It has been just over one year when Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) announced that Twisted Tea Brewing Company partnered with the organization in its first NASCAR sponsorship. RPM announced that the hard ice tea brewing company will return to the #9 Ford for two primary races in the 2015 season with driver Sam Hornish Jr. Twisted Tea’s return to the #9 Ford will be highlighted in NASCAR’s most iconic event, the 57th Daytona 500. Twisted Tea joins RPM at the famous track where it has a history of 12 wins, most recently in July of 2014. The prominent yellow and blue design will also be featured during the Coke Zero 400 on July 5, also at the Daytona International Speedway. Along with the two current primary races, Twisted Tea will be a season-long associate sponsor on the #9 Ford. “We are proud to continue our relationship with Richard Petty Motorsports and Sam Hornish Jr. throughout 2015,” said Robert Vail, member of the Twisted Tea team. “This has been a great partnership for us and we can’t think of a better way to kick off our year than at the Daytona 500. This is a world class event and we’re teaming up with a world class crew and driver. There is no better time to enjoy Twisted Tea than at Daytona’s biggest event, or cheering on the drivers while watching the race at home.”
“Daytona will be a career moment for me,” commented Hornish Jr. “It’s my first race driving for Richard Petty, it’s the Daytona 500 and I’ll once again have an opportunity to join heroes of motorsports if we win. It’s an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to do it with Twisted Tea who will also support us throughout 2015. They are such a fun, cool partner and to be able to celebrate with them in Victory Lane would certainly be a highlight of my career.”(RPM/Breaking Limits), see an image of the scheme on the #9 Team Schemes page.
UPDATE: 2015 Charlotte Media Tour Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes
BRIAN MOFFITT, CEO of Richard Petty Motorsports: “This is an exciting time at Richard Petty Motorsports. For quite some years we’ve been looking to get back to where we had the autonomy that Sammy was talking about and this year we do. We’re looking forward to the investments that Richard continues to make and Andy Murstein continues to make in the sport. We’re excited about our driver lineup. We’re excited about our crew chiefs. I have to thank everyone during this off-season. Everybody has a lot of work during the off-season, but we had a little more with the move. I can’t say enough about the families that supported our employees and the time that they put into it. We really appreciate them so much and look forward to winning some races this season with the efforts they put into our guys. With announcements, one of the things Jeff said was going to be a big question was the 9 car. We are planning to run the full season with Sam in the car and we have Twisted Tea stepping up in a big way as our primary partner. We also have some other partners that are going to be joining us and we’ll be announcing them later in the year. Blue Emu is coming aboard, R-M Automotive, as well as Medallion Bank and Petty’s Garage, so we look forward to continuing our effort to grow this sport, grow RPM and continue to put our cars in victory lane. We look forward to that. Another announcement that we have is Andy’s Medallion Sports Properties has actually hired Sean Downes, who was development director for NASCAR. He helped bring XFINITY into the sport, so we have him now helping us in our efforts to fill out the number 9 car through the season. Again, we look forward to seeing all of you in victory land as we move forward and appreciate you being here.”(Ford Performance)(1-28-2015)
