Ginn is only following the trend

By Mike Harper

I know you’ve seen the headlines. Ginn Unravels, Ginn Over His Head, Ginn Racing Fails and Ginn Sells Out.

It’s like some crazy media frenzy, jumping all over Bobby Ginn for closing shop and merging his operation with DEI. Larry McReynolds even jumped into the mix in a recent column and said, "I just think that Ginn bit off a little bit more than he could chew." I normally find myself agreeing with Larry, but in this case I’ll step up to the plate and disagree.

I don’t see it in the same light as others in the media. Ginn is a very intelligent businessman and believe me he knows exactly what he’s doing. In all honestly, I just think Ginn represents the new age of NASCAR. This is the dawning of the age of NASCARquarius!

Yeah, I made up the word and the next time you hear the song you have my permission to use it. If you were around in the sixties you know exactly the song I’m talking about.

It’s a new age in NASCAR. With Robert Yates Racing and Evernham Motorsports out looking for partnerships, we’re sitting around expecting to hear the next merger deal to happen. Jack Roush has done it with Fenway Sports Group and now we have Ginn and DEI merging. NASCAR owners are looking for financial partnerships even if it means selling off a portion of their teams. It’s a new trend.

If we look around it’s not hard to spot others doing it. We’ve seen it happen in just about every industry in the nation. Just ask AT&T and Sprint.

But to be blunt, Ginn saved his race team. I remember writing about MB2 and MBV years ago when Johnny Benson was their man and how they needed to change direction or they’d lose the Valvoline partnership. When it finally did happen, I thought the end was near for this team. Then Ginn showed up and saved the team, secured the ARMY sponsorship and brought Mark Martin into the fold. That’s a huge accomplishment!

The difference between Ginn and other owners is he’s a businessman. He’s not a NASCAR owner turned businessman, he’s a true hardcore businessman.

So many NASCAR owners today have grown up eating and breathing NASCAR. Not Bobby Ginn, he built his own empire and brought it to NASCAR.

In my opinion, Ginn isn’t over his head or he didn’t bite off more than he could chew, he basically looked at the bottom line as all smart businessmen do and made a business decision. Instead of placing a bandage on the problem as we’ve seen others do in NASCAR, he pulled the plug and made some changes just as he would if one of his resorts were having issues.

At this point, he hasn’t bolted from the sport - yet. He’s only following a trend that’s now been set by other owners. Except unlike the good folks at Fenway Sports Group, Ginn jumped in first before partnering with a premier NASCAR race team.