EGR's No. 8 car shutting down due to no sponsor

The car that Dale Earnhardt Jr. made famous is being shut down indefinitely.

The No. 8 car at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing is suspending operations due to a lack of sponsorship, the team confirmed Wednesday. The vehicle, driven this season by Aric Almirola, lost the backing of primary sponsor U.S. Army to Stewart-Haas Racing over the winter, and has raced this year on short-term deals.

EGR president Steve Lauletta said the suspension was something the team knew was a possibility, given that the No. 8 car opened the year without full-time backing.

"When we started last November forming Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, our plan was to go into the season and run the three cars, but we knew we needed funding for Aric's car in order to make that happen," Lauletta said. "... We did everything we could to find that one company that would jump on board and take a number of races to keep going, but we haven't had the time to do that just yet. It takes a long time, especially in these economic conditions, to bring a sponsorship to closure. While we were doing that, we just couldn't continue to keep going to the race track without the proper funding from a sponsor perspective."

Almirola said he knew the No. 8 team had enough money to get to Texas, but after that there were no guarantees. He learned Monday night that the team had suspended operations.

"I've been kept abreast of everything going on, and it wasn't a secret we were looking for sponsors. So surprise is not the right word," he said. "But definitely a little bit if a disappointment, because I'm a race car driver and I love to race. I want to do nothing more than be at the race track every week and race, but I understand the situation, for sure. I understand it takes a lot of money to show up on the race track every weekend. And when you don't have it, you don't have it. We have to work hard at trying to go find it."

Sources indicate that about 40 employees risk losing jobs in the suspension. Lauletta said the No. 8 program would be revived if sponsorship were to be found. Almirola's car has carried the colors of four different sponsors in its seven races this season. The 25-year-old Tampa native stands 37th in owners' points, by far the lowest of the three full-time EGR cars. Juan Montoya is 13th and Martin Truex Jr. 24th (owners' points).

"We're talking to a lot of companies. We had a couple of companies with us at Texas," said Lauletta, referring to the site of last weekend's Sprint Cup event. "We've been doing this one [race] at a time, two at a time, three at a time, and it's really tough to do that. So we decided to not go to Phoenix and get ourselves to the point where we can get that sponsor that will believe in Aric and market around Aric and help our team. Once we do that, we'll be back with the 8 on the track."

Almirola is still under contract with EGR, Lauletta said, although he added the organization would consider talking to other teams interested in providing the driver with seat time while the No. 8 car is shut down.

"At the point that I'm at in my career, I'm not a seasoned veteran by any means, so every day I'm in the race car I feel like I'm learning something new and getting better," Almirola said. "Seat time is extremely important to me. But it costs money. Even to go test, it costs money. The moral of the story or the bottom line or however you want to put it is, you need money to do those kinds of things. So every day that goes by that I'm not in a race car and somebody else is, I feel like I'm at a disadvantage."

Lauletta also reiterated that there are no clauses in the contract of Truex's car sponsor, Bass Pro Shops, that demand at least two full-time teammates.

"Bass Pro and Target and Martin and Juan, everybody understands what we're doing and they all buy into it," Lauletta said. "So there are no changes coming on the 42 [car of Montoya] or the 1 [car of Truex], and we're just going to keep doing what we need to do to get those cars into the Chase and performing where we need to them perform."