than a lot of people, quite frankly, are willing to give us credit for, and [the achievements] are due in large part to the people we have here.

"We're going to work hard to make sure that we [keep] those good people here and we're able to run four cars out of here next year."

Martin Truex Jr., whose No. 1 Chevrolet made the Chase in 2007 but missed the playoffs this year, is the only DEI program that's fully sponsored for 2009. Story said DEI is moving its No. 8 program, which has rookie driver Aric Almirola under contract for 2009, ahead knowing the U.S. Army won't return as the sponsor of the team that is the most highly positioned in the owner standings, in 15th.

Regan Smith has raced all season in DEI's No. 01 Chevrolet with partial sponsorship and has been the highest-finishing rookie a league-leading nine times, which has him atop the rookie standings. With Menard's departure, the No. 15 he's driven for more than two seasons is locked-into the Daytona 500 but nothing else is secure.

"We're certainly sorry to see Paul move on, and we wish him the best in his future," Story said. "We worked hard to keep his program in-house. It was his decision to leave and he didn't share his comments [about why] with me other than it certainly wasn't a performance issue.

"We have really strong racecars and race teams and great people and [the decision] certainly wasn't pinned on performance. I do know that."

In his 67 starts in DEI Cup cars, Menard has seven DNFs. This season, in 29 races he has 15 finishes from 11th and 25th, with five more between 25th and 29th. He's led 22 laps between the two restrictor-plate tracks, Daytona and Talladega, by far the most in his career. This year, Menard is 28th in both driver and owner points.

The loss of the Menards sponsorship was arguably an even bigger blow than the development potential Paul Menard has.

"Certainly when you lose a driver and a sponsor, it knocks you back on your heels a little bit," Story said. "But we have to replace a driver and a sponsor now, so we'll have to work doubly hard."

That's something that Jones laughed about before saying that "when you're in NASCAR at this top level, I think every year is like dog years in that it takes about three years off your life, but I enjoy it and I wouldn't trade anything in the world for it."

The two Yates Racing cars had no sponsorship in place during Daytona testing in January and have scrambled all season to keep the cars covered for most of their races. Jones said that would probably continue next season, but he was as comfortable as he could be about it.

"I can tell you that it's been a lot more stressful and a lot more nerve-wracking than I ever dreamed it would be," said Jones, who's admitted to setting loftier than reasonable goals. "I'm proud of the guys and what we've accomplished. I'm a little short on what my expectations were, but I guess the part that makes me feel good about it is I've got so many people that come up to me and say, 'Man, you guys are doing great.'

"I guess when I look at where we park in the garage, and where we finish and what we've done in a short period of time -- less than a year and starting from square one -- I think it's probably a great accomplishment.

"I feel like we're getting better and stronger every week and that we'll come out next year a lot better as far as having a group of guys that have worked together for a period of time."

Jones said the sponsorship dance would continue.

"We don't have a lot of things [signed for 2009], but we've got a lot of things in the works -- but we don't have anything pinned down," Jones said. "It's going to take more than one sponsor to make our deal work, so we're working real hard with our partners who are on board for next year and trying to see how it all fits and how we're going to construct the sponsorship for our cars.

Track Smack

Paul Menard will leave DEI for Yates after this season. What does this mean for Yates, and where does this leave DEI?

• More

"It's going better than I thought and it seems like in the last month, a lot of activity has started and we feel good about it. A lot of sponsors want to be in the sport and they know it works on a marketing side, but they can't write a check for the full year on a car. That's probably the way of the sport and what it costs to run.

"There's new money coming in. We've had Hitachi Power Tools, which had never been in the sport, and Academy Sports + Outdoors on our [28] car this weekend, which had never been in the sport, and we're looking at sponsors who are returning for more money than they were paying last year."

Faced with the same harsh economic reality, DEI has looked at everything possible, including partnerships.

"We have been looking at all kinds of opportunities to get stronger," Story said. "And whatever form or fashion that takes -- we look at things every day, whether that's partnerships or taking an approach [of multiple sponsors] that many other teams have in the past.

"We look at each of those opportunities as they're presented to us and to date we've not found anything we're particularly attracted to. That's not to say that there won't be something good presented to us in the future, but the economy is certainly not good and there aren't a tremendous number of new sponsors coming to the sport.

"There are a couple of sponsors still sitting out there waiting to make their team and driver selection for 2009, and we feel like we're fairly well-positioned with several of them and we're continuing to pursue those and try to create some new activity as well, over these next four or five months."

Despite some shuffling going on with other teams that know this year's driver lineup won't continue into next, Story said DEI has no such plans.

"We have no plans to make any changes between now and the end of the year," Story said. "We've got seven weeks left and we will finish the season with four cars in the top 35, which is a tremendous statement and something that we're very proud of now and we'll be extremely proud of coming out of Homestead. Our guys have done a really nice job this year and that's exactly how we'll finish the season."

After that, Story said no consideration has been given to establishing deadlines or time frames that might involve restructuring teams or cutting staff.

"We honestly haven't talked about a timeline or a timetable," Story said. "Certainly we have to find [sponsorship], but the way we look at it, I suppose, is that we've got until the time they fire engines for the Daytona 500 to make sure we have four well-funded programs."