CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Aric Almirola became NASCAR's latest casualty of the economic crisis when Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing was forced to park the No. 8 car because of a lack of sponsorship.

Yates Racing closed its No. 28 team last month when it couldn't find sponsorship for Travis Kvapil.

"We did our best to find a sponsor for the (No.) 8 that would take a larger number of races than the one-, two-, three-race deals we were able to do and just have not closed that type of deal yet," EGR president Steve Lauletta said Wednesday. "We are still working hard at it to get Aric and the (No.) 8 back on the track as soon as we can."

It marks a sad chapter for the No. 8 car, which was the centerpiece at Dale Earnhardt Inc. before the team merged with Chip Ganassi Racing last November. Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove the car for eight seasons at DEI, but his stepmother, Teresa, refused to let him take the number with him when he left for Hendrick Motorsports at the end of 2007.

Instead, Mark Martin and Almirola split the ride with sponsorship from the U.S. Army. That funding ended at the end of last season, at the same time Almirola was scheduled to take over the seat full time.

The team became part of the EGR merger, but Ganassi had consistently warned that the organization would not sustain the car without proper funding. Ganassi paid out of pocket for Dario Franchitti's unsponsored car for six months last season, and the financial strain affected the entire organization.

With Juan Pablo Montoya off to such a strong start to the season — he's 13th in the points — EGR could not risk supporting Almirola and placing its other two sponsored cars in jeopardy. The team also fields a car for Martin Truex Jr.

Almirola is 37th in the Sprint Cup standings, with a season-best finish of 21st at Atlanta last month. His results were not strong enough to woo potential investors, particularly in this poor economic climate. Several teams were forced to release team members in cost-cutting moves, while others merged with stronger organizations and some even went out of business.

EGR had significant layoffs following the merger — DEI closed its No. 01 car driven by Regan Smith when it merged with Ganassi, and more than 100 employees were put out of work.