Richard Petty Motorsports hopes move to Ford, alliance with Roush Fenway Racing will help
Kasey Kahne is looking forward to being in a Ford at Richard Petty Motorsports. // Amanda Robinson, NASCAR Illustrated
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Kasey Kahne went to California for a Goodyear tire test last month, he was racing a Ford after his Richard Petty Motorsports team switched from Dodge as part of its merger with Yates Racing.
What might be surprising, though, is that he had a setup provided by the Roush Fenway Racing team of Greg Biffle.
It’s that kind information exchange that the RPM drivers hope to benefit from with the car switch and merger. RPM, Yates and Ford officials are expected to formally announce the completion of the merger Jan. 19. With the addition of Front Row Motorsports and with Wood Brothers Racing returning for another part-time schedule, there will be 10 or 11 manufacturer-backed Fords at each event. Last year, RPM was part of a seven-car Dodge stable along with Penske Racing.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Kahne said at the Sprint Sound and Speed on Saturday. “I think we’re going to have a better engine package. Working with a bigger group of people should benefit everybody at RPM.”
The 2010 season will be critical for RPM. It’s the third consecutive season with some form of new ownership for the organization and all of its drivers – Kahne, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard – have contracts that are up at the end of the year. Only Kahne won races and made the Chase For The Sprint Cup last season.
It also will be critical for Roush Fenway, which didn’t win a Cup race after Matt Kenseth won the first two events of 2009 and only had two of its five drivers make the Chase.
“One of the things that led us to Ford was the open communication that they have between all their teams,” Sadler said. “Greg Biffle and myself have already talked about it. [Roush Fenway driver] Carl Edwards and myself have already talked about helping each other as much as we can because Roush didn’t have the best season they ever had last year by no stretch and, of course, we didn’t either.
“We both feel like we’re very humble as companies right now. We’re doing what we can to help each other. When Kasey went to test at California, he threw Greg Biffle’s setup in it to a T, just to give those guys something to look at. There’s definitely a lot of communication going on between both Ford camps right now, and I’m very, very happy to see that. We’re both at a stage that we know what we have to do to run with the Hendrick cars. We know we need to get better. Both companies do.”
RPM employees are still working out of their shop in Statesville, N.C., and likely will move to the Yates shop in Concord, N.C. (next to Roush Fenway) during the next few months.
“They’re still not in the same shop [as us],” Edwards said. “We’re separate teams. For me to be able to have another guy of Kasey Kahne’s caliber to go and talk to about stuff, [and] his crew chief, maybe we’ll be able to share some stuff with them. That would be huge.
“The big thing right now is to show Kasey that we can do well enough, and that Ford is the company to be with, [and] get him to stay to help make our team strong in the long run.”
Sadler and Allmendinger drove Fords in select races at the end of 2009. Allmendinger finished in the top 13 in the final three races in a Ford.
“We have the same core group of guys that were on the 9 car,” said Kahne, who finished 10th in the standings last year. “We have a little bit different body with the Ford body. We have a different group of people we’re working with, a touch more power.
“To me, it’s a little bit of a bonus. I’m looking forward to it. But our cars will drive the same way they did last year really. … It’s been a pretty crazy offseason trying to get the cars built, trying to get familiar with the new surroundings.”
Sadler said the company is working hard on the conversion of cars.
“Everybody’s excited to get to Daytona, but we still need a little bit more time,” Sadler said. “We’re building new cars, trying to get everything as prepared as we can so when we leave to go down for the 500 we have our Vegas and Atlanta cars and California cars and all the stuff done [for the following month].”
While there was speculation that Sadler would have a different crew chief this year, Wally Rogers will remain. Rogers took over the job last August.
“He learned a lot on the go, week in and week out, the way he was thrown in the position,” Sadler said. “He’s had a whole winter to gather his thoughts, play with a lot of stuff on simulation programs, especially the different ones that Ford uses compared to the ones we had.
“So I’m really happy with the progress he feels like he’s made as a crew chief going to Daytona. It should be fun.”
