Rocky Road

Strange clouds hover over NASCAR as the sport gets set to conclude its season at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. First, Brian France on Tuesday has to answer questions about why a Chase race was unexpectedly moved off ABC by NASCAR's media partner. Then Wednesday comes further proof that it's a whole new sports economy, as DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing announce that next year they will together field one four-car Sprint Cup Series team known as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. The impact of the deal has yet to be fully sorted out, but sources said that more than 100 jobs "will likely be lost in the merger." And this comes amid predictions of "pink slip Monday" following Sunday's finale. Meanwhile, in part two of our NASCAR roundtable, Ganassi Racing President Steve Lauletta says, "There is a lot of stuff going on that's going to make the garage look different than it does today." Michael Waltrip also casts a wary eye toward February, saying, "It'll be really interesting to see, not only how many cars show up for the first five races, but also how many of them are sponsored and what's the attitude in the garage about racing."