joining NASCAR but discussions with CGR team owner Chip Ganassi and Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress did not result in a race seat. Renewed talks with Ganassi saw him replace David Stremme in the No. 40 Dodge Charger on a multi-year contract from 2008 because of Stremme's sponsorship problems, and they believed that Franchitti was more marketable, a decision that greatly upset AGR. He was enrolled onto an stock car development programme entailing ARCA and the Busch Series events as well as testing. He made his stock car racing debut in the ARCA Re/Max 250 at Talladega Superspeedway, qualifying seventh and finishing 17th in the No. 42 CGR Dodge. Two weeks later, he entered one race in the Craftsman Truck Series (the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway) for CGR in Cunningham Motorsports' No. 41 Dodge Ram, starting 30th and finishing 33rd after an accident. In the 2007 Busch Series, Franchitti drove four races in CGR's No. 42 Dodge Charger, achieving a best starting position of third in the Sam's Town 250 at Memphis International Raceway and a best finish of 25th in the O'Reilly Challenge at Texas. During the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, he entered 14 races, qualified for 10 with an average start of 28.4 and finish of 34.3 with two did not finishes. Franchitti's season-best finish was a 22nd place in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville and his best qualifying performance was seventh in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He fell outside the top 35 in the points standings that he had inherited from the preceding season and was required to qualify on speed from the sixth race onwards, due to an noncompetitive car owning to his team's not mastering the Car of Tomorrow or beating other major NASCAR teams. Franchitti's Sprint Cup Series team funded by Chip Ganassi was disbanded by Ganassi and co-owner Felix Sabates in July 2008 due to the trouble of retaining major sponsorship funding. Early in 2008, Franchitti entered the season-opening ARCA Re/Max Series race, the ARCA 200 at Daytona at Daytona International Speedway, in CGR's No. 40 Dodge, qualifying ninth and finishing tenth. He qualified CGR's No. 40 Dodge in 14 races in the renamed Nationwide Series, achieving two top-ten finishes with an average start of 12.6 and an average finish of 17.6. Franchitti's best series finish was a fifth place at the