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.

"Having a partner like Chip, who is heavily involved on the competition side of the business, is an ideal situation for DEI," Teresa Earnhardt, owner of DEI explained. "He has a long history of managing championship teams in the IndyCar and Rolex Grand-Am Series and I share his passion and goals of winning races and ultimately championships in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. I think this is a case where we are stronger together than we are apart."

"In this ultra-competitive era of NASCAR, it is necessary to build and sustain the strongest team possible and our combining with the people and equipment at Dale Earnhardt Inc. will help create a strong four-car program for years to come," Chip Ganassi explained in a statement released by the team. "This is a win-win for both organizations as well as all of our partners."

While the move seems to be "win-win" for the business side of things, there are still a lot of unknowns that remain in this deal. Since the announcement, both teams - collectively - have laid off more than a hundred employees, Ganassi eliminated its Nationwide Series team and the DEI organization moved into the Ganassi shop in Concord, NC.

"I don't know how this is all going to work out," Truex explained at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. "I know it"s going to be difficult. You have two teams trying to work together. The manufacturer is going to be different. We have to get rid of a lot of people, they have to get rid of a lot of people, getting everybody to work together and be on the same page and believe in each other is going to be tough."

"It's definitely been difficult," Truex went on to say. "One thing I told the guys this week was that one of the toughest to do, and it doesn't sound like much, is just moving. If we have to move shops again, we just kind of got settled into where we're at and make things work and got things streamlined and building cars. So, if you move shops it takes two or three weeks and then you're behind."

Two of the larger teams in the sport, this new endeavor will definitely have to weather some initial growing pains. As Truex pointed out, just the logistics of the merger are going to be difficult to overcome in themselves. DEI's moving shops, Ganassi's switch from Dodge to Chevrolet and building the chemistry needed to run a successful organization are no easy tasks and may show their shortcomings at the outset of the season.

"We have a lot of work to do," DEI President of Global Operations Max Siegel told HardcoreRaceFans.com in Homestead. "We just agreed to combine the organizations, so all the details regarding what takes place is getting ready to take place. We're going to get started right now. We're going to have a strong management team, we still have really strong people and I think competition-wise we'll have a stronger organization."

Hardcore race fans and critics alike will all be keeping a close eye as these two organizations continue to merge in the true sense of the word this off-season and into next year. Little news has trickled out since leaving Homestead in November, but that's not always a bad thing. If they can find a way to mesh well and overcome the setbacks of this off-season the new Earnhardt Ganassi Racing should have a strong showing.