Newly formed Richard Petty Motorsports ready to roll with Ford in 2010
Elliott Sadler, Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne and AJ Allmendinger at the Richard Petty Motorsports media tour event Tuesday. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
Richard Petty and the Gillett family will remain the owners of Richard Petty Motorsports as the organization officially announced its merger with Yates Racing Tuesday.
Max Jones will become the president and general manager of RPM, a role he previously held with Yates Racing. Doug Yates, who started Yates Racing when his father, Robert, retired in 2007, will continue to oversee the Roush Yates Engine Program.
Jones and Doug Yates have no ownership in the new venture but Ray Evernham still does, according to RPM Managing Partner Foster Gillett.
Robbie Loomis will remain the team’s director of competition while Sammy Johns will be its director of operations.
While switching from Dodge to Ford, RPM will maintain the technical alliance Yates began last year with Roush Fenway Racing, but all other parts of the business will operate as a separate entity.
The organization also officially announced its switch to Ford. RPM ran four races in Fords at the end of 2009.
The team unveiled its driver lineup for 2010, with the three RPM drivers – Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and AJ Allmendinger – joining Paul Menard, who drove for Yates Racing last year.
Kahne won two races and made the Chase For The Sprint Cup last year, but the other RPM drivers struggled, as did Menard. RPM hopes the merger and the switch to Ford will change the team’s fortunes.
“There is a lot of optimism in this race team right now,” said Sadler, who won his only three Cup races while driving Fords, two of them for Robert Yates Racing.
Kahne recently tested a Ford at Auto Club Speedway in California, using some of the setups from Roush Fenway drivers.
“I really liked what I felt,” Kahne said.
Allmendinger drove a Ford in three races at the end of 2009, finishing 10th twice.
“You could see from the beginning how fast our team and how much better we were getting,” Allmendinger said.
All four drivers will remain with the same teams they drove for last year. The only significant change is with Menard, who will work with new crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe.
Richard Petty was not at Tuesday’s announcement while attending to a family issue.
