THE BEGINNING OF THE END (featuring S1apSh0es)

the business of owning and operating a race team has often been as unpredictable and dangerous is actually driving the cars even the most successful teams have at times been on the brink of collapse countless others have disappeared altogether leaving the rest of us to wonder what went wrong in slap shoes series liars thieves and lawyers we've seen many of the most infamous examples from nascar's past and present but in terms of magnitude one team's implosion stands out from all the rest in the early 2000s mb2 motorsports was a consistent if unspectacular mid-pack team they had hired drivers featured on this channel before including jerry nader and johnny benson jr in 2006 mb2 had a new shop but old drivers and began to doubt if they'd ever compete for a championship but then came a real estate mogul from south carolina a man with grand ideas of elevating the team into one of the series biggest super teams mb2 thought they were getting a fresh start a new lease on life but instead it was the beginning of the end [Music] j fry and joe tell us about that the kansas sweep for your team this year hey john hunter oh my gosh incredible incredible day oh what a day for the army chevrolet valvoline centrics hendrick motorsports building our engines awesome rick killer motor man thank you very much in may 1996 rick hendrick picked up new sponsorship from the eminem mars company who wanted him to start a fourth winston cup team hendrick wasn't ready to do so but had some friends who wanted to break into racing so he directed employee jay fry to meet with reed morton nelson bowers ii and tom beard to give their team a name morton bowers and beard used the first letter of each of their names mbb or mb2 mb2 motorsports mb2 would operate as hendrick's sister team using hendrick engines they stayed with general motors but ran pontiacs instead of hendrix chevrolets mb2 signed derrick cope and went racing in 1997. for nearly six full seasons mb2 developed into a steady mid-pack team which tended to hire veteran drivers over newcomers after cope came ernie irvin and kenny schroeder jerry nadu joined as a relief driver after irvin retired in 99 and rejoined the team full-time in 2003. by then mb2 was a two-car operation after their 2000 merger with tyler jet motorsports nadu's teammate johnny benson jr gave mb2 motorsports its first win at rockingham but by the end of 2003 both benson and nadu were off the team gone along with them was pontiac which scaled back their nascar program at the end of the year in 2004 mb2 stayed with general motors and hendrick fielding chevrolets for veteran joe nemechek and rookie scott riggs nemechek scored the team their second win in a thrilling last lap battle with ricky rudd coming out of turn four white flag this time this is good stuff right here man it is a mile and a half to go now watch joe joe should be able to drive it way in deep here the car doesn't slide up the racetrack too much he'll be able to hold it and then run side by side down the back stretch joe nemechek story is well known lost his brother john in a craftsman truck racing accident at homestead when joe was competing in las vegas his family encouraged him to continue racing oh here comes run he's got to run but nima jekyll mirror block him now rudd is a veteran to the apron but it's never checked with the win at kansas riggs struggled through his rookie season but rebounded in speedweek's 2005. jeff gordon's gonna win his third daytona 500 kirkbush dale jr and scott briggs completes a dream week with a fourth place finish on august 22nd 2005 rig's earned the best cup series finish of his career thanks to the strategy of his new crew chief rigg's finished runner-up to jeremy mayfield in a fuel mileage race at michigan his crew chief rodney childers yes that rodney elders despite their measured improvements things were changing fast behind the scenes bowers bought out morton and beard and he held an 80 interest in mb2 motorsports with jay frye holding the remaining 20 percent then on june 29th came word that valvoline was leaving mb2 the destination was evernham motorsports the same team rigs had lost to at michigan when that news broke on july 1 mb2 still wanted to keep both rigs and childers but needed a new sponsor while the u.s army had re-upped with the number zero one team on july 8 the future of the number 10 team was still very much up in the air time ran out on august 27th just five days after michigan where riggs and childers confirmed they would follow valvoline to evernham while the pair would even take the number 10 with them they would not get to keep riggs's rank and owner points this proved critical under the top 35 rule which locked the top 35 and owner points into each race thus while riggs would ultimately fall short of racing his way into the 2006 daytona 500 both of mb2's cars had guaranteed starting spots once again mb2 signed a veteran and one of the best to ever run at daytona two-time 500 winner sterling marlin the 2005 season was his eighth and last for felix zabatas and chip ganassi on october 26th he signed a two-year contract with mb2 as driver of their second team