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“Car Melo” IRL Team Shuts
Down Amid Financial Troubles |
Nuggets F Carmelo Anthony’s IRL team “has been quietly dissolved,” according to
John Helyar of ESPN.com. The team’s No. 91 “Car Melo” entry missed the last four
races after driver P.J. Chesson crashed in the Indianapolis 500 in May. Team Owner
Ron Hemelgarn said, “We’re parked. The funding we needed didn’t come through.”
Helyar wrote Anthony “brought flash to this strapped team but not cash.” However,
Anthony’s agent, BDA Sports’ Bill Sanders, said that his client “was never supposed
to [contribute financially]. ... The idea was for him to create buzz and attract
sponsors.” More Sanders: “Carmelo’s name has a lot of brand equity, and that’s
what he had to offer.” Helyar noted Chesson “groused to the Carmelo camp about
Hemelgarn’s shoestring operation and the poor equipment he was relegated to drive.”
By the Indy 500, the car’s fourth race, “the situation was desperate.” The team
had attracted no corporate sponsors and it “needed a respectable finish to get
some serious prize money and a financial reprieve.” Chesson and Anthony are “looking
in tandem for another team with which to affiliate,” and Cheever Racing “acknowledges
it’s been in talks.” Hemelgarn said, “Carmelo didn’t do anything wrong; I got
along very good with him. Unfortunately, his name didn’t excite anybody and my
race team didn’t excite anybody” (
ESPN.com,
7/7).
