Gillett family member mum on impact of Canadiens sale on Richard Petty Motorsports
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For those curious on how the pending sale of the Montreal Canadiens will impact Richard Petty Motorsports, Foster Gillett is going to let the speculation continue.
Gillett, the son of George Gillett, declined to comment on how the Gillett family’s sale of the Canadiens, expected to be finalized by August, would impact the race team. The Gillett family owns Richard Petty Motorsports, with Richard Petty and Boston Ventures as the other co-owners.
“I know that he’s been working on this for a pretty good while,” Petty said last week. “In doing what he did with Montreal, I think it will relax us from the racing standpoint. It’s not where they’ve got to pay our bill or we’ve got to pay their bill.
“We can just pay our bill now without worrying about anything else. It will cut us loose to be able to do some of the things that the team really wants to do, whether we get bigger, whether we get littler. It gives us a lot more flexibility because we know we are a stable operation. We felt like we were pretty stable but you keep hearing things here and there and you start questioning yourself. Right now we don’t have a question.”
Foster Gillett, whose family also co-owns the Liverpool soccer team, seemed content to let people talk about the impact but not from him.
“They’re different businesses and we don’t talk about them either publicly,” said a polite Gillett, who spends much of his time now working with the race tam. “They’re private companies.”
Gillett also declined to talk about whether Richard Petty Motorsports will change manufacturers. Petty said last week that RPM is looking at all options for next year.
“Richard spoke on the subject and his quotes speak for all of us,” Gillett said.
