Richard Petty Motor Sports headed to the Nationwide Series

June 11, 3:32 AMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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King Ricahrd Petty is taking his team back to the Nationwide Series NASCAR Media Group

Richard Petty Motor sports and Team Braun racing are teaming up for a select number of races in the Nationwide series. This will mark the King’s return to this series for the first time since the 1990’s. It could mean big changes at RPM in the very near future.

Depending on how one looks at the way Petty Enterprises was structured this will be the first time Richard Petty has fielded a car in NASCAR’s Triple A leagues since 1996. In the years following Richard’s retirement from driving the company tried to get a driver development program going. It never got off the ground and Petty Enterprises really only has 3 years and 75 Nationwide starts to its credit.

Of course while Kyle Petty drove the #44 car out of the Petty shop it technically was for a different company. Kyle Operated that team as if he were the owner, and when he began fielding a Nationwide car for himself and his son Adam those cars were prepared in that same shop. Technically speaking Kyle was listed as the owner on Adam’s cars but they were really all Petty Enterprise’s. Kyle called his racing company PE2.

Now it seems kind of shocking that RPM will team up with a Nationwide team that runs a different make of car then the Cup operation. RPM currently fields Dodge’s while Braun Racing field’s Toyota’s.

Of course Braun use to run Dodge’s and may still have some Dodge inventory, but Petty himself has repeatedly stated that Dodge is no longer sending checks to his race team. If hat is true we could be seeing the first steps of a RPM switch from Dodge to Toyota.

That may seem kind of shocking to many old school NASCAR fans, but it should be. Petty has a long history of running a car from whoever wrote him the biggest check. During his driving career he ran no les than seven different models of car. If Toyota has room for RPM in their stable I say be it!

There is however better news here, if RPM has the sponsorship dollars to grow their race team into the Nationwide series, even with a partner, this could be the first step towards a driver development program that could help RPM become an elite NASCAR team once again.

Of course most of that is mere speculation. With that being said here is a list of the Nationwide dates RPM is set to run.

• Camping World RV Rental 200 at New Hampshire 6-27 with driver Elliott Sadler
• Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona 7-3 with driver Kasey Kahne
• Food City 250 at Bristol 8-21 wit h driver Kasey Kahne
• Atlanta 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway 9-5 with driver Kasey Kahne
• Dollar General 300 from Lowe’s Motor Speedway 10-16 with driver Kasey Kahne