August 13th, 2009 
Journo In 1986 real estate developer Edward Robert Ginn III, better known as Bobby Ginn, was quickly making a name for himself, though not for the right reasons. He owned eight of 20 golf courses (among other properties) in Hilton Head Island, S.C. and his company was failing. Failing to the point that employee paychecks were bouncing and the residents of Hilton Head drove around with bumper stickers that read: “Honk if Bobby Owes You.”
Fast forward to late summer 2007, and the scene in Mooresville, N.C. wasn’t all that different. Ginn Racing had merged with DEI and in turn fired 124 Ginn employees along with drivers Joe Nemechek, Sterling Marlin and crew chiefs Richard “Slugger” Labbe and Peter Sospenzo. It took about month for Nemechek, Marlin, Labbe and Sospenzo to file suit against Ginn for breach of contract. Word was another team with a development contract with Ginn also hadn’t been paid for their services. A year removed from his departure, Ginn was also sued by Hendrick Motorsports over an engine deal that he claimed DEI assumed responsibility for.
Bobby Ginn and his entry in NASCAR is probably one of the most intriguing and sad stories the sport has seen in recent history.
Ginn a wildly successful real estate developer with a knack for designing and building elegant resorts entered NASCAR in the summer of 2006. When he bought the mediocre MB2 Motorsports, many didn’t know what to expect. Ginn had a reputation for spending money and doing extravagent things but it was hard to see what he could with MB2.
It wasnt long though before Ginn started to propel the team to the highest levels of the sport. Ginn Racing scored a real coup adding Mark Martin, who had recently departed Roush Racing, for the 2007 season. Martin began the season by almost winning the Daytona 500. He then went on to lead the points through the three events after Daytona. Martin though was committed to a partial season and he stayed true to his word.
The team’s two full time drivers, Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek, while not spectacular showed some promise with a couple of top-10s. Their time was running out.
It wasn’t long before the cracks began to show. While Ginn Racing was rumored to be a possibility for Dale Earnhardt Jr. during his contract year, it started to become apparent the team was quickly running through money. Without complete backing for all of his teams Ginn was spending a lot of money out of pocket to run not just the three Cup teams, but a truck team with Kraig Kinser at Morgan Dollar Motorsports (now Randy Moss Motorsports).
Rumors began to pop up that the team was in trouble.
And then one day it was all over. Toward the end of July Ginn agreed to merge or rather sell their shop and points to Dale Earnhardt Inc. Bobby Ginn told the Associated Press at the time “We absolutely would have survived without merging, but what we would have wound up doing is taken on lesser sponsors…We would have had to continue to cut costs, and that is disgraceful to me.”
Disgraceful? Much like his business ventures Ginn wanted to go big. He found out very quickly he couldn’t afford to do that in NASCAR without help and help couldn’t be found fast enough. Ask Jay Frye.
Interestingly Ginn’s NASCAR experience serves as a microcosm for his larger business. During the real estate boom Ginn grew the Ginn Resorts company to 13 properties. No one developed a resort better than Bobby Ginn, and when times were better there was no better place to buy property. Unfortunately the bubble burst and Ginn was exposed.
Today several of his resorts have gone through bankruptcies, many properties are in forclosure and he faces somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 lawsuits from disgruntled investors. According to the Golf Channel program Golf in America, Ginn is reportedly hiding in the Bahamas.
I think the saddest thing about Ginn’s story is thinking what could have been. He (or rather his money) turned around a middling NASCAR team in less than a season, and had with him some young prospects and seasoned veterans. It could have been great.
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I remember actually wanting to see Dale Jr. go to Ginn Racing. In a addition to being a Junior fan, I’m also a Mark Martin fan, and at the time I knew I would love to see my two favorites drive for the same team (that ended up happening anyway, both for a short time at DEI and at HMS, so not as big an issue now).
I think things would have turned out very different if Ginn had actually landed Junior, though. He would have immediately had sponsors thrown at his feet right and left and would never have had to merge with DEI. And Junior, instead of going to an established team, would have been trying to help grow a team. Who knows… things might have worked out better for him doing it that way, but I’m sure his results from last year would have been even less impressive with Ginn than they were with Hendrick.
“I could have been a contender”
Now where have I heard this story before? I think before this is all over we will see some more like this happen, going on right now.
I suppose some of you remember J.D. Stacy and his racing ventures. These guys had one thing in mind, and it was’nt bettering the sport of auto racing. They thought they saw a quick cash cow without doing the necessary homework. Sad as it is, they got what they deserved. Too bad for the entire NASCAR community. Maybe the Frances’ need to scrutinize these wannabes since they want control of everything.
Bobby Ginn is in the Bahamas spending time building the new resort and not hiding. Sales are also better in the Bahamas at this time compared to the USA. As most of the people know the resort is projected to be a 5 Billion project after completion and it will be completed. Visit the website http://www.GinnSurMer.com to learn more. If you were a developer would you want to be in the USA with sales down (at this time) or in a wonderful island with property selling? The real estate sales in the USA will increase and homes values will go up, just take a look at our real estate history in the USA.
I, too, was one of those people in the 80s that had a “Honk if Bobby…” bumper sticker on my truck. When he came to NASCAR, because of my previous experiences with this man’s wheelin’ and dealin’, I was very, very suspicious. As it turns out – and unfortunately for all involved with Ginn AGAIN, I was correct about this guy. For the sake of all of those he hurt, I wish that I hadn’t been.
Joe Nemechek was the only driver to win, he won at Kansas in the 01 ARMY car and had many great runs in it, before Ginn made his deal with Mark Martin. I think Joe would have WON at Daytona, not almost won like Mark. Another foolish driver change and dumb move by Bobby Ginn . The added costs of Mark Martin didnt help the team any, and the sponsor ARMY was plenty happy with Joe, who did a lot of PR and support for them.
…and our three car race team is also racing in the Bahamas. Who wouldn’t want to race in the Bahamas with teams having sponsor trouble in the US? Did I mention that it’s a wonderful island?
Our lead driver is Mark Markin. Our race team will increase and values will go up, just take a look at our history in the USA.
Fine article. What’s really sad is that the media has virtually ignored the whole story, even though Ginn had a very large development in the mountains not 2 hours from Charlotte.
There are a few examples of these types of owners and I like the fact that you point them out. I really feel as if NASCAR should police some of the people who want to become team owners – some are guys who come to a race, get blown away, may have a little money and think, “I can do this.” You have others that are plain crooks.
Some owners are not bad people – they just keep making bonehead move, after bonehead move and instead of dealing with it – they either lie or ignore it – all in an effort to get to that next race.
Although purely hypothetical, I often wonder just how many of the “in-then-out” crowd would stay the long haul if there was no money to be had. Just a trophy. No sponsors, just everyone pitching in. Just for the passion to race, and nothing else.
Never having been a fan of a spec series, I have to say that the IROC series nonetheless for years provided the excitement and passion without BIG money owners involved.
Just for kicks, what if CUP all of a sudden became an IROC series?
Rest easy TC as I would insist each driver had his/her own crew that was assigned “a” car the day of the race.
I did not write #7 and someone thought this comment would be funny. The person used my name “Thomas Ginn”. The Bahamas is a great place to race boats to.
Thomas- we are aware that is why we put the name in quotes (the poster originally had their name identical to yours). If the satirical nature of the post wasn’t enough to tip someone off I would hope the difference in the screen name would have been.