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Normally, the final week of a
NASCAR season feels like the last
day of school.
Somebody always figures out how
many days it is until the new
year starts in Daytona, and
everybody gives a goodnatured
groan when they
hear that number. It's usually
a lot of "Happy Holidays!"
and see-you-soon hugs and
handshakes.
Not this time.
Instead of a sense of
accomplishment for those
who've had a good year and
a sense of hope for those
looking for better luck next year,
there's a sense of dread. Instead of
being relieved to be at the end of a long
season, too many people are fearful
about what the future will bring.
Nobody really knows how many people in NASCAR will lose their jobs
at the end of this season. With Dale
Earnhardt Inc. cutting 116 positions
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this week on the heels of several other,
smaller layoffs by other
teams, the number is
already well north of
200. Some believe that
number could be 1,000
- or more - before the
bloodletting is done.
It doesn't really matter,
at least not in any
human terms, what the
actual numbers are. It's
easy to get caught up in
the numbers when things
are this bad and forget that each person
losing a job is a person - somebody
with a family and a mortgage and a car
payment. Not to mention a passion that
has driven them to come into the racing
industry in the first place. A passion
they may have to abandon as teams all
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across the NASCAR spectrum trim
their payrolls.
Max Siegel knows that all too well.
As president of global operations for
DEI, Siegel spent last week letting
those 116 people know they weren't
going to have jobs once DEI completed
its merger with Chip Ganassi Racing.
DEI had four Cup cars and Ganassi had
two, but those six teams will be streamlined
back to four in 2009.
"It was a very tough week," Siegel
said last Saturday at Homestead-Miami
Speedway in Homestead, Fla. "It's gutwrenching
to try to go through and
make those decisions. You're balancing
the best interests of the business and
the impact you're having on somebody's
life. It's very emotional. It's a
very difficult thing to do."
Nobody likes firing people. But
without a merger, DEI might have
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ceased to exist and nobody would have
had a job.
 Siegel
"You go and try to stabilize your
business and you're trying to save
jobs," Siegel said.
"On the one hand
you feel relieved
you're able to
keep people
employed that
you're passionate
about. On the
other side, it never
leaves you the
impact you're having on other people."
What makes it harder, Siegel said, is
that the people you're letting go are
losing jobs they really, really want to
keep.
"Everyone who works in this sport
does it because they love it," Siegel
said. "They make tremendous personal
sacrifices. The season is long and you
make a commitment and give it everything
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you have every single week. It's
extremely difficult."
Siegel said he's going to stay on at
the merged company for at least as
long as it takes to get the new arrangements
in place. Beyond that, he's not
sure. In this economy, nobody is.
DEI gave severance packages and
out-placement counseling to the people
it let go. Siegel said everyone in the
motorsports industry is trying to help
each other out as much as possible.
"We just tried to make sure people
were in the best place they could be,"
Siegel said.
Still, things were a long way from
being easy. "There's shock, anger, a
high level of anxiety, confusion - a
wide range of emotions," Siegel said.
"People deal with those in different
ways. . It's sobering what's going
on."
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