Richard Petty Motorsports Team
Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM), formerly Gillett Evernham Motorsports, is a racing team in NASCAR. It is owned by former Montreal Canadiens owner and Current Liverpool F.C. co-owner George Gillett and seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Richard Petty. Private-equity firm Boston Ventures owns a minority stake in the team. The team currently fields the #9 Budweiser Ford Fusion for Kasey Kahne, the #19 Stanley Tools/Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford for Elliott Sadler, the #43 Best Buy Ford for A.J. Allmendinger, and the #98 Menards Ford for Paul Menard, all in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
On August 6, 2007, it was announced that Gillett had purchased a majority share in the team, then known as Evernham Motorsports and owned by three-time Winston Cup-winning crew chief Ray Evernham, and that the name had been changed. The transaction was similar to the creation of Roush Fenway Racing. On January 9, 2009, GEM completed a merger with Petty Enterprises and brought the team's famous #43 car into the fold. Owner George Gillett told reporters that the team would change names to reflect the merger, with Richard Petty Motorsports or Gillett Petty Motorsports being two of the potential names. The team finally decided on the former name on January 19, 2009. Shortly afterwards, Evernham sold his remaining share in the operation. Late in the 2009 season RPM announced at deal with Yates Racing that would see RPM purchase the contracts of Paul Menard, his sponsor Menards, Yates Racing engines and would switch from Dodge equipment to take over Yates' longtime association with Ford.
In the 2003 season, the team debuted with Jeremy Mayfield driving the #79 Dodge Intrepid, with Mountain Dew sponsoring, at Rockingham. He finished 4th in the only race for the team that year. The team returned for the 2005 season, operating as a 2nd Busch team. Sponsorship for this car came mainly from Trus Joist and Auto Value. Kahne and Mayfield shared the driving duties for the three races the team ran with a best finish of 4th at Richmond in May. Kahne also drove the car to a 12th place finish at New Hampshire and Mayfield had a best finish of 29th at Charlotte. While the team didn't run in 2006, a couple of the chassis from the #79 were run by Erin Crocker in her first couple of races. In the last race of the 2007 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Patrick Carpentier made his second Busch Series start. The car was the #19 sponsored by Stanley Tools.
Chase Miller drove the car as a second GEM car in selected NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2008, with sponsorship from Cellco Partnerships (a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone) on the car. The team was retired once the Braun-Petty deal was announced.
Evernham Motorsports began its development program in 2005. In 2005, original driver Erin Crocker ran selected ARCA events and made her Busch Series debut at Richmond International Raceway, finishing 39th after crashing. She also competed in the Truck series for a couple of races. She competed full time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2006, finishing 25th in the final point standings. Following the closure of the truck team, she ran several ARCA races for Evernham before leaving the operation in 2007 . Kevin Swindell, who won his first World of Outlaws race in May 2006, competed in the ARCA series in the #4 Dodge. For 2007, he will race in the USAC Sprint and Midget series with Kasey Kahne Racing, driving a factory Mopar-powered car in both series.
Richard Petty Motorsports Team Video
