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Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing to merge

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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.

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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

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