FANTASY NASCAR Racin

RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS -
a two-car NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race team owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty and New York businessman Andrew M. Murstein. The team was founded as Evernham Motorsports in 2000 by former crew chief Ray Evernham, entering full-time competition as a two-car operation in 2001 and fielding additional full-time entries in alliances with Ultra Motorsports and the Valvoline corporation. The organization was renamed Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2007 after former Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool F.C. owner George Gillett bought a controlling interest from founder Evernham, and took on its current name after merging with Petty's team Petty Enterprises in 2009. On August 26, 2008 Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced the

signing of Reed Sorenson to a multi-year contract to drive the #10 car. On Thursday January 9, it was announced that Richard Petty would sell his team to GEM, moving Sorenson to the #43 for the 2009 season in the process. The 43 ran multiple sponsorships but only had one Top 10 finish; a ninth at the rained-shortened Daytona 500, and Sorenson was released the end of the season. Known for its factory backing from Dodge since its inception, the team switched to Ford in late 2009 and merged with Yates

Racing for 2010. The team has the odd distinction of being the result of three successful teams (Evernham, Petty, & Yates) merging after falling on hard times. After funding issues due to the Gillett family's financial woes, in November 2010, an investment group including Andrew M. Murstein and his Medallion Financial Corporation, Douglas G. Bergeron, and Richard Petty himself, signed and closed sale on racing assets of Richard Petty Motorsports. Petty, Murstein, and Medallion Financial are the current owners of the team, while Evernham and Gillett are no longer involved with the team. For 2010, the team announced they had moved AJ Allmendinger over to the #43 car for the 2010 season, he finished 19th in the points. Petty fielded a four car team in 2010; and along with Allmendinger the team fielded cars for Kasey Kahne, Paul

Menard, and Elliott Sadler. Kahne had the best season finishing second twice; and posting seven Top 5 finishes. In 2011 Petty cleaned house and parted ways with every driver in the stable except for Allmendinger. He was joined by Marcus Ambrose driving the #9 Stanley Ford. A.J. showed continued improvement, especially when he was paired with former Roush Fenway Racing crew chief Greg Erwin. The team would finish 15th in points, but it was not enough to retain Best Buy as a primary sponsor. As a result, Allmendinger was granted a release from RPM and he soon joined Penske Racing. Ambrose would have a good season. he posted a win for the Petty team at Watkins Glen; had five Top 5 and 12 Top 10 finishes. To replace Allmendinger, RPM resigned Aric Almirola, who had replaced Kasey Kahne in the 9 car at the end of the 2010

season. Almirola earned a Pole start at Charlotte in May, and collected one Top 5 and four Top 10's. Aric's best run of the year may have been at Kansas in October, where he qualified fifth and lead 69 laps after taking the top spot on lap 6. But on lap 121, Almirola blew a tire, sending his Farmland Ford into the wall. He spun on lap 172 racing for the lead and lost a lap on pit road. Ambrose had a similar year in 2012 as he did in 2011. He again won at Watkins Glen; and posted three Top 5 and eight Top 10 finishes. In 2013 Almirola returned to the #43; at Martinsville Speedway in October, the team ran the #41 to honor Maurice Petty's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. During the 2013 season from Martinsville to Darlington, Almirola had the most consecutive Top 10s in the 43 car

since Bobby Hamilton in 1996. But overall it would be a disappointing season, and the pair of drivers combined for only one Top 5 finish. In January 2014, RPM announced a three year contract extension with Almirola after working on one year deals the previous two seasons. This coincided with sponsor Smithfield Foods stepping up to fund 29 races in each the next three seasons. At the 2014 Coke Zero 400, Almirola would earn his first career win in the Cup Series after avoiding two major wrecks, and leading the field when the race was called off after 112 laps due to rain. His win also marked the first victory by the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 since 1999, and 30 years to the day Richard Petty won his 200th race. Ambrose best finish came at Watkins Glen were he finished second; almost pulling off a three-peat winning three years

in a row. In 2015 Ambrose retired from NASCAR and returned home to his native Tazmania. Sam Hornish was brought on to fill his seat, but results were poor. His best finish for the season was sixth; and he only had three Top 10 finishes; and landed in 26th place in the season points. Almirola didn't fair much better only posting three Top 5 finishes with a best of fourth at Richmond; and finished 17th in points. 2016 saw Hornish released, and Brian Scott brought on to drive the #44 Ford. Scott almost pulled off an upset win at Talladega finishing a close second to Joey Logano. But that was by far his best run and only Top 10, as he next best finish would be a 12th at Fontana. At the end of the 2016 season Scott would retire from racing to

spend time with his family; and Petty contracted into a single car team. Almirola also had a horrible season finishing in the Top 10 only once and fell to 26th in the points. The following year would be even worse for Aric. He started out on a strong note finishing fourth in the Daytona 500. He had mediocre results up until Talladega where he once again finished fourth. The next race at Kansas he was involved in an accident and fractured a disk in his back. He would miss the next seven races while recovering. His results when he returned to racing was not good. He finally posted another Top 5 finish when the series returned to Talladega and he placed fifth. For the final six races of the season it seemed he made a turn and