he'd run the number 14 honoring marlin's late father cuckoo marlon who passed away that august his crew chief would be doug randolph who worked with scott riggs before rodney childers took over and on november 19th came the elusive sponsorship deal from waste management but unlike nemechek's full season backing from the army waste management would only be the primary sponsor for 12 of the 36 races which was scaling back to an associate for the other 24. the hunt for sponsorship would have to continue into the next year on february 6 2006 came where the mv2 would field a third car bringing back the part-time number 36 that road racer boris said had run this time they would hire still another living legend and bill elliott the car had previously been sponsored by centric's auto finance but that sponsor would now help keep marlin's number 14 as a full-time entry in its place was a company that was sponsoring a nascar team for the very first time a brand that in just 17 months would go from a saving grace to a harbinger of doom gin clubs and resorts legally known as edward r again the real estate mogul preferred to go by the nickname bobby by 2006 the 57 year old from south carolina had been building his empire for decades but his journey had been anything but smooth he started working for his father in 1969 building government-funded homes for farmers in georgia in the carolinas he graduated from military school then majored in business at the university of south carolina but when his father became ill gin left school to help with the business the company had grown rapidly and by 1975 gin had branched out into building condominiums and golf courses but with this growth came some serious errors in judgment as gin expanded into florida during the late 70s he did business with the infamous butcher brothers two bankers from tennessee when the butchers were convicted of fraud and sentenced to 20 years in prison genn pleaded ignorance in 1985 after congress deregulated the savings and loan industry genn tried to buy out two rival developers in his native south carolina the resulting company hilton head holdings was so deep in debt that it folded within a year soon all over the low country of south carolina cars carried bumper stickers that read honk if bobby owes you money in 1988 gin declared bankruptcy and moved to charleston but ginn didn't disappear altogether when he came out of bankruptcy in 1994 he vowed he had learned from his past mistakes and was more careful than ever in selecting his business partners he found a new partner in the lubert elder firm from philadelphia and established a new base of operations in celebration florida south of orlando there genn incorporated his new business in 1998 the gin company and set to work on his latest vision resorts designed for aging baby boomers among his brain trust were golfing legends tom watson arnold palmer and jack nicholas who helped him design three new golf courses bob again is one of the few developers who truly understands the game of golf nicholas said through his spokesperson he understands the importance and the value of what the golf facility brings to the overall development according to his website gin reported more than 1 billion in real estate sales for the year of 2004 and he had nearly 30 000 acres of property either in planning or under development all of this was to boost one of his subsidiaries against sports entertainment which sought to extend the gin brand into professional sports building on gin's passion for golf the group had already signed endorsement deals with golf starring nika sorensdam and also spread into tennis with professional player harry gilbert but pretty soon ginn set his sights on a different sport entirely for reasons not clearly known that led him to mb2 motorsports and the deal to sponsor bill elliot and the great american race gin would immediately earn exposure at daytona not only did bill elliot qualify for the daytona 500 but he locked himself in with his qualifying speed he also finished 17th in his gatorade duel much of the chagrin of derrick cope and mike skinner who believed they were locked in a photo finish for the final transfer spot elliott rolled off 33rd led on lap 126 and finished in 19th for joe nemechek and sterling marlin it was a race to forget and their qualifiers nemechek blew an engine and marlon wrecked both wrecked again in the 500 and finished 33rd and 34th nevertheless gin stepped up his sponsorship with mb2 since elliot's run was a one-off he turned his attention to marlins number 14 putting gin logos on his car at martinsville daytona in charlotte gin would also add a fourth race the may 11th round at darlington the daytona car would be designed by three teenage campers from camp boggy creek a sister camp of victory junction for seriously ill children easter seals sponsored the decklid of this car a charity selected after a go-kart race between marlin and bill elliott ginn also agreed to sponsor mb2's development driver craig kinser in the craftsman truck series starting at martinsville and their drive for diversity candidate jesus hernandez both had already yielded results on july 15th hernandez became the