RPM: What's next for the company that carries one of the most famous names in NASCAR?

 So who's replacing Kasey Kahne? (Photo: Autostock)
 

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   LOUDON, N.H.
   Whither Richard Petty Motorsports?
   It is certainly one of the most interesting operations on the NASCAR tour, with a rock-and-roll history: the newest version of the once-Dodge-flagship created by Ray Evernham, who sold to international sportsman George Gillett (rarely seen in the stock car garage), who dropped out of the Dodge camp and moved over to the Jack Roush Ford camp this season.
   What will RPM look like in 2011?
   Last fall Gillett, who once owned the Montreal Canadiens, even talked about bringing some Middle Eastern money into this game, and about setting up some NASCAR-type tour in the Middle East.
   Just what Gillett might have planned on the business side is unclear. He'd hoped to keep Kasey Kahne in the fold, but in April Kahne announced he was leaving at the end of the season to join the Rick Hendrick camp. At the moment Gillett and his son Foster, who runs the business side of the operation for his father, are trying to keep sponsor Budweiser....though with what driver isn't clear.
   So the Gilletts' company – Gillett-Evernham Motorsports doing business as Richard Petty Motorsports – is something of a question mark as July dawns.
  

  

  The most famous grin in NASCAR (Photo: Autostock)
  

   A four-team operation this season, with Kahne, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger, and Paul Menard.
   Who will be back in 2011? Which drivers, which sponsors?
   Kahne is leaving. But what about veteran crew chief Kenny Francis, and sponsor Budweiser?
   Allmendinger will likely stay. But sponsorship?
   Menard will stay.
   Sadler may be up in the air.
   Maybe there's a spot for Bobby Labonte.
   And of course Petty-Gillett isn't the only operation working the driver marketplace....
   But at the moment the pressure appears to be on Foster Gillett.
   The Gilletts are trying to re-sign Budweiser, Kahne's sponsor. But others in the garage are trying to sign Bud too, with signs indicating it could go to the Richard Childress camp, where Kevin Harvick, the current tour points leader.
    Harvick, when asked Friday about next year's sponsor, just smiled and said "I'm not worried."
    The Petty guys appear to be leaning heavily on Kahne to make things happen and to keep them in the news. It's questionable if any of the four will make the championship chase.
    Kahne has had several shots to win this season, most recently last weekend at Sonoma, where he won in 2009. An early run of bad luck has him iffy for the playoff cut in September; he's 18th in the standings going into Sunday's 301 here. Still, he's a home run hitter, with four top-fives this season, including a second at Michigan two weeks ago.
   
   

   AJ Allmendinger: Aside from that boo-boo at Pocono, when he sent teammate Kahne flipping into the wall, the 'Dinger has done a pretty solid job this season (Photo: Autostock)
   

   
AJ Allmendinger carries the legendary 43, and the wisecracking Californian with a witty personality has considerable promise. He's just 28, and after a fitful start to his NASCAR career in 2007 (with way too many DNQs), he's become a solid performer. Allmendinger (22nd in points, with a sixth at Atlanta and a controversial 10th at Pocono, where he ran into Kahne) has been a top-15 driver most of this season.
    Paul Menard gets points for most-improved on the tour, and crew chief Slugger Labbe gets credit there. Plus of course he's got solid sponsorship – family-owned Menards. Menard would be better than 23rd in the standings if not for a stretch of bad luck from Phoenix through Darlington. His bests: a fifth at Atlanta and eighth at Charlotte.
   Elliott Sadler, on the other, still seems to be struggling. He's 28th in points, with his best the 17th at Sonoma, where he was one of Jeff Gordon's many victims.
    So who goes, who stays, and who's coming in new? And who will Petty-Gillett get to replace Kahne?
    Robbie Loomis, RPM's general manager and the key to the entire operation, says, in considering his current roster: "The bottom line is we're in a performing business, and we each have to do our jobs to perform."
   

   

   Elliott Sadler: On the hot seat? (Photo: Autostock)

   

   
Job One, it would seem, is replacing Kahne. And pinning down sponsorship.
   "Our goal is to have the very best driver we can get in that car," Loomis says. "We believe it's a very good car, one capable of winning races and making the chase. We've got to keep our focus on that.
   "We've talked to a lot of people (potential drivers), but I don't want to get into that. We have a plan and a direction we're working in, and we have to let that play out. We haven't ruled out anybody, but we do have a pecking order (of possible drivers)."
    Loomis concedes the changeover from Dodge to Ford has taken a while to adjust to.
   (In fact, Ford is still winless on the Sprint Cup tour this year, with Kahne's second at Michigan, Matt Kenseth's second at Atlanta and third at Dover, and Greg Biffle's third at Daytona the best finishes so far.)
   "We got off to a slow start," Loomis says. "We faced the adjustment of having to let go a lot of the things we had from the past, and embrace the new things we have with our new technical alliance.
   "Any time you go through a change like that it takes a while to sort out what you need to pay attention to and what you don't need to pay attention to.
   "Right now we're just trying to make sure the cars are performing....so we've got guys wanting to drive these cars.
   "So the biggest thing we're focused on is what we're going to do here this weekend.
   "The cars have been performing great. The crew chiefs are working well together (Kenny Francis, Mike Shiplett, Labbe, and Wally Rogers).
   "We have a lot of good things in place, that we're working on. We just need to get our i's dotted and t's crossed.
   "Paul and Slugger are doing a really good job, and I'm sure we can get that team up to the top-20 in points.  
   "And we want to get Kasey up into the chase, and make a run at that."
   One item to consider: Francis and Kahne have won 10 races together since Evernham teamed them in 2006. Will they be a package with Hendrick, or will Francis say with Loomis at Petty-Gillett?
   "Kenny is just a great, great talent, one of the sharpest crew chiefs in the garage...so all my intentions are to keep him," Loomis said. "But then Kenny has to know what his plans are, and we owe it to Kenny to put the right pieces in place to make him feel we're doing the right things to go forward. And I believe we're doing that. We just have to continue to build his confidence in our program.
   "Kenny has made the chase with different drivers (Jeremy Mayfield in 2004 and 2005, Kahne in 2006 and 2009)."
   Still, it's nearly July, and time to start considering what the roster for 2011 might look like.
   Loomis says that of course depends on who's available. "If it were Jeff Gordon," he said with a laugh, referring to the man he, as crew chief, helped to the 2001 NASCAR championship, "we'd sign him today.
   "Obviously you want it all finished up as soon as you can. But there are a lot of 'moving parts' in all these race teams out here. You just have to be ready to capitalize when you get that opportunity."
   Which is why it's key to show the rest of the NASCAR world just what this operation really has to offer.
   "You've got to have the crew chief focused mainly on the cars, you've got to have the car chief focused mainly on the mechanical side of the car...and up in management we've got to make sure we've got people who want to come drive these cars, and we've got to get sponsors on the side of the cars," Loomis says.
   "At the end of the day, it all starts at the top."
  

   
    Considering the Sprint Cup championship playoffs

    The Desperate

    Juan Pablo Montoya (20th):    161 points off the playoff cut
    Martin Truex Jr. (19th):           157
    Kasey Kahne (18th):              151
    Joey Logano (17th):               149
    Jamie McMurray (16th):         142
    Ryan Newman (15th):             82
    Clint Bowyer (14th):                74
    Dale Earnhardt Jr. (13th):        57

    
  
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  Robbie Loomis (R), the man with the plan....but who's at the top of his list for number 9? (Photo: Autostock)