Richard Petty Motorsports will switch from Dodges to Fords for the 2010 season. The team also plans to absorb the Yates Racing team and have a four-car operation with Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, A.J. Allmendinger and Paul Menard. Reed Sorenson, who currently drives the #43 car for Richard Petty Motorsports, has been told by team officials that he is free to look for other opportunities as he will not be re-signed for next season.
The team is in the last year of its contract with Dodge Motorsports and they had talked to all other manufacturers about a possible partnership for 2010 and beyond. Richard Petty, minority owner of the team said that the reason why the team chose the Ford Racing program for 2010 is because most of the money that Dodge has allocated for next season will be going to the Penske Racing organization. Petty also stated that another big reason for the move was for all of the technical and financial incentives that Ford was willing to give the team. There are still many details of the transaction to be ironed out, however; one thing that is almost certain is that the team will continue to get their engines from the Roush-Yates engine program and that they will continue to get their chassis from Roush Fenway Racing.
Yates Racing will continue to field the #96 and #98 Fords for the remainder of the season. One big question that this new merger brings with it is what will happen to the fifth Roush Fenway team? It was expected that Yates Racing would move the team into its shop next season, but with the Petty team already at the four-car cap, that is no longer a possibility. Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing has said that he would like to sell the #26 team to another owner with all technical parts and pieces as part of the deal so that he would not have to let anyone on his team go. He also said that he would like to keep Jamie McMurray in the seat if the right owner and sponsor were to come along.
As I hear of more details regarding this news, I will keep you updated.
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