Siegel's moves bolster DEI

Wednesday's announcement of the merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing sends a strong signal that the company that just two months ago lost its flagship Nextel Cup driver in Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't going anywhere.
That's the way SPEED TV reporter Wendy Venturini sees it and she places the credit for the company's resurgence at the feet of one person in particular.
"I have two words for you," Max Siegel, the president of global operations," said Venturini, who also happens to be the product of the Venturini family that has been in racing for 34 years.
"His main job, originally, was to keep Dale Junior at DEI. Since then, the objective has changed and his goal is to grow Dale Earnhardt Inc. as a company, globally. That's his whole purpose. He's one of the greatest newcomers in NASCAR."
Interestingly, a year ago, resort magnate Bobby Ginn, who bought what was MB2 Racing and transformed it into Ginn Racing with three Nextel Cup teams and teams in NASCAR's Busch and Craftsman Truck series was being hailed as new blood and a new vision for the sport.
Now, DEI, the company that was the subject of a death watch when Earnhardt Jr., the sport's most popular driver, declared in May he was leaving, has since signed a engine deal with Richard Childress Racing and bought out Ginn, his 180,000-foot race shop and all the accompanying bells and whistles.
And Ginn has become yet another businessman with deep pockets who unfortunately had grand vision when it came to racing and had to throw in the towel when he couldn't produce reliable and consistent revenue through sponsors for two of his three Cup cars. But that, as they say, is racing, a sport that chews up dollars as fast as they can be printed, especially among neophytes.
"The biggest problem is we have people who aren't familiar with our sport or maybe haven't done business in our sport, and they come in with a lot of money and have they big ideas which is great, but then they don't last very long," Venturini said.
"And unfortunately I think Bobby Ginn got into it pretty deep. And I think he had good intentions but it didn't pan out as a business like he wanted to. It's a business that will pretty much take all your money from you."
That has never been more evident than in recent years when veteran team owners such as Richard Childress and Jack Roush have brought in outside investors while still maintaining control and others such as Ray Evernham and Robert Yates have been courting outside money.
"I really thought Bobby Ginn and Ginn Racing would be one of those that would survive," Venturini said. "I'm not sure he was really interested in losing all his money in racing."