first hispanic driver to win at hickory while kinser had won the arc race at talladega from the pole then on july 8th came even bigger news bobby ginn was investing in mb2 motorsports and as always the developer went big on july 26th gin confirmed that he had purchased nelson bauer's entire 80 interest in the team leaving only the twenty percent already owned by chief operating officer jay fry this immediately solved two problems the team was facing as part of the acquisition ginn would fully sponsor sterling marlin for another 10 races in 2006. ginn also declared a rumored merger with dei was off the table jay frey said it seems mb2 has the potential for eventually keeping pace with tidal caliber powerhouses such as hendrick motorsports and roush racing he added that gin's investment would also make it easier for the team to land additional sponsors ginn wasn't the first person to invest so heavily in a nascar team often the best way for an outsider to break into nascar was to purchase a team that was on the verge of closing in 1999 jim mattei and john porter purchased the remaining assets of jeffrey bodine's struggling owner driver team to form mate motorsports the next year jack birmingham bought buhari racing to form eel river racing but in most of those cases aspiring owners bought single car teams ginn took on a two-car team and looked to expand it even further he wanted to run four teams in 2007 adding two drivers to join marlin and nemechek he did so believing nascar's new car of tomorrow would level the playing field bobby gin's first race as a nascar cup series team owner was the brickyard 400 at indianapolis his cars ran 24th and 31st it wasn't the best outcome but ginn was already shopping for drivers one year after his salute to you tour mark martin was still running full time in the cup series for roush racing he again made noise about scaling back to a part-time effort in 2007 but in may that he clarified that he wanted that schedule to include the all-star race for much of the season the press hounded mark martin on two questions who would he drive for and who would take over his old ride at roush on june 5th mark denied rumors that he'd be driving for robert yates racing including one rumor that he'd even buy the team benny erdell mark martin's business manager denied this on august 13th mark martin firmly denied that he would be returning as an owner driver which had been a disaster for him in his first season in the sport august 26 saw new rumors of a ride with no fear racing the frankie stoddard on team which ran roush equipment with boris said driving even michael waltrip racing was in the conversation although they said they couldn't accommodate mark martin's part-time schedule well yet as to mark martin's replacement the driver had been todd cleaver cleaver had been rumored to take over for mark as early as june 24th though on may 16th he was in the hot seat and there were rumors that he'd be let go by roush racing due to poor performance on the 4th of july came news that cleaver would make his cup debut and a fifth car for roush racing the 0-6 at chicagoland cleaver finished 28th his first of seven planned races before going full time in 2007. on august 19th mark seems certain cleaver was the guy the six car is set right now he said todd's going to drive the car the whole plan for 2006 has been to work as hard as we could to get todd ready to take over the six car we're still doing that martin would be even more firm on september the first when he insisted wherever he went he wasn't going to drive roush's number six in 2007. i've never once this year thought or considered driving it again in 2007. he said i've driven it 19 years that's enough for the six card me cleaver however wasn't so sure the rumors are just that there's speculation he said in all honesty i've talked to mark about this i'm worried about this weekend i'm not really worried about next year i'm very realistic i live for the weekend rumors are rumors and if i go out and win the bush race this weekend they all seem to disappear the plans are still that i will be driving the six car next year on october 5th with the future of the six card now a toss-up between cleaver and david reagan nascar.com broke the most surprising news of all mark martin would drive for bobby ginn while his team wasn't performing all that strong on the track bobby ginn was hard at work preparing for 2007. on september 20th jay fry confirmed the team was interested in hiring a bush series driver who was out performing for team rentzy regan smith gary dehart became director of shop operations the team would also hire motocross star ricky carmichael to a driver development deal joining a now crowded trio with craig kinser and jesus hernandez in december ginn would bring his group to a test in lakeland florida on october 6th one day after nascar.com broke the news gin confirmed he had landed mark martin for his first part-time season in 2007. he would drive the us army chevrolet bumping joe nemechek to a new third cup team the number 13. sterling marla would remain in the number 14 resulting in perhaps the oldest multi-car team in nascar history nemechek was 43 martin