Ganassi team losing Casey Mears

The team's top driver will join Hendricks Motorsportsat year's end.
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Casey Mears was diplomatic about why he would continue to give a full effort for Chip Ganassi Racing even as he was plotting his escape to the nearest title-contending team.
"At the end of the day, we do this because we all want to win races and have fun," Mears said.
Maybe he's having fun because he earned a big payday as NASCAR's most coveted free agent. But no one else at Ganassi can be faulted if they're not having much fun these days.
For the second straight Nextel Cup season, Ganassi is trying to win races with its top driver heading out the door and into another garage. Last year, it was Jamie McMurray who got out of his deal a year early and signed with Roush Racing. Now it's Mears who is bolting at the end of this season for a ride at Hendrick Motorsports.
Showing rare patience
Even as the team continues to be shaken by defections and a winless drought that stretches back to the 2002 season, owner Chip Ganassi is showing some rare patience with the team's future.
"We're fine. We're just not doing a good job of explaining to those guys where we are headed," Ganassi said.
But where is Ganassi's team headed? Victory Lane hasn't been one of those destinations. Neither is the bargaining table, where they can't lock up or keep the young, promising drivers they tried grooming into the kind of drivers that would turn this team into the powerhouse Ganassi once had in open-wheel racing.
Ganassi's other two seats are filled by rookies Reed Sorenson and David Stremme. Ganassi could go after a veteran to help the duo along, or he could fill the ride with another inexperienced driver and hope at least one of the three blossoms into a championship contender.
Wheldon won't make jump
One driver who won't fill that hole is Dan Wheldon of the IRL. Wheldon, who won both the IndyCar Series championship and the Indianapolis 500 last year, is in his first season driving for Ganassi's open-wheel team and won't be making the transition any time soon to stock cars.
Veteran crew chief Donnie Wingo doesn't know why the drivers are in a rush to leave the program and said their defections have had an effect on morale.
"Why does it keep happening to us?" Wingo asked. "It's not the race team's fault drivers are leaving, but I don't know what's going on."
Mears, 15th in the points standings, wanted to keep driving for Ganassi and said last weekend at Pocono Raceway that he had been "working real hard" to put together a new deal with the team. That was until something better came along -- a deal reached Wednesday to ride with perennial Cup contender Hendrick Motorsports.
Mears quickly changed his mind and told Ganassi he no longer wanted to discuss an extension.
"The decision to do something different really isn't anything based off anything negative about the organization I'm with now," Mears said. "It's just a lot of things that are positive with the opportunities that are out there to go another direction."
Mears, who wrecked on the very first lap at the Pocono 500, said Ganassi was surprised by the decision.
"A situation like this is never easy," Mears said.
Now Mears' team has to put all its time, effort and cash into a driver that may have a shot at qualifying for the Chase but no shot of paying any dividends down the road. That has Wingo discouraged, especially since these drivers no longer can help turn Ganassi's struggling program around.
"Going through what we're going through right now is no fun," Wingo said. "It's a struggle for everybody. It drains you so bad mentally, it wears you out thinking about what's going on. I really don't know what would make it fun again."
Team needs win
Maybe taking at least one checkered flag would help. The team hasn't won since McMurray won his second career Cup start subbing for Sterling Marlin late in the 2002 season. When the wins dried up, McMurray wanted out and left for Jack Roush's team.
McMurray can empathize with Mears' situation. He also said there was no way Mears would make a decision to leave so early this season unless he already knew where he was going.
"I'm sure Chip's going to find somebody that's been around a while, a veteran driver to maybe help them," McMurray said. "I'm just glad I'm not involved in that this year. It feels good to have a home and be happy with where you're at right now."
It had already been a tumultuous season for CGR. Andy Graves, the first employee hired by Ganassi when he started his NASCAR operation and helped build the team from the ground up, resigned as team manager in April. Jeff Vandermoss also was replaced as crew chief on Stremme's team.
The shake-up has had little impact on the standings.
Ganassi said defections are part of the business. But he had hoped McMurray and Mears would have been the ones that helped take his team to the next level.
"I think it is just because there were opportunities at teams they thought were better, and those opportunities don't come around that often," Ganassi said.