FORT WORTH, Texas -- Two Earnhardt Ganassi Racing cars were in the top 10 after Saturday afternoon's Happy Hour practice for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway; and that's a welcomed good sign for Sunday's seventh race of the Sprint Cup season.

What might be absolutely huge for a season slowly inching toward the edge of disaster is the highly anticipated appearance of a common chassis constructed using the best ideas from both elements of EGR. It might appear as early as in two weeks when the season resumes at Phoenix after next weekend's Easter break.

In Saturday's post-practice debrief, there were difficulties making valid points despite EGR's heralded communication continuing. It didn't render Juan Montoya's ninth place in his No. 42 Chevrolet and Martin Truex Jr.'s 10th in the No. 1 totally moot -- just a little less valuable.

The team's third driver, Aric Almirola, had his No. 8 back in 36th, seven-tenths of a second behind Truex.

To an indefinable degree, the divergent versions of NASCAR's new car each team is using may be at the root of a less-than-satisfying season-to-date for EGR, which is the result of an offseason partnership between the former Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing.

Montoya, who won a race as a rookie in 2007 but fell five spots from his first-year finish to 25th last season, is currently 14th. Truex, who made his first Chase in '07 but fell to 15th last season, is 28th in the standings. Almirola, whose season is questionable due to lack of sponsorship, has two DNFs and is outside the critical top 35 in owners' points, 36th in the drivers' standings.

"The biggest thing we got going for us is, due to the schedule, that keeps us sane, because if you had time to sit and think about it, you might lose your mind," EGR competition director Steve Hmiel said. "Honestly, the fact that we're gone so much and concentrating on racing so much keeps you from sitting around wondering about what's going to happen next -- because what's going to happen next is going to happen in about the next five seconds.

"We've had some success with the cars. The 1 has had some terrible luck but they've had fast cars; the 42 hasn't had great luck but they're 14th in the points and Aric is doing a great job with the race cars, we've just got to make sure we can keep it funded properly so they can continue on.

"Chevrolet's been a great help to us and the [Earnhardt-Childress Racing] engines have been terrific, so there are an awful lot of positives around our program. If you sat and worried about it or just added up the negatives, you probably wouldn't be a racer anyways. But the racer in me says there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train. We think we're running pretty good and the guys are working together great."

But there's the question of cars with their genesis as DEI pieces and the others that were CGR chassis.

"It's been a difficult year for the 1 car so far -- and the 8 car," Truex's crew chief, Kevin Manion, said. "Juan seems to be running pretty good. In this day and age, teammates are very important, and just getting out of our crew chief and drivers' meeting, we're still talking apples and oranges.

"When you can talk apples to apples, that's when you're going to see some improvements with this EGR team." (Continued)