Richard Petty Motorsports, as expected, scaled back its operations from a four-car organization to a two-car operation Monday as Richard Petty continues to work with investors to take over the team, sources said. Employees were told of the decision Monday and there were cutbacks from an organization that placed two cars in the top five of the Sprint Cup season finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“They have to get it done now,” Roush Fenway Racing President Geoff Smith said Sunday. “Almost the week after the banquet, NASCAR wants the car numbers and owner applications. All the personnel want to know if they have a job. If all your people leave, then what you field next year will not be very good. There is a lot of pressure [to get it done]. But you don’t have the pressure of trying to scramble to get a race car ready for next week on top of it.”
Medallion Financial group reportedly is one of the companies interested in the team, whose minority owners currently include Petty and Boston Ventures.
Petty created a new limited liability company ‘Â R P Family Franchise ‘Â earlier this month. Filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State office Nov. 10, it is not clear if this will be the company that controls the race team.
Allmendinger has signed to stay with the team and his sponsor, Best Buy, is still in negotiations with Petty to be the sponsor for the majority of the races. JTG Daugherty Racing driver Marcos Ambrose has been signed to replace #19 Elliott Sadler in the Stanley-sponsored car [running the #9].(SceneDaily)
AND Richard Petty Motorsports held a meeting on Monday morning to clarify which employees would continue on as the company downsizes from four NASCAR Sprint Cup teams to two. According to sources, director of competition and Vice President Robbie Loomis delivered the news and workers were separated into two groups — remaining employees and those the organization chose to let go. President and general manager Max Jones and director of operations Sammy Johns were also in attendance. With crew chief Kenny Francis leaving to join Kasey Kahne at Red Bull Racing and crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe moving on to Richard Childress Racing with Paul Menard, understandably, many of their men will follow. The #43 team led by Mike Shiplett, which finished 19th in the points standings following a fifth-place finish by AJ Allmendinger on Sunday, is expected to remain intact.
Team co-owner Richard Petty later issued a statement on the organization’s NASCAR Sprint Cup plans. “Richard Petty Motorsports has completed its restructuring process and is now in the process of moving forward,” his statement read. “RPM will shift from running four cars to two in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and that is never an easy process for the people involved. Currently, we are concentrating on building two solid programs with AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel of the #43 entry and Marcos Ambrose in the #9 Ford. We are very fortunate to have an extremely loyal family of partners and are looking forward to the future.” Potential investor Andrew Murstein from Medallion Financial Group was at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday meeting with team management, Allmendinger and Ford Racing.(FoxSports)(11-22-2010)
