Petty Enterprises watching merger trend
While merger talk is dominating the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage these days, Petty Enterprises officials aren't really saying whether the organization would consider such a move, though officials are watching the trend evolve.
Boston Ventures bought majority interest in the veteran Cup organization earlier this year, the latest in a series of events marking what team officials term a transition year for the two-car organization. Now, the group has to carefully consider a future move. Speaking during a national teleconference Tuesday, Petty's Executive Vice President of Racing Operations Robbie Loomis said that the environment in the garage area has changed dramatically over the last couple of seasons.
In recent years, Richard Childress Racing took on an investor, Gillett Evernham Motorsports was formed when George Gillett Jr. bought controlling interest in the team and a portion of Roush Racing was sold to the Fenway Sports Group, creating Roush Fenway Racing. Michael Waltrip started a team that sold a portion of it to an investor as well and others are reportedly considering offers or merger plans.
The high-profile changes combined with a downturn in the economy have created an environment where the smaller teams in the garage find themselves entertaining offers they might not have in the past.
Loomis said that the Petty group is watching the trend. The organization fields two NASCAR Sprint Cup entries, one driven by Bobby Labonte and the other primarily by Kyle Petty, though several drivers have driven the No. 45 this season.
"We're very committed to Dodge at Petty Enterprise," he said Tuesday during a national teleconference. "If you read the news out there, I think everyone is talking to everybody about a merger. … I think as the future unfolds we've all just got to be smart about how we pay attention to how we operate and is there ways we can be more efficient and we grow and that's what will drive those decisions of the future."
He pointed out that it wasn't that long ago that all the teams in the garage were aiming to become, or to be a part of, four-car organizations. Now, that goal has altered a little as well. He thinks that owners need to watch the trend, but to make sure that any long-term decisions are made in an effort to improve a team's performance. That would be the key factor in any decision the organization might make concerning any type of merger or partnership with another organization.
"I think as we have been looking at things and I know as I have the last couple of years, we kind of saw that we were two cars and we wanted to get to four because a few years ago NASCAR said there needs to be a four-car limit," Loomis said. "Then all the sudden the landscape is kind of changing and there's a lot of alliances where before maybe a one- or two-car guy was trying to hook on to be a part of another two-car team, now you're seeing a four-car team and there's two-car teams that want to be attached to them and maybe grow to four-car teams attached to that.
"So the competition level is just raising quicker and quicker, the bar, and we've got to be smart about what we do from the competition standpoint because the only thing that's going to keep our brand healthy and keep our brand out in the front, the Petty brand, is our competition and getting our cars back to the forefront and winning races like the Hendrick Motorsports crowd is today … That's our vision for Petty Enterprise. [Team owner] Rick [Hendrick] has set the current model in the '90s and the 2000s and I think we've all got to be smart enough to pay attention and make sure we're doing the right things along the way."