was 47 and marlon was 49 by joining the team martin's own driver development program would join gins adding to the roster matt bowers and mark's son matt martin both 15 years old ginn denied rumors that the team would switch from chevrolet to ford and also denied that martin would gain a part-ownership of the team martin's schedule would cover 20 races in 2007 including the budweiser shootout in the all-star race he would later agree to continue to run part-time for the team in 2008. martin would then serve as driver coach in the remaining races regan smith would pilot the number zero one ford was less than thrilled that one of their biggest names had joined the bowtie brigade among them were dan davis ford's director of racing technology owners such as bobby ginn are willing to pay an enormous salary for a part-time driver he said on november 18th jack roush had bought back martin's share of the number 17 team for which matt kenseth drove while mb2's previous arrangement with the us army would continue through 2007 ginn remained vague on how well-funded both his number 13 and number 14 teams would be if we don't have a full sponsor it'll be the company he said of nemechek's number 13 of marlin's team he only said i think waste management is back we've got a couple of others that are close on november 10th when ginn confirmed their crew chief lineups he said only that team sponsors for the number 13 and number 14 will be announced at a later date even more troubling both marlon and nemechek were now on the wrong side of the top 35 line marlin finished the year's 74 points out of the top 35 while nemechek's new team didn't have any owner points to rely on poor runs like they had in the 2006 duels would mean an early trip home on november 21st 2006 mb2 motorsports was no more the three-car team was renamed gin racing curiously the domain name ginracing.com had been active since at least october 22nd during the off season it was anybody's guess as to how gin racing would perform in 2007 but other mid pack teams seemed to like the team's idea of bringing in outside investors on january 26 just after losing their flagship driver jack roush said he was close to finalizing a deal with the red sox owner john henry ultimately rebranding his team as roush fenway racing everton motorsports were also seeking funding and would find it from another sports executive in george gillette the result would become gillette everhan motorsports back at gen's 144 000 square foot shop a building three times the size of mb2's original shop preparations were ongoing for a four-car lineup at daytona waste management was still on marlin's car for just 12 races but on january 22nd came word that panasonic had signed on for the remaining 24. joe nemechek finally attracted sponsorship of his own as certainteed would back the number 13 but only for half of the 36 race schedule the fourth car the number 39 was for regan smith to attempt his series debut genn himself would sponsor smith's ride a preview for his upcoming starts in the zero one gin also spared no expense in promoting his four-car lineup for daytona after florida was hit by a series of tornadoes he auctioned off a travel package to the daytona 500. the winner was okela florida resident myron bowling who would be on hand for the great american race again matched his winning bid of 13 600 and donated it to the american red cross a massive 61 car entry list contested the 43 starting spots sterling marlin put up a monster lap in qualifying running eighth fastest overall most critically he was second to david reagan among the drivers not locked in meaning he was locked into the 500 based on speed and wouldn't have to worry about the qualifying race later by pure chance all four of gen's cars would race each other in the second gatorade duel this meant that both mark martin and sterling marlin had a chance to help joe niemanchek and regan smith take the final two transfer spots with three laps to go marlin was running in fourth place while joe nemechek was an 11th racing paul menard for the last transfer spot further back mark martin was trying to lead the way for regan smith when smith made contact with jamie mcmurray as smith fell out of contention marlon was then told to back off to help nemechek nemechek finished ninth with marlin 12th and mark martin 14th ring and smith hung on to take 19th but have to wait another year to make his first start in the daytona 500. on february 18th the day of the big race itself joni macheck started 18th with sterling marlin in 38th but it was mark martin who started 26 that made the race an instant classic martin took the lead with 24 laps to go and stayed there through two multi-car pileups that forced the 500 into overtime white flag one lap to go gets back to that yellow line right around the bottom all the way through turn one and two mark martin is driving the race of his life and there's nobody that's better at holding people off at daytona and airbus lag back a little bit is he gonna get help is he gonna come almost he almost squeezed harvick into the wall and here comes harvick the 29 with matt kenzie oh mark got loose getting a run off turn four it's