Richard Petty Motorsports, born out of the ashes of Petty Enterprises and Gillette-Evernham Motorsports earlier this year has been staple of Chrysler since nearly the beginning of NASCAR. 
When Petty himself was racing in his heyday to some the thought of the King not on the track behind the wheel of the No. 43 Dodge was unfathomable. That very thing did happen in 1992 when Petty retired, yet the sport of NASCAR survived and in fact grew.
The country is going through an economic downturn the likes of which many say haven’t been seen since the Great Depression and Chrysler, one of America’s Big Three automakers, filed for bankruptcy protection recently shortly after the US gave them taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat and became their overseers.
Now comes word that Dodge, a brand closely associated with Petty since his family began racing, might no longer be in the Petty stable.
We are looking at all options we have," Petty said in a teleconference Tuesday. "We've been with Dodge all these years and we don't really know where they are at. We are talking to Dodge, we're talking to anybody that wants to talk.
"Right now, we are in the process of trying to come up with what we think is going to be best for Richard Petty Motorsports, not only in the near future but in the future way out there."
For legions of NASCAR fans the thought of Petty not racing a Chrysler product spells gloom and doom for the sport. But if Petty drivers aren’t in a Dodge, would it really be that big of a deal and will anyone really be able to tell the difference?
Looking back at the history of the team, which was founded by Richard’s father Lee in 1949, Chrysler hasn’t been the team’s exclusive manufacturer. In fact through the years the team has fielded Pontiac’s, Buick’s, Ford’s and even Chevy’s.
With NASCAR’s new car closely matching specs across all automakers and given the fact that most of the other automakers have scaled back their financial and technical support to other teams, the playing field so to speak is pretty level right now.
So if Petty does decide to field cars other then Dodge’s, the sun will still rise and Petty Motorsports will still be racing. Petty said that they have been through tough times with the sport before and while this current downturn is probably the worst they will adapt and survive.
“Always look at when times are tough, tough's got to get tougher, okay,” Petty said. “And you have to sort of do with your business or your personal deal, you just have to tighten up on some of the stuff, you've been maybe a little bit too loose on anyway.
It's like anything else, the ones that can control it now and all of the people that really come through this deal are going to come out the other end a lot stronger and a lot of people are going to go buy the wayside, so we're going to come out of it and we're going to come out of it in pretty good shape.”
Comments
Enough said - direct from THE Man himself. We'll just ahve to sit back and see how it all shakes outIF they can't stay with Dodge; (but, I'd prefer switch to Ford).
Yes it is a big deal. It would not be such a big deal if they switched to Ford or Chevy. But a move to Toyota? Yes that is a very bad sign to a lot of us fans who go back to the 70's and before.
It's a big deal to all of us diehard Mopar fans! Frankly, all four cars have been more competitive since moving to the new R6 engine, and Kasey has climbed into the thick of the Chase picture. If Kasey is solid in the chase and Sorensen, Allmendinger, and Sadler continue to improve in the standings, it will be hard to make a switch. Of course the real decision will be made by Bud, Best Buy, Stanley, and McDonalds, and Valvoline.
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