the performance improved as all of his finishes were inside the Top 20 with three of those being in the Top 10. While he was injured a few different drivers were hired to fill Almirola's seat. Rookie Bubba Wallace made his first Cup start; driving in four of those races finishing inside the Top 20 on three occasions. For 2018 Almirola has moved to Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the #10 car vacated by Danica Patrick. With impressive showings for the four races filling in for Aric; Wallace was hired to drive full time in 2018 after Aric Almirola left to go to Stewart-Haas Racing. Wallace kicked off the season with a second place run in the Daytona 500. Unfortunately it would be his only top five run of the year. He was only able to add two more top tens with a finish of eighth at Texas and a tenth at Phoenix. Wallace would finish 19th in the points

standings. When 2019 arrived the team had hopes of making major improvements over the 2018 race results. But like in years past the results proved to be dismal. He did make a surprising run in the annual All Star race where he won a segment and moved through to be in the main All Star field; then followed that up with a surprising fifth in the race. The only other bright spot was the Brick Yard 400 at Indianapolis. He had a great run where he ran in the Top ten all day and pulled off a surprising third place finish. It would be his only Top 5 of the season; and only eight finishes inside the top 20. It seemed Wallace spent more time running afoul of NASCAR than anything. First there was the incident at the Roval. Bowman clearly had a much better car and after Wallace blocked Bowman on a couple occasions; Bowman spun him out. Bowman's car was strong enough that it went on to finish second. Wallace retaliated after the race by splashing water on

Bowman's face as Bowman was being tended to by medical personnel. NASCAR called Wallace to the hauler to have a conversation about the altercation. In October Wallace was fined $50,000 and docked 50 points for intentionally manipulating competition at Texas when he spun his car on the track after experiencing a tire failure. He once again finished 28th in the final points standing. In 2020 Wallace returned to wheel the #43 car for Petty. For the third year in a row Wallace was only able to post one Top 5 finish for the team. He did have five Top 10's which was his career high. But this was a far cry from what RPM had been expecting when they put him in the drivers seat. At mid-

season rumors swirled that NBA star Michael Jordan was going to get into ownership of a Cup car. They down played it for several weeks. Shortly after that, Wallace informed Petty he would not return for 2021. About a month later the rumors where confirmed that Jordan was in fact getting into Cup racing with driver Denny Hamlin as a minority owner. Wallace was announced as the driver for the following season. This left RPM looking for a driver to wheel the #43 for 2021 and Erik Jones was tabbed to be that guy. Since RPM is a small one car team, they have been struggling to provide fast race cars. This wasn’t any different this year. Jones wasn’t anywhere near the front

with a chance to win, and only posted six Top 10 finishes. I suppose the biggest new was RPM Sold. Gallagher Motorsports (GMS) announced after the season concluded that they had bought a majority interest in RPM. The rebranded name will be Petty GMS Motorsports. GMS had picked up a Charter late in 2021 and had assigned Ty Dillon to be a driver. With the purchase, GMS acquired another Charter and would have Erik Jones continue to drive the car. Jones will remain in the #43; while Dillon’s car will be renumbered as the #42; keeping it in the Pretty family. The #42 had originally been driven by Lee Petty. With the Next Gen cars being introduced in 2022, it would be interesting to see what GMS has to offer and if the

organization will show improvement. When Maury Gallagher arrived as principal owner in December 2021. The infusion of resources made an immediate difference as Jones went from six Top 10 finishes in 2021 to a victory and 13 Top 10s. Also key to Jones’ resurgence was the arrival of Dave Elenz as his crew chief. Elenz previously ran Noah Gragson’s Xfinity Series car for JR Motorsports. Maury Gallagher was on a path to launch his own Cup Series team before taking control of Richard Petty Motorsports, so the decision to go to two cars in the first season as Petty GMS wasn’t a surprise. Some teams cannot wait for 2023 to arrive so they can erase the bad

memories of Year 1 of the Next Gen car. Petty GMS isn’t one. They had lots of optimism for 2022. Eric Jones managed to put Petty/GMS back in victory lane when he claimed one of NASCAR's crown jewel races; winning the Southern 500. The second Petty/GMS car was driven by Ty Dillon, who lost his ride at Germain Racing after four seasons when the team folded. He raced a limited schedule for Gaunt Brothers in 2021. Whereas Jones was a consistent threat in the #43 Chevy, Dillon was a non-factor alongside him. On July 16, the organization announced a “mutual decision” that Dillon would not return

in 2023. Shortly afterward, Gallagher and NASCAR legend Richard Petty signed Noah Gragson to drive the 2023 season. The change in drivers would bolster the organization. While Dillon posted one top-10 result and finished on the lead lap in just half his races, Gragson was getting his feet wet with an 18-race Cup schedule while also contending for the Xfinity Series championship. Gragson finish fifth at Daytona in August and also finished 11th in Las Vegas in October. The more Cup races he ran; the more his results improved. Four of his final eight races he finished inside the Top 20 with a worst of 25th. To make matter even more promising; former seven time Cup champion has bought into the team and will serve as co-owner and part-time driver. It is anticipated Johnson wealth of talent and information will serve the other drivers well as he imparts his wisdom onto them. As far as races Johnson will race in; at this time it has not been announced as to which races he will compete; - but the 2023 Daytona 500 is on that list. The car he competes in won't have a Charter; so he'll have to race his way in. Johnson has also stated he wants to race in the All-Star race to be held at newly renovated North Wilkesboro Speedway. With Johnson's involvement in the team. the team did a total rechange of their name and now will be know a Legacy Motor Club. SO you can follow this Legacy Motor Club link to follow along on their progress as 2023 dawns.