Sadler to drive Ford as Petty-Yates merger progresses
The planned Richard Petty Motorsports-Yates Racing merger has progressed to the point that Elliott Sadler will drive a Ford that originally came out of the Yates shop in the Nov. 1 race at Talladega Superspeedway, RPM Executive Vice President Robbie Loomis said Oct. 23.
It will be the first time the Dodge-supported organization runs a Ford. RPM plans to merge with Yates Racing after the season and run Fords next year.
The car will have the “old” engine from Ford, which will debut its new FR9 at Talladega in two Roush Fenway Racing cars. Sadler’s backup for the race also will be a Ford.
“We’re just trying to get a start for next year and getting one on the race track will be a good experience for us for sure,” Loomis said. “Elliott is definitely a proven guy and a great, quality driver, and it also gives us the benefit of also being able to help Kasey [Kahne] during the race.
“We’re excited about it. We’re looking forward to it. It’s just another step in the process.”
RPM’s AJ Allmendinger will drive a Ford in the Goodyear tire test Nov. 2-3 at Daytona. There also could be one Ford among the four RPM cars in the final three races, but
Kahne, who is in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, will finish the season in a Dodge, Loomis said.
“We could run it a little bit more towards the rest of the year,” Loomis said about Fords. “We want to get a look at different style race tracks.”
Loomis said the planned merger with Yates is still on track.
“In my mind, the deal is already done,” Loomis said. “It’s just trying to work through all the details of what makes sense to run an organization to be successful on the race track.”
Kahne said while things remain uncertain, he is focused on performance on the track. He had troubles with the new R6 Dodge engine in the first Chase race at New Hampshire and used the old Dodge engine until the Oct. 17 race at Charlotte. He will use the new engine the rest of the season except at Talladega, Loomis said.
“If [the owners] want to go to Ford or Roush or combine or whatever their ideas are, [I] let them do their thing,” Kahne said. “I’m just focusing in on driving the car [and] working with my team because at the end of the day, that’s what my team does, that’s what [crew chief] Kenny Francis does and I think that’s one reason why we run so well, because we don’t care about all that other stuff.”
