GEM become RPM; King Richard addresses Bud sponsorship

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CONCORD, N.C. - Gillett Evernham Motorsports officials and Richard Petty announced Monday that the team will be officially renamed Richard Petty Motorsports, effective immediately.

GEM, which announced an agreement to merge with Petty Enterprises earlier this month, made the announcement during Monday's Sprint Media Tour presented by Lowe's Motor Speedway while unveiling a new logo for the newly named organization.

"I had talked with [GEM majority owner] George [Gillett Jr.] a couple years ago about trying to join up with him, and it just didn’t work out at that time," Richard Petty said. "As the economy and as the sponsors and everybody gets to going, we felt like this would be better for both of us. George wanted to grow a little bit. We needed some place to sort of stick. … We’re still in the racing business, and we’ve joined up, and we’re going to be bigger and better than we’ve ever been.”

Petty, a seven-time NASCAR Cup champion and the all-time Cup leader with 200 victories, says he will be working with sponsors and going to the track with the team as he has in his previous roles with Petty Enterprises, the family-owned team that traces its roots to NASCAR’s earliest days.

“I’m going to basically be doing the same thing I’ve been doing for the last eight or 10 years – nothing – as much as I can," a joking Petty said. "I guess my responsibility of placing the businesses, working with the sponsors, doing personal appearances for them, doing whatever I can to advertise our team and then on the other hand doing everything we can with NASCAR as far as showing up for 99 percent of the races and just doing the Richard Petty thing.

"So I don’t see my role changing a whole lot in the way I’ve been running the business or running with the business or working with people in the business.”

The company will field three full-time Sprint Cup entries in 2009 with drivers Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Reed Sorenson.

Sorenson will drive Petty's famous No. 43.

A fourth car will feature the No. 44 acquired from Petty Enterprises and run on a part-time basis with driver AJ Allmendinger. That car is scheduled to qualify for at least the season's first five races.

“I think we’ve got seven to eight races already on the schedule,” Petty said.

Boston Ventures, an investment group that had purchased a majority interest in Petty Enterprises early in 2008, will have a very limited role in the new Richard Petty Motorsports.

“They’re involved in a small way just because we had joined that company with Gillett,” Richard Petty said. “They’re a very small stockholder – nothing to do with running the business or anything like that. They come along with me or I came along with them – either way you want to look at it.”

Petty didn’t offer much guidance about what, if any, role that GEM founder Ray Evernham and Petty’s son, former Petty Enterprises driver Kyle Petty, will have in the new organization.

“I don’t know about the influence of both of them,” he said. “I think that Ray’s still a consultant. ... Kyle … he’s been working his way out of the Cup [driving] situation anyway, and he’ll still be doing his TV situation [with TNT] and stuff like that. … Really, right now, I don’t think he knows where he’s at, and I know we don’t know where he’s at.”

Petty, who has long been opposed to putting decals of alcohol-brewing companies on his team’s cars, doesn’t have a problem with Budweiser continuing as a primary sponsor for Kahne at Richard Petty Motorsports.

Just don’t expect to see any Budweiser decals on the No. 43 or 44 cars.

“We’ve joined an existing team that already had sponsorship,” Petty said. “Budweiser has been really, really good for racing. They’ve put us in every bar in the country. … So they have really been strong, so that’s sort of George’s side of the ball game. We bring in the 43 and the 44 … You won’t see any Budweiser decals or any beer deals on those particular cars because my mother would come back to haunt us all [if she saw that] on our car. This is more of a corporation situation.”

~Scene Daily~

Good Job stickin' to your guns Richard!!!

GEM would of been idiots to not want Petty in their name.... I woulda jumped at the opportunity