gonna be a drag race all the way back to the start finish line they're wrecking everywhere it was a crushing disappointment not only for martin but the rest of gun racing when the final wreck began sterling marlon and joe nemechek went from battling for 14th to a race for ninth that changed when casey mears spun across the track nemechek escaped to finish ninth but marlin trapped between mirrors and a flipping clint boyer had to settle for 19th the next week in fontana on february 25th mark martin finished fifth since daytona winner kevin harvick ran 17th this gave martin the points lead by five over his former teammate jeff burton it also marked the first time the former mb2 motorsports team ever took the point lead since they were founded in 1996. martin then kept the momentum going finishing 5th again at las vegas and 10th at atlanta by then he still had an 8 point lead over jeff gordon the next race was to be held march 25th at bristol this was not only the first race for nascar's car of tomorrow but the first scheduled start for regan smith in the 0-1 once again mark martin was asked countless times whether he'd change his mind and continue to run full time on february 28th martin said ginn wouldn't pressure him to do so that's not going to happen he said he won't do that that's why i'm happy here i'm really in a good place in my life i feel i've taken stock of my career and my personal life and i'm really blessed with all the things i've got going however on march 3rd gin said he'd put regan smith in the number 39 at bristol if martin elected to stay in the zero one he said this even after withdrawing the number 39 at both fontana and las vegas sure enough when the series rolled into thunder valley mark martin wasn't on the entry list but on pit road coaching regan smith smith qualified 12th and finished 25th not among the starters was joe nemechek after finishing 17th or better in three of his first four races nemechek was handed his first dnq since the very same race in 1998. sterling marlin meanwhile finished no better than 17th in his first eight races his best run came on april 29th at talladega where once again he had a fast super speedway car marlin qualified fourth and led 16 laps mike great note on sterling marlin he's led 1004 laps in restrictor plate racing but that is the first lap he's led on a plate race in the last 12 events but in the end he finished 16th while waste management was a listed sponsor for marlin's talladega ride it had been noticeably stripped of its familiar green paint scheme it was left virtually unmarked while bobby ginn had signed principal financial group on march 5th both as a primary for martin and as an associate for the other two teams it appeared they were having as much trouble keeping sponsors as they were finding them panasonic which signed for 24 races on sterling marlin's car inexplicably stopped after the seventh race at texas this forced ginn to put his own branding on the car for the may 13th race at darlington that same darlington race saw nemechek debut a new primary sponsor of his own and hire america the u.s branch of a chinese appliance company reportedly the deal came about after brian france and other nascar dignitaries made a business trip to china certainty nemechek's primary sponsor from the opening of the season wouldn't run as the primary again until chicagoland on july 15th undaunted bobby ginn kept the news positive on may 12th the day before darlington jayski reported ginn was trying to hire dale earnhardt jr whose impending departure from dei was now all but certain we would stretch as hard as we could stretch to do it said gin you want the best the absolute best and i love the idea that dale wants to win championships he could accomplish that here with us were in play junior had also been courted by joe gibbs racing though the team made clear budweiser couldn't be his sponsor ginn however said he'd welcome budweiser with open arms but by may 27th kin had not yet spoken to junior and only had so-called exploratory conversations with his sister kelly ginn also shored up his current driver lineup by june 1st mark martin added more races to his part-time schedule pocono on august 5th richmond on september 8th and dover on september 23rd but he said he wanted to stay part-time in 2008. on june 25th sterling marlin said he also wanted to go part-time that year strangely it was rumored that marlon would not do so with gin but with furniture row racing which planned to add a second team taking marlon's place in the number 14 would be regan smith whose schedule in the number zero one increased on june 7th on that day news broke that smith would run at least one cup bush truck or arca series race for each remaining weekend in 2007. jay fry said on july 1 that the team planned to expand to four cars and quote hopefully two or three years from now we have three or four 20-something younger guys in the cars one of these guys was a driver who'd been spurned by his current team just a second ago under this caution denny hamlin's car brought down pit road by erik almarola giving up third place to make the driver change i got to tell you i think that's a bad decision they're