- Richard Petty has completed financial restructuring of the RPM team.
- The team will downsize from four cars to two, with drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose.
- Petty has taken control from the financially embattled George Gillett, Jr.
CONCORD, North Carolina — Richard Petty Motorsports, which finished the season on a pay-as-you-race basis with its car and engine suppliers, has been downsized and restructured for 2011.
The team owner, NASCAR's first seven-time driving champion, completed financial negotiations to free it from the burden imposed by the dilemma of majority owner George Gillett, Jr. Petty has assumed control of the team.
RPM will compete as a two-car team in 2011, half its previous size. A.J. Allmendinger will remain as one driver, and Marcos Ambrose, who was signed to join the team during 2010, will have the second ride.
The team will continue to field Fords, with Allmendinger driving the No. 43 sponsored by Best Buy and Ambrose in the No. 9 sponsored by Stanley Tools.
Among the many RPM employees left on the sidelines will be drivers Elliott Sadler and Aric Almirola. Sadler will compete in the second-tier Nationwide Series next year but has announced no plans for Sprint Cup racing.
Nor has Almirola, who replaced Kasey Kahne late in the season, landed a ride for next year.
Kahne and another RPM driver, Paul Menard, are headed to other rides in 2011.
"Currently, we are concentrating on building two solid programs," Petty said in a statement released by the team. "We are very fortunate to have an extremely loyal family of partners and are looking forward to the future."
The embattled Gillett has lost ownership of the English soccer club Liverpool and faces several lawsuits over finances, including one from former NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham, who partnered with Gillett in 2007.
Inside Line says: The team with which Petty built his illustrious NASCAR career, Petty Enterprises, is no longer in business. Petty left the team in a family dispute in 1983 and won his 199th and 200th career victories in a No. 43 car owned by Mike Curb. — David Green, Correspondent
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cz_75 says:
02:30 AM, 11/24/2010
I haven't watched NASSCAR since they moved away from real chassis to some phony body with stickers to make it look like the car it is supposedly modeled after. A 2 door RWD Taurus? A V-8 RWD Camry?
Ambrose would be better off (from a skill/racing standpoint) going back to the much more interesting Australian V-8 Supercar series, but I'm sure NASSCAR is where the money is.
ronnjc says:
11:35 PM, 11/23/2010
Sorry to here Petty is just a shell of its former self. I, personally, haven't watched Nascar, Sprint, Nextel, or whatever you want to call it since the let Japanese manufacturer Toyota in.
a_3 says:
03:00 PM, 11/23/2010
Good news for AJ. Expect him to consistently be around the top ten next year. He's got the skill, and being the #1 driver with better equipment will get him noticed more.