Hard Luck: Chip Ganassi Racing Pulls the Plug on Dario Franchitti

As a red-blooded NASCAR fan, I do enjoy making fun of the open-wheel racers who’ve inundated the sport lately. I mean, hell: they sure seem to wreck a lot, and temper tantrums are always funnier when they’re being thrown by someone with an accent. But I can’t help feeling a little sad that, effective immediately, Chip Ganassi Racing will be discontinuing the No. 40 team of IRL champ Dario Franchitti. Dario’s had a lot of rotten luck this season, including a busted ankle sustained during a wreck at Talladega that sidelined him for the next five races. All things considered, he’s been a real sport, and has generated a lot of news despite finishing only once in the top 30 in ten starts. He’ll be missed, though all may not be lost for him in NASCAR—there’s a chance that Ganassi will let him finish out his season in the second-tier Nationwide Series, and who knows, maybe he’ll get picked up by a team for the ’09 Sprint Cup season. In the meantime, Ganassi will be keeping Reed Sorenson and Juan Pablo Montoya in his stable.