Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Reed Sorenson with Petty, GEM team

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Friday, January 09, 2009

Kasey Kahne (left), Elliott Sadler (center) and Reed Sorenson will drive for the new team that would be created by the planned merger of Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises.

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The planned new team that combines Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Holdings will have Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Reed Sorenson as its full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and hopes to add AJ Allmendinger as a part-time driver, says team Chief Executive Officer Tom Reddin.

Reddin said in an interview Friday that Sadler will drive the No. 19 and Sorenson will drive the No. 43 car. The plan is for a fourth car – possibly with Allmendinger – to compete in the first five races and at least eight total.

Reddin said he believes all four cars will be guaranteed spots in the first five races because the Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Chip Ganassi Racing merger resulted in a drop of two cars out of the top 35, putting GEM’s No. 10 from 2008 in the top 35.

“We’re working on a deal with AJ to get him into our fourth car, and as of now we have an eight-race package put together,” Reddin said.

Reddin, who is the current CEO at GEM, will serve as the CEO of the new company, he said, but he declined to talk about the structure of the new company because it is not yet finalized. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.

The team name is still to be decided and likely will have Richard Petty’s name in it but is not expected to be Petty Enterprises, the long-time name of the Petty family team.

“We’d like to use the Petty name in some way, shape or form,” Reddin said. “Richard is excited about getting really involved, going to every race and helping the drivers both on the track and off the track – not from a pure technical standpoint but from a mental and coaching [one], helping them become winners.”

The team has sold the majority of sponsorship for Sorenson, which will include the four races from the Air Force, Reddin said, with another sponsor to be announced later in the month. There is partial sponsorship for the fourth car slated for Allmendinger. Some of the sponsorship has come from the Petty side of the merger, Reddin said.

Reddin hopes the Petty name will bring more. The team already had Budweiser sponsorship for Kahne and Stanley tools and Best Buy stores for Sadler.

“We’ve got the famed 43, and we’ve already had a number of our sponsors ask if they can meet Richard and if we can set something up at Daytona – they’re really excited about that,” Reddin said. “The Petty brand is the biggest brand in NASCAR. The opportunities of that are huge.”

Reddin said the team expects to get some equipment from the Petty teams but would not elaborate until the deal closes. He also would not talk about whether the team will get the total Dodge support that had been slated for GEM and Petty for 2009.

“We’re a Dodge team for 2009, with four cars at Daytona – that’s something we’ve wanted to do for quite a while now,” Reddin said.

Reddin said crew chiefs are being put in place for the Sadler, Sorenson and Allmendinger cars and will be announced in a few weeks. Kenny Francis remains with Kahne.

The addition of former Jeff Gordon crew chief Robbie Loomis, who directed the competition side at Petty, as well as former Richard Petty crew chief Dale Inman will help the team improve, Reddin said.

“We want to do two things – we want to win races, and we want to be in the Chase [For The Sprint Cup] and contend for the championship,” Reddin said. “We produce standardized common cars and engines. [All] four teams will get the same equipment, and we know the equipment is capable of getting into the Chase. That will be our goal.”

Reddin also said he expects the team to be able to put aside any issues with Sadler. Those issues became public when Sadler filed a notice in North Carolina Superior Court on Dec. 31 that indicated that he considered that GEM had breached his contract, which runs through 2010, and that he could possibly file a complaint to ask for damages or for an injunction to be put back in the car if the company put Allmendinger into the No. 19 car.

All the issues have been resolved, Reddin said.

“We’re moving on and we’re excited about Daytona,” Reddin said. “I expect nothing but a 100 percent effort by both us and Elliott in achieving our goals.”