To say Chip Ganassi Racing is in a critical spot is an understatement. The three car team has gone through wholesale changes in 2008 and continues to search for answers. Crew chief swaps, in house changes and the side-lining injury of Dario Franchitti have crippled this team to the point of frustration - and it's beginning to show on the track.

Entering the season, Ganassi had high hopes that his organization would run up front and challenge for the championship alongside teams like Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Bringing Franchitti over to the Cup Series during the off-season presented a host of new challenges, but Ganassi remained hopeful.

Reed Sorenson in the No. 41 Target Dodge showed the most promise at Daytona, racing his way to a fifth starting spot in his Gatorade Duel. Sorenson ran up front for the majority of the Duel and carried that momentum over into Sunday's 500, where he scored a 5th-place finish.

Since that promising run, however, Sorenson has failed to crack the top-10. In fact, since that 5th-place, Sorenson only has one finish inside the top-15 (a 12th-place at Richmond). The Peachtree City-native has dropped like a rock in the series standings and currently finds himself 31st.

Juan Pablo Montoya has fared better than his teammate, but has still struggled up to this point in the season. Montoya followed up a 32nd-place finish in the season opener in Daytona with mediocre runs ranging from 13th-20th. The driver of the No. 42 Dodge scored his best finish of the year, and only top-10, at Talladega Superspeedway where wound up 2nd. Montoya briefly broke into the top-12 in the standings, only to backslide to 17th where he currently sits.

Ganassi's hopes for open-wheel transfer Dario Franchitti soured when the Scotland-native suffered a broken ankle during the Nationwide event at Talladega. Franchitti struggled a bit prior to his side-lining injury. The driver of the No. 40 fell out of the top-35 in owner standings after Bristol and failed to make the show at Texas Motor Speedway. Since the injury a number of drivers have filled in as substitutes, but Franchitti is expected to return to the car next week at Pocono.

After Franchitti failed to qualify for the race at Texas, team owner Chip Ganassi tore into his team. "Frankly, there are 46 cars there and if you can't beat three of them, that's pretty pathetic," Ganassi explained. "I certainly have all the faith in the world in (Franchitti's) driving abilities. I don't think it's that. The fact of the matter is, we didn't give him a car that was capable of doing it."

Ganassi also criticized his teams of not cooperating and threatened major changes if things were not remedied.

"You can't have guys that are fast and guys that are slow. It doesn't make any sense," Ganassi said. "These guys, these teams are not talking to each other, they are not working together, they are not using all the resources that are available to them. That's how you end up in a fix like this."

More of the same continued, and true to his word, Ganassi made changes. Following the race in Phoenix, Ganassi made the decision to swap crew chiefs for the Sorenson and Montoya. Donnie Wingo moved to the No. 40, while Jimmie Elledge went to work with Montoya on the No. 42.

Things appeared to be working well after the change. Montoya knocked off his best finish of the year in his first race with Elledge as his crew chief at Talladega. The following week at Richmond, the No. 42 was caught up in the "big one" and finished a disappointing 32nd.

Following their 14th-place finish in the Sprint All-Star Race, Ganassi announced Elledge had been relieved of his duties as crew chief of the No. 42 and let go for the team. The team said Elledge had a confrontation with the team?s director of competition, Steve Hmiel after the race and was subsequently let go.

Talking with HardcoreRaceFans.com last week at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Elledge gave his perspective of what happened, "Steve Hmiel said it was stupid to take tires, I didn't take tires and I got fired. The decision by Ganassi to let Elledge go was unexpected and against his driver's wishes. "They told me 'We are thinking of getting rid of Jimmy' and I said 'Don't do it,'" Montoya said of the situation. "Next thing I knew, they did. That's what happened. You are going to have to ask somebody else about it, because I wasn't involved in this.

For Sorenson, the loss of his former crew chief was disappointing. "I've known Jimmy for a long time. I didn't really like to see that happen to him, you know, it's not my team," Sorenson told HardcoreRaceFans.com. "I'm sure he'll find another job. He's got a lot of talent, so I'm sure he'll find another job. I'm still friends with him. It is was it is, it's business and its tough."

Elledge went on to say he has been in touch with a number of other teams, but was taking his time as he worked through the legalities with Ganassi.

An obviously upset Montoya was the slowest of 48 cars in last Thursday's qualifying session for the Coca-Cola 600. Working with Brian Pattie, his third crew chief this year, Montoya struggled to find speed all weekend and finished 30th after a spin down the front stretch.

As far as Sorenson is concerned, things have been much better. Both Sorenson and Wingo agree that  things are working well between the two. Wingo told HardcoreRaceFans.com, "We haven't really had any problems so far. I've worked with Reed before. We've been to several tests together, so there's no real issues."

The No. 41 was the slowest car to make a qualifying run at Dover on Friday, marking the second week in a row a Ganassi car brought up the rear in qualifying. A loose sway bar was the cause of the disappointing run, but both driver and crew chief have remained positive.

"That was one of those deals where we got rushed before qualifying, made a few changes and a few things got missed. All in all," Wingo explained, "not bad. We'll battle back."

Each admits more changes are needed on a whole to improve the direction of the entire organization.

"Everybody's gotta get on the same page and quit - you know, that's drivers included - everybody's gotta get on the same page and want to go the same direction," Wingo explained. "Right now with all the changes going on, it hasn't been that way.

"We just got to work together and settle down a little bit and everybody start pulling together and working together more and trying to go in the same direction," he continued. "I think everyone really wants that, it's just when you get all these changes, some people reject it and it's hard to get going the same direction. It just takes time."

Unfortunately for the Ganassi teams, by the time they get their issues resolved their chances for a successful season would have passed. What had potential for a promising year, imploded on itself and everyone has been forced to pick up the pieces. If things do not pick up in the next few weeks, expect more changes to come for this organization.

As for now, Sorenson points out, "We're just trying to get better right now, focused on the current situation. Once we get faster, hopefully the rest of the stuff with take care of itself."