RPM may not run past Martinsville

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Wow.

Per Fox Sports.....

The house of cards is finally falling for George Gillett's Richard Petty Motorsports. The assembly line from Roush Fenway Racing and Roush Yates engines has stopped running to RPM. Engines have been picked up, cars have been repossessed, and sources on both sides -- RPM and RFR -- say no cars will be delivered beyond Martinsville this weekend. On Thursday morning, crewmen at RPM were told they may not have jobs after the race at Martinsville Speedway this weekend. Neither Petty team CEO Foster Gillett nor team Vice President Robbie Loomis could be reached for comment. RPM currently fields four cars in the Sprint Cup Series -- the #9, #19, #43 and #98. Kasey Kahne was released from his contract as of Wednesday night and is expected to drive for Red Bull Racing for the remainder of the year and in 2011. Elliott Sadler is expected to drive for Kevin Harvick Inc. next year. Paul Menard signed a multi-year deal to drive for Richard Childress Racing starting next year. His current crew chief Richard "Slugger" Labbe will continue his duties at RCR. AJ Allmendinger re-signed a multiyear deal to drive the #43 Ford this summer. Allmendinger is currently 20th in the point standings. Marcos Ambrose was signed to drive the #19 Ford in August. Ambrose currently drives for JTG/Daugherty Racing and is 26th in the point standings.
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I wonder if Petty will at least try to keep the 43 alive or will it be Bye,Bye to some more NASCAR history.:confused:
 
I think the Kasey Kahne thing is a lot more than what we know or understand.

I didn't take sides on the issue with Kasey and RPM because I had a feeling there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. There had to be a good reason for Kasey to feign illness and I have a feeling it had a lot to do with all of this that is just coming out.

Guess we have to see how it all plays out over the next few weeks. But I never did feel that RPM had much of a future having to rely on other sources to provide equipment.

This sport is turning into a battle of 4 mega groups that have control over what will actually be on the track. The mega group teams are just one other thing that has ruined the sport over the years and at this rate, the only ones competing in the future will be Hendrick, Roush, Childers and Gibbs.
 
Never should have let teams go past 2 cars. THe mega teams have contributed to the decline in popularity of the sport IMHO.
 
Guido said:
I think the Kasey Kahne thing is a lot more than what we know or understand.

I didn't take sides on the issue with Kasey and RPM because I had a feeling there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. There had to be a good reason for Kasey to feign illness and I have a feeling it had a lot to do with all of this that is just coming out.

Guess we have to see how it all plays out over the next few weeks. But I never did feel that RPM had much of a future having to rely on other sources to provide equipment.

This sport is turning into a battle of 4 mega groups that have control over what will actually be on the track. The mega group teams are just one other thing that has ruined the sport over the years and at this rate, the only ones competing in the future will be Hendrick, Roush, Childers and Gibbs.
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Penske not a mega team? Ganassi either? I think Ganassi has more wins than Roush or Childress this year.
 
Now there is some backtracking. Seems fishy to me.

UPDATE: The story has now been updated to include: "Sources tell FOXSports.com that the Talladega cars were returned after 11 a.m. ET Thursday, but they do not have engines or gears yet."(10-21-2010)
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MoMike said:
Penske not a mega team? Ganassi either? I think Ganassi has more wins than Roush or Childress this year.
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Anytime you're big enough to run successful NA__AR operations AND IRL operations plus Rolex/CanAm teams, yeah, I'd say that was a "MegaTeam."

I agree with Guido. When Bill France Jr. allowed Rick Hendrick to run more than than two full time teams back in 1987, that was one of the first nails in NA__AR's coffin.
 
J.D. Stacy ran something like 7 or 8 cars in the Daytona 500 one year. Hendrick was not the first to do that.
 
It sure is unfortunate to witness the demise of a once great organization but if history has taught us anything, it's that all good things come to end.
 
Stacy

Stacy did'nt own all then cars.................he bought space just to see his name on the cars.
 
