The seventh story on our countdown focuses on the merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing. This story broke as the series made its way down to Homestead for the final race of the 2008 season and was all the talk of the garage for much of that weekend.

Struggling to find sponsors for 2009 and frustrated by poor results, both organizations looked to each other as a way to secure their collective future in the sport. The new team, called Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, will be a four-car operation with Martin Truex Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya and Aric Almirola already signed on for next season. The fourth driver and sponsorship details are still in the works and have yet to be announced.

While no contracts have been signed, a Furniture Row Racing team official confirmed Monday Regan Smith as the "leading candidate" to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet Impala SS this season.

Furniture Row announced in November that it would buy out driver Joe Nemechek's contract and cut back to a 12 race schedule for 2009.

Furniture Row has reportedly tested with several different drivers over the past few weeks, offering Smith a contract that team officials expect him to sign "any day now."

The third day of the 30th Dakar Rally was completed Monday in Argentina, with drivers making the trek from Puerto Madryn to Jacobacci.  With two 70 kilometer liaisons and a 551 kilometer special, the third stage of the event was one of the more difficult of the 14 stages.

In the past, drivers have been able to stop during the liaison sections to get fuel. This year stopping is not allowed, forcing the drivers to be more careful of their fuel mileage.

Rusty Wallace Inc. (RWI) officials announced Monday that Truck Series regular, Brendan Gaughan, will navigate the No. 62 Chevrolet in the 2009 Nationwide Series season.

"I've known Brendan and his family for quite some time now and they're all absolutely first-class people," Wallace noted. "Brendan has shown that he has the talent to get the job done; I could see that back in 2004 when we were teammates at Penske. He's a more mature and focused driver now than he's ever been and we're really looking forward to having him as a part of our team in 2009."