doing this for the sponsor right here but you know what this kid eric amarillo has been running great it looks like they're going to go down a lap right now for sure i don't like this this whole thing is a real tough deal he's looking he's got to be upset he's doing a great job out there it seems like there was some kind of miscommunication too because we heard him talking about earlier they were going to leave eric armor in the car but somebody must have made the decision higher up maybe to take him out of the car on june 23rd eric amarola was famously booted from his bush series riot at joe gibbs racing after leading the first 43 laps at milwaukee denny hamlin now a fixture in the cup series took over and won the race as early as june 25th came rumors that amarola was leaving jgr jd gibbs disagreed saying almarola was a huge part of our future since they developed him since his late model days but that relationship effectively ended on july 16th with word leaked that almarola requested a release from jgr to drive for bobby ginn this was confirmed two days later almarola would share the remaining 2007 schedule for the zero one ride with both mark martin and regan smith it's initially reported almorolla would debut at watkins glen but that gets pushed back to loudon in september as smith has more road course experience almarola will also have to run his final five bush series races for jgr but by the time omarola joined guinn racing it appeared he'd boarded a sinking ship during practice at new hampshire on june 30th both marlin and nemechek arrived in cars that were jet black without any sponsors the team admitted they suddenly had a quote available inventory of unsold sponsorship for the second half of the season this news couldn't have come at a worse time not only had ginn try to hire dale earnhardt jr but also kyle bush who that same day was revealed to have been in negotiations with the team on july 9 jay fry admitted that only the u.s army had resigned with gin for 2008 and the two sponsorship deals had fallen through the team shut down their bush series program cutting short a season where regan smith had been running fifth in the point standings 30 employees were let go including sterling marlin spotter on july 16th one day after the race in chicagoland the rumor resurfaced the dei was interested in buying gin racing over the off week leading into the all-state 400 at the brickyard the team reorganized regan smith replaced marlin in the number 14 and word was that joe nemechek wouldn't even start the number 13 unless sponsorship was found by july 27th the friday before the race in indianapolis on july 18th nemechek saw the writing on the wall i don't think that bobby and jay ever thought it was going to be that hard to find sponsors he said it says a lot for the people who are working at gin and we've been able to accomplish a lot to see it all kind of stop and go away whatever may happen with the points it's just disappointing the next day gin is vague on the status of his team first of all i'm not going to speculate on what's going to happen he said things are happening so fast right now that we are preserving every option we have i don't intend for that car to sit still it's got value to me or to someone but we right now and this is not dodging the question we have not made a decision as to what we're going to do as joe said both joe and sterling are both still under contract i have sponsors sitting in my office right now and so we are still working on trying to sponsor it throughout its existence gin racing's fortune seemed to rise and fall in indianapolis in 1998 the track saw ernie irvin give him their first poll in 2000 aaron's rents signed on to save their second team from collapse it was there again in 2006 that bobby ginn became the team's new owner but in a cruel twist it was there in 2007 the team met its end now breaking news this week how about some merger activities dei acquires the 01 and 14 gin racing teams and we're going to explain what all that involves the owner points transfer to the number 15 of paul bernard those were the points coming off of the 14 of sterling marlin the future of those two card numbers remains unclear and mark martin and the young driver eric almarola will split time in the 01 which now goes over to dei wednesday july 25th 2007 the brickyard is still four days away gin racing will not be around to see it the day before david newton at espn reported that dei had merged with gin and that mark martin's zero one would be a dei car powered by a dei and richard childress engine in indianapolis this is confirmed on the 25th dei will take over the gin shop and rename it dei west ginn's number 13 and number 14 teams are no more while furniture row racing sought to purchase the number 13's 34th place ranking to lock their 78 car into the race at indy nascar tells dei they aren't allowed to sell it to them instead the team is simply scrubbed from the ranks and the wood brothers 36th and points move into the top 35. the owner points to the number 14 30th in the standings moved to dei's number 15 team giving paul minard a guaranteed starting spot and costing regan smith his shot to