MRM said:
J.D. Stacy ran something like 7 or 8 cars in the Daytona 500 one year. Hendrick was not the first to do that.
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Bill France's two car limit, which his son broke, was no owner could have more than two full time teams. Between 1958 (The advent of the "Kiekhaeffer Rule) and 1987 a number of team owners entered more than two cars in selected races (Holman Moody, Bill Stroppe, Petty and Childress, to name a few) but they didn't have more than two full time teams. That was the rule that Bill Jr. let Hendrick bypass, and I personally think it changed NA__AR in a very bad way. .
 
UPDATE 2: Multiple sources confirmed to SPEED.com on Thursday that Roush Fenway Racing, which builds RPM's cars, briefly repossessed RPM's Talladega cars and engines because of non-payment. Roush Fenway Racing allowed RPM to take the cars back Thursday morning, sources told SPEED.com. Additionally, sources said that one of the reasons Kahne was released from the team is that RPM owed him a substantial amount of back salary. A team spokesperson contacted Thursday afternoon declined to say whether or not Kahne was owed money, Roush Fenway Racing was owed money, when team owner George Gillett would publicly discuss his team's situation or what RPM's plans were beyond this weekend. "There's just nothing much to comment on right now," said Tiffany Breaux of Richard Petty Motorsports.(SPEED)(10-21-2010)
 
Bucky Badger said:
This team was over before it started...

Richard might have been a great driver...team owner...not so much.
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But he's not even a team owner anymore. Sold it, and other than his image and his spokesman role, that team is anything but Petty.
 
Budweiser must have yanked that money RPM was spreading thin.

Very sad for all involved. So is Menard starting at RCR early?
 
mike honcho said:
UPDATE 2: Additionally, sources said that one of the reasons Kahne was released from the team is that RPM owed him a substantial amount of back salary.
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Wonder how many folks here would continue working a dangerous job without getting paid.

Everyone was all over Kasey about being a quitter and feigning illness. But if it is true about his brake failures and he is owed a substantial amount of back pay, then how much longer was he supposed to put his life on the line for a team like this?

I'm not saying that all of this is true. What I am saying is that we don't really know what the full story is to really be critical of Kasey or even RPM for that matter.

Maybe in time we will learn the true story. In the meantime, I'm not going to throw any stones.
 
Guido;407513 Everyone was all over Kasey about being a quitter and feigning illness. But if it is true about his brake failures and he is owed a substantial amount of back pay said:
I'm betting there are entire Arca and Nationwide series garages full of drivers willing to do it for free just for the exposure.
MoMike
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Guido said:
Everyone was all over Kasey about being a quitter and feigning illness. But if it is true about his brake failures and he is owed a substantial amount of back pay, then how much longer was he supposed to put his life on the line for a team like this?
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Um, he could have finished the race he started. Obviously them owing him money wasn't enough of a problem to keep him from starting the race.:confused:
 
Something's fishy here. If Kasey really was really a man and not a diva about wanting to leave the team, he should have asked to leave in a quiet manner. I'm sure if Gillette/RPM was having money issues as described, they would have been glad to let him go. Then again, RPM has a history of not paying their drivers (ask Reed Sorensen.) Nobody is right in this soap opera.
 
chromehorn said:
They could have been taken care of by the time the car got back on the track.
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I know. Someone asked how long was he suppose to put his life on the line for the team, to which I said he could have finished that race, to which they said til he lost the brakes again, to which I said JJ didn't have problems, meaning they were fixed.:)
 
Officials from Petty, Roush Fenway hold meeting
Subjects to include long-term financial future of RPM in shaky times
By Sporting News Wire Service
October 21, 2010
06:11 PM EDT
Kasey Kahne's departure from Richard Petty Motorsports, announced Wednesday night, was only the first in a series of hurdles faced by the organization.

