Former Ginn drivers sue team

Marlin and Nemechek were both released by Ginn Racing in July this year when the team merged with DEI. Both of their cars were withdrawn, while the third entry from the team, the No. 01 car driver regularly by Mark Martin, stayed afloat.

Their suits have been filed in a court in Cabarrus County, North Carolina last week, and also include filings from Richard "Slugger" Labbe and Peter Sospenzo, who were released from their crew chief roles at Ginn Racing.

DEI officials said the matter will be dealt with by Ginn Racing and do not involve the team despite the lawsuit being filed against both companies.

"While we were named as a party to the lawsuit, we were never a party to the contracts in question," said DEI general manager John Story. "This is an obligation that Ginn will be addressing and any further questions regarding this matter should be directed to them."

Marlin, a two-time Daytona 500 winner and Nemechek, a former Busch Series champion and Nextel Cup race-winner, are both owed their salaries, which were set at US $1.2 million each plus a percentage of their prizemoney winnings and merchandise sales.

Nemechek earned more than $4 million in prize money last season, while Marlin made $3.2 million. Labbe and Sospenzo are also owed their salaries, which were $450,000 for the season.

Labbe is currently working with Bill Davis Racing and has served as crew chief for Jacques Villeneuve is testing, while Nemecheck has raced recently for Furniture Row Racing. Marlin tried to race for the same team at Bristol, but failed to qualify.