race in indy dei will vigorously deny a rumor that john menard helped finance the merger to get his son into the top 35. it was never contemplated nor was the request ever made to john minard to be a potential player in this transaction says jon story dei's vice president teresa earnhardt has done well for herself over many many years mark martin of course in the news for that merger with dei he's actually now a dei driver that means dale earnhardt jr is now your actual teammate have you had a chance to talk to him mark yes i have and uh you know i'm excited uh he's excited uh even though it's uh for a short period of time it's uh it's a landmark uh i think in my career and uh and we're excited about it uh look forward to getting on the racetrack here a lot of questions a lot of talk about these teams now merging going to three four car teams what does that mean for this sport and do you think this is a good thing what happened this week it's a good thing for for dei it's a good thing for again racing it's the the trend of the future you're going to see more and more of it mexico cup continues to get more and more competitive uh more and more expensive and you know the way you're going to be competitive and survive in this business is consolidate bring in partners that can bring things to the table and i feel like that the us army team and ryan pemberton can bring performance things to the table to to dei and certainly dei can do the same to the 01 team so we're going to be stronger going forward unfortunately it is going to take a while for that to to be integrated we're in two different chapters this weekend and can't even hardly talk to one another about the cars it's amazing how much different uh you can have cars and and have them both run well and pocono will be somewhat the same it's come so fast without uh without warning that uh we'll pretty much have to go with pocono uh with the plan but as we move forward we will start to to combine and integrate the both you know everyone's systems the closing of the number 14 team is a huge blow to both regan smith and sterling marlin while smith still runs the truck series race at irp and again sponsor number 47 where he finishes eighth marlin can't even get ginn on the phone i haven't talked to bobby again they haven't returned my calls to my lawyers they're just kind of leaving me hanging i'd like to get something worked out and at least finish out the year with somebody if i could this lack of a response keeps marlin out of a job he has offers to drive for other teams but can't accept any of them until ginn calls him back to let him out of his contract joe nemechek apparently doesn't have this problem he gets a last-minute ride from e m motorsports a single car team who had originally entered their number zero eight dodge for john andretti when andretti had other obligations they brought on nemechek who was still wearing his gin racing uniform as he prepared to qualify and what a week he lost the ride in a shake up in kin racing then when they merged with dei found himself on the outside looking in then got a call to run this car at indy and now joe you have to get into this race on your time trial speed what are you thinking right now uh wow what a battle you know it's uh definitely an uphill battle but uh hey this john carter and this whole group they give me an opportunity i mean i could be at home sitting there watching it on tv so at least i'm here trying making an effort and uh you know the guy these this group only runs a few races a year good people but uh you know when you see what all these other big teams are doing it's hard for a little guy to keep up but we're pretty good at the beginning of practice just we had a couple issues right in the middle of practice and we never picked up any more speed so i just got to hit my marks you know ernie elliot built a good motor for it first time for me for being in a dodge so we're looking forward to it unfortunately he misses the show as he does he entertains the possibility of bringing back his bush series team nemco motorsports in the race mark martin finishes sixth despite gearbox trouble the merger has another immediate consequence kyle bush believes the merger took up too much of the dei executive's time and that he quote never felt any warmth from the organization although he may still have a chance to take over dale earnhardt jr's ride at dei he declines and takes up junior's own missed opportunity at joe gibbs racing on august 4th 2007 slugger labby gives the body count the merger between dei and gun racing has cost 124 people their jobs of them only 30 have found work so far among them are jay fry and ricky carmichael who both joined dei by september 10th labby and another crew chief will both sue again in cabarrus county north carolina sterling marlin and joe nemechek will also file claims of their own seeking damages in addition to their 1.2 million owed in base salary dei will be named as the defendant but the team points their fingers back again on september 12th ginn says he's surprised at the lawsuits sterling and joe's contracts run through the end of the year and i have paid them through august all their