Ginn Racing Highlights NASCAR’s Ownership and Sponsorship Challenges
(Jerry Bonkowski, Yahoo! Sports NASCAR columnist)

Analyzing the new partnership of Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. – a relationship that smacks more of an absorption than the "merger" officials from both companies are calling it – is confounding.
In the real business world, true mergers take months, if not years, to complete – not less than 10 days.
The Ginn situation is a perfect example of why NASCAR must reevaluate its ludicrous stance of branding certain sponsors "official" products or services of NASCAR. Such deals come at the cost of discriminating against and keeping other firms that produce similar products/services off the race track.
Just this year alone we've seen NASCAR have issues with AT&T's sponsorship of Jeff Burton's No. 31, Sunoco displeased about Kevin Harvick's No. 29 being sponsored by fellow fuel producer Shell and Robby Gordon's No. 15 initially banned from carrying the Motorola brand (just like the Burton/AT&T situation) for fear of encroaching or infringing on Sprint Nextel's exclusivity as the "official" telecommunications and series title rights holder of NASCAR.
When Ginn came into the sport late last summer like Sir Galahad ready to ride to the financial rescue of MB2 Motorsports, he vowed to spend tons of money to not only become competitive but also to build his fledgling racing organization into a Hendrick-style grouping of both personnel and on-track success.
Yet even with all the money Ginn has made as a successful vacation resort developer, his name and his wallet weren't enough to get major sponsors to sign on the dotted line to sponsor the likes of Nemechek and Marlin. Ultimately, Ginn had to join forces with a company like DEI or risk shutting the race shop doors permanently.
Perhaps NASCAR should develop a stringent set of standards that potential team owners must meet before they're allowed membership into the stock-car racing fraternity.
If other pro leagues such as the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball can require proof of sufficient operating capital and force owners to have enough sponsorship money lined up to keep things going even in the worst of times, NASCAR should have a similar policy in place to prevent some of the consolidations we've seen since mid-February.
When he first came into NASCAR last summer, Ginn didn't proclaim he was buying one team so that he could subsequently merge with another. He wanted to be an owner on the same level as Gibbs, Hendrick or Childress. Instead, he'll become an investor, owner of two cars in the DEI stable and a member of DEI's board of directors.
"I look at it as a way I can stay in racing," Ginn said. "I look at it as a way our team can go to a much higher elevation than we would have been able to do in getting through this year."
At least it's better than going out of business.