Mooresville, NC (September 29, 2011) – Due to the team’s extraordinary growth in 2011, Germain Racing finds itself in a unique situation looking toward 2012. As the 2010 season drew to a close, Germain Racing knew the team would operate the GEICO Camry and GEICO Tundra programs, and was in negotiations to sign some sponsorship for its championship No. 30 Tundra team as well as sign up a new number, No. 62, for the 2011 season. Looking ahead to 2012, the team again will field the GEICO Camry for an expanded schedule of 22 races, but is uncertain how many of the Tundra programs will be funded for the coming year.
“We began this process two weeks ago, and it’s not a lot different than what we’ve been through in previous seasons heading into the off-season. We have been fortunate to sign a lot of our deals in December and some in January. Unfortunately, that saddles us with layoffs in November,” explained Mike Hillman Sr., general manager of Germain Racing. “This year, given the economy and the fact that several fellow race teams have previously announced their shut-downs, we gave our team members warning that they should be sure they are comfortable with their employment situation for the coming season. Today, we have formalized this process in compliance with North Carolina state law.”
The team grew from around 50 to more than 100 employees over the off-season between the Homestead season finale in 2010 to the Daytona season opener in 2011. The potential of pending layoffs puts the team in a situation where a large enough percentage of employees may need to be laid off that the state of North Carolina must be warned, as well as the employees of Germain Racing, LLC, based on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
“Germain Racing will be in business in 2012 and beyond. Our long-time sponsor, GEICO, and partners such as Valvoline are looking ahead to being part of the Daytona 500 come February. We have enjoyed a tremendous growth year, and it has put us in the unenviable position of looking seriously at the possibility of downsizing our team. In the meantime, we will continue to work on securing sponsorship in order to pursue more NASCAR success in the future,” explained Hillman Sr.
In order to give our employees an opportunity to plan for the future and also to comply with the law and initiate government assistance that may be available to our employees, Germain Racing served official warning of potential layoffs on Thursday afternoon.
The team will continue to grow and develop its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team in order to compete for a full season in 2012.
