Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing to merge

You could see this coming.

Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, two of NASCAR's struggling mid-tier teams, agreed Wednesday to merge starting next season.

The new team will have four Sprint Cup cars -- the No. 1 for Martin Truex Jr. and No. 8 for Aric Almirola from DEI, and the No. 42 of Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya -- along with the No. 41 with a driver to be named later. Reed Sorenson currently drives that car for Ganassi, but he's already announced plans to leave.

With the sour economy making it tough for all teams to secure sponsors, teams like these -- mid-size outfits that aren't winning races -- are especially vulnerable.

That was apparent earlier this year when owner Chip Ganassi abruptly shuttered his No. 40 Cup team, leaving former Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti without a ride. Franchitti has since returned to Ganassi's IndyCar Series team.

And on Tuesday, the one-car Cup team of Furniture Row Racing -- which fields the No. 78 car driven by Joe Nemechek -- said it would run only a limited schedule next year because the economy "looks to be getting even tougher."

It's a safe bet that more announcements like these are coming.

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, pits during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race last Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Rusty Jarrett /Getty Images for NASCAR.