If Ftfgr were really serious about earl...

[SurfaceUnits]

wouldn't they be making at least some noise about their ftg poor performance?

and not bragging about their fourth top ten finish this season

and their season standing:
7 Darren Manning 98
15 Scott Dixon 72
18 Briscoe


Legend: Ftfgr = Ftarget floyd ganassi racing
ftg = piss

Edit: Floyd had high hopes in January:

Target Chip Ganassi team owner Chip Ganassi has said his is confident that his new three driver line-up will help the team to overcome a disappointing 2004 when the new IRL season gets underway at Homestead next month.

Reigning champion Scott Dixon and Darren Manning secured only six top five finishes, leading a combined total of just 15 laps, through the course of last season – a season that saw both drivers forced to miss races for medical reasons.

However, the pre-season testing performance of Dixon, Manning and new addition Ryan Briscoe has left Ganassi optimistic that his team can return to form during 2005.

"When you have the mechanics on the team excited, you really know you've done something,” he said, “because those are the guys that are hard to get a rise out of! When they're excited about it, it's a good thing.

"Obviously, the 2004 season was not the kind of year that Target Chip Ganassi Racing is used to in terms of level of performance. We needed to make changes. By augmenting our IndyCar Series count to three and with the addition of Ryan Briscoe, we expect to bolster our engineering platform and strengthen our relationship with Toyota and transform all our hard work into success in 2005.”

[coolhand]

target is not paying Gnassi any money and his real sponsor (toyota) is pulling the cash and moving on, so Ganssi is going to focus on Grand Sham and NA$CAR with that toyo money. :gomer:

[Spicoli]

target is not paying Gnassi any money and his real sponsor (toyota) is pulling the cash and moving on, so Ganssi is going to focus on Grand Sham and NA$CAR with that toyo money. :gomer:

Bingo.

The "A Team" at Gan******* moved to GA last year. They knew this was coming.

Btw - Stefan is now driving in place of Genetically Superior Maxi-Papis.

[coolhand]

Max Papis is a dork :thumdown: :gomer: :thumdown:

[cart7]

Since Nunn and Anderson left for greener pastures, Ganassi racing has been a model of inconsistency. His Cup effort has been about the same. Chippie is probably one of the most overrated team owners in any paddock he walks into, certainly the one of the most overweight.

[Jervis Tetch 1]

Since Nunn and Anderson left for greener pastures, Ganassi racing has been a model of inconsistency. His Cup effort has been about the same. Chippie is probably one of the most overrated team owners in any paddock he walks into, certainly the one of the most overweight. :thumbup:

[coolhand]

Since Nunn and Anderson left for greener pastures, Ganassi racing has been a model of inconsistency. His Cup effort has been about the same. Chippie is probably one of the most overrated team owners in any paddock he walks into, certainly the one of the most overweight.

LOL

[Skater_36]

I'm not sure who said it but the best quote I've ever heard about Ganassi was "Ganassi couldn't be more full of himself if he ate his own arm!"

[coolhand]

target is not paying Gnassi any money and his real sponsor (toyota) is pulling the cash and moving on, so Ganssi is going to focus on Grand Sham and NA$CAR with that toyo money. :gomer:

for everyone who missed this :thumbup:

[tllips]

target is not paying Gnassi any money and his real sponsor (toyota) is pulling the cash and moving on, so Ganssi is going to focus on Grand Sham and NA$CAR with that toyo money. :gomer:


So then, why is Target on Floyd's cars? Loyalty from the past? :confused:

[matthole]

So then, why is Target on Floyd's cars? Loyalty from the past? :confused:

You mean the earl cars or the sleds?

Either way, here's the outline of the Target 'deal' w/ Cheap; Target basically custs deals w/ those associates (kleenex, dog chow etc) for favorable store placement, product discounts etc. If you were around when Cheap was winning all those CART championships, especially 96-98, you had a hard time getting somewhere without some kindly slut offering a free seat cushion or some other perk if you'd just apply for a Target card. The Target hospitality stuff was 2nd only to Penske commandeering entire sections of prime seating and filling them with friends of Philip Morris.

At that point, there was some money flowing from the Target co-op deal to TCGR. That pretty much stopped when Cheap got the Toyo deal. Yota funded everything and all the Target $$ went to the NASCAR side, and has stayed there.

(However, the 'Target cars' are a recognizable brand in their own right at this point)

Is it 'loyalty' at this point? No. Toyota's still paying the way, and that yen-spigot is about to get clamped shut. So why are the Target logo's still on the cheap crapwagons? What the hell else is he gonna do. He factored it in as part of the NASCAR gig, told em I'll get you a once a year 'show' that gets a 3-4 rating, if you shift the focus to cup and here's the JJ report on how many millions you'll really 'save'.

Yay cheap.

Oh yeah, NASCAR is one of few places that Walmart hasn't infected yet, so it makes real marketing sense for Target to at least attempt to keep visibility there. 30th in the sleds at ned-tona is worth an entire earl season.

Makes me wonder what Target will do if cheap does the obvious & goes cabbing with the nippons. :shrug:

[tllips]

I knew that was how Target's sponsorship worked, but I thought coolhand was implying that Target wasn't sending Floyd any money (NASCAB included).

If Target is giving FTCGR sponsorship $, I would suppose that it can be spread anyway Floyd wants to. But the agreement probably does not specify CABs only. Rather something like "we give you $xxx,xxx and you put our logo on all FTCGR cars." Then Floyd puts the logo on all his cars, but spends most of his money on CABs.

Thanks, Matthole