Principals of RPM and Roush Fenway Racing, which supplies chassis, engines and technical support to RPM, were meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the long-term financial future of the organization originally formed by the January 2009 merger of Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Holdings.

As the hauler for Kahne's No. 9 Fords was being re-decaled Thursday in the RPM parking lot, the short-term future of the organization was clarified in the wake of reports that Roush Fenway had repossessed cars intended for RPM's use in the Oct. 31 Amp Energy Juice 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

With immediate issues apparently settled, the chassis were returned to RPM from Roush (located across the street from RPM near the Concord, N.C., airport) on Thursday morning. The engines for the Talladega cars are due to be delivered Friday morning, Sporting News has learned.

Tad Geschickter, Marcos Ambrose's current owner at JTG Daugherty Racing, told Sporting News that Ambrose recently had asked for an early release from his ride in the No. 47 Toyota, but that current sponsor and promotional obligations prevented that request from being granted. That was the status quo as of Wednesday night, when Geschickter last spoke to Ambrose.

"Our plan at this point is to finish out the year," said Geschickter, who has hired 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte to replace Ambrose in the No. 47 next year.

Kahne notwithstanding, RPM's other drivers -- A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Menard and Elliott Sadler -- will compete for the organization in Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville. Sadler and Menard will leave RPM at season's end. Allmendinger re-signed with the team and will be joined by Ambrose in 2011.

Two recent watershed events have clouded the landscape at RPM. First, New England Sports Ventures, with John Henry the principal owner, recently acquired the English Premier League's Liverpool soccer team in a forced sale through the Royal Bank of Scotland for $476 million from owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

On this side of the Atlantic, Henry is better known as the owner of the Boston Red Sox and the partner of Jack Roush in Roush Fenway Racing. Gillett, who in 2009 sold his controlling interest in the Montreal Canadiens NHL team, owns majority interest in Richard Petty Motorsports, an RFR affiliate.

New England Sports Ventures agreed to retire approximately $317 million of Gillett's and Hicks' $376-million debt to the Royal Bank of Scotland on acquisition of the Liverpool team.

Hicks, a former owner of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team, called the deal an "extraordinary swindle" and threatened legal action. Yet, on Thursday, representatives of Henry and Gillett participated in the meeting in Concord in an attempt to define and secure the future of Richard Petty Motorsports.

Second, Kahne's departure under less-than-ideal circumstances turned the spotlight on RPM. Citing illness as the reason, Kahne refused to return to his car during Saturday night's Bank of America 500, after the No. 9 Ford had been repaired following a wreck.

Instead, J.J. Yeley completed the race. The next morning, Kahne ran a sub-23-minute 5K in a charity race he sponsored.

That incident was a contributing factor in Kahne's release from RPM and early appearance at Red Bull.
 
Guido said:
Wonder how many folks here would continue working a dangerous job without getting paid.

Everyone was all over Kasey about being a quitter and feigning illness. But if it is true about his brake failures and he is owed a substantial amount of back pay, then how much longer was he supposed to put his life on the line for a team like this?

I'm not saying that all of this is true. What I am saying is that we don't really know what the full story is to really be critical of Kasey or even RPM for that matter.

Maybe in time we will learn the true story. In the meantime, I'm not going to throw any stones.
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:beerbang:
 
So we end up with -
Kahne running to Redbull
Menard coming off a pretty decent year goes to RCR next year
Sadler likely headed back to the Nationwide series
Allmaindeinger is screwed
Ambrose is screwed unless he finds a way to get B. Labonte out of the 47 car next year.
 
wilson89 said:
So we end up with -
Kahne running to Redbull
Menard coming off a pretty decent year goes to RCR next year
Sadler likely headed back to the Nationwide series
Allmaindeinger is screwed
Ambrose is screwed unless he finds a way to get B. Labonte out of the 47 car next year.
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and I just read that Red Bull didn't pick up Scott Speed's option on his contract.So he's free to look elsewhere.
 
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