winnings and salary per the contract he said and i intend to pay through the end of the year i always have apparently merlin also gets his phone call from ginn he tests with phoenix racing after the lawsuit is filed and is slated to race for the team at talladega peter suspenso becomes the new crew chief for robbie gordon on september 26th as for jay fry his stay with dei doesn't last long by november 11th he's job hunting again trying to join red bull racing three more former gun employees have a short stay at dei on october 13th during the fall race at charlotte a plane flies a banner reading how much does bobigan owe you eerily reminiscent of the bumper stickers made after ginn's failed hilton head deal back in 1980. dei finds out that the banner was paid for by three employees of theirs dei isn't amused and all three employees are fired soon after while genn reported that backhoed bonuses would be paid by direct deposit in early october the four lawsuits aren't settled until november on the sixth nemechek laby and suspenso's cases are dismissed after settlements marlin settles on the 12th and follows through on his plans to scale back to part time he will run 10 races in 2008 for phoenix racing joe nemechek will go full time for furniture row racing the team that was denied his owner points with genn ryan pemberton who served as a crew chief for both gin and dei leaves the team at seasons in to join michael waltrip racing by the end of 2008 ginn's empire would crumble after defaulting on a 675 million dollar loan foreclosures bankruptcies and lawsuits would dog the developer for years to come many of his developments are still around but they're under new ownership obviously twice in his brief career bobby ginn changed the face of nascar team ownership in 2006 he single-handedly created a new business model for mid-pack teams many in the middle of the field would seek outside investors to stay open roush fenway racing gillette everingham motorsports and rob kaufman's investment in michael waltrip racing but just one year later ginn's collapse set off a much more disturbing trend they were the first merger but far from the last in late 2008 just over a year after their merger with gun racing taylor and hart incorporated with merged with chip ganassi racing from seven cars there were now just three among the many let go was paul menard who joined yates racing as it merged with hall of fame racing in place of three cars there were only two bill davis racing shut down completely as did petty enterprises what we now know as richard petty motorsports was merely a one car expansion of the gillette evernham team only two new fully funded rides sprung up for speed week's 2009 a fourth team for richard childress racing and the full-time debut of front row motorsports and who would have thought 11 years later front rows number 34 is just one of four teams in this graphic that's still operating today when it was all said and done the number of full-time teams dropped to just 41. the thankless task of filling the field went to a handful of new start and park teams many of them staffed by crew members who lost their jobs among these was joe nemechek's single car outfit nemco motorsports among the drivers left in the cold by these mergers were regan smith and eric almarola who each saw their first full-time ride shot out from under them smith took over the 0-1 after the u.s army joined mark martin in the vacated number eight for 2008. smith won rookie of the year and yes also this race at talladega but like joe nemechek and sterling marlin before him smith would lose his ride and end up at furniture row racing that same season almarola took over mark martin's ride in the number eight but the full-time effort only made it to the spring race at texas before it too shut down it wasn't until 2012 when he drove for the reincorporated richard petty motorsports that he'd ever returned to full-time competition it's plain to see the legacy of gin racing lives on to this very day so was gin racing one of the sport's biggest frauds or was bobby ginn himself merely in over his head or is there some other explanation make sure you mention it in the comments below a huge thanks to slap shoes for collaborating with me on this video i put together this script and mark martin came up in it so much and with his series on the liars thieves and lawyers check out his channel in the links below here had to make sure to bring him on board there i think this is a great way to kind of tie together both the content on my channel as well as his definitely check out more videos on my channel as well as his and also at nascar man history's channel uh where i do narrations on his videos uh more of those links are again in the description below thank you again so much for watching everyone and stay tuned for more content here on youtube

Channel: Brock Beard

Views: 142,177

Rating: 4.9304495 out of 5

Keywords: Ginn racing, mb2 motorsports, slapshoes, s1apsh0es, brock beard, nascar history, liars thieves and lawyers, nascar Nextel cup series, nascar, nascar documentary

Id: LKdJonSoDaM

Length: 40min 5sec (2405 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2020