Merger Mania

Gillett Evernham and Petty have officially announced that they will join together in 2009. The #9, #19, and #43 are said to be fulltime cars, with the #10 limited to eight races including the Bud Shootout. Sponsorship is the key issue with that car. Kasey Kahne will remain in the #9 with Budweiser, Elliott Sadler is said to continue driving the #19 even after the possibility of AJ Allmendinger taking it over, Reed Sorenson would take over the #43 car, and its unknown who will drive the #10 car. My hunch is it'll be Allmendinger. The team hasn't announced the official team name, but the word is it might be called Richard Petty Motorsports oO.

Petty Enterprises is no longer a team now. But you will still see the King at the races.

GEM/Petty officially named themselves Richard Petty Motorsports, as was thought. The team will field the #9, #19. #43, and #44 cars. It's nice to at least still have the King in NASCAR even if he did name the team after himself. Too early to say if they will be any good, but my prediction is they will be at least more consistent than the past couple seasons and rule the Dodge camp over Penske Racing. The team has a couple quality drivers such as Kasey Kahne with 9 Cup wins and A.J. Allmendinger (should A.J. get a full ride) that could get the team rolling. With some success in 2008 for GEM, I could see RPM developing more in 2009 should the chemistry be there. We'll see what happens. All four of these cars will compete in the Bud Shootout on Feb. 7.

As for Earnhardt-Ganassi.......uh oh. I smell trouble. Since Dale Jr. left, DEI was a sinking ship. Mark Martin had some good runs however, and even was more consistent than Martin Truex. Truex is left as the flagship driver in the #1, with Aric Almirola in the #8 and Juan Montoya in the #42 as teammates. Truex is hit or miss, Almirola is a good short tracker, and Juan Montoya surely has the road course experience, but I just can't see everything falling into place quite yet. Not to mention, both DEI and Ganassi were winless in 2008. I may be wrong but I don't expect a bright future for this team, especially when they are in competition with Hendrick and RCR in the Chevy camp.

Well, so far my predicitions have been pretty accurate but I'll admit Earnhardt-Ganassi is a bit better than I expected. Earnhardt-Ganassi has struggled a bit especially with the recent shutdown of the famous #8 car due to a lack of sponsorship. Aric Almirola hasn't at all performed and I'm not surprised that they couldn't attract sponsors. One the flip side, the other two drivers have had signs of rightness: Martin Truex's best finish of the year is 10th but struggilng overall as thats his only Top 10. Juan Montoya's best is 7th with one other Top 10. Montoya remains a possible Chase contender with his strong mile and a half program being 15th in points, but we'll see if his consistency holds up till the Chase cutoff. It looked good at first when Martin Truex put his #1 car on the pole at Daytona but nothing seems to have clicked since then. They have backslided and are outside the Top 20.

Richard Petty Motorsports at least now has one driver in the Top 12 but that team also has also struggled as a whole, but they have been a bit better than Earnhardt-Ganassi in terms of finishes. They kicked off the year with three of the four cars finishing in the Top 9 at Daytona but it has been a bit of a backslide since. Kasey Kahne managed to avoid this backslide early on and scored a couple Top 10s, his best being 5th and sitting 10th in Cup points. A.J. Allmendinger was slated to run a limited schedule having to race his car into each race for the first five weeks. He surprised alot of people transfering into the Daytona 500 from the Duel race and going on to finish 3rd place in the 500. He continued qualify in and have decent runs and now sits in the Top 20 in points well inside the Top 35, not at all out of the Chase picture yet if he can recover from the Texas problem. Points are tight so that goes to his advantage. Plus, his contract has now been extended through September's Richmond race, giving him a shot at the Chase now if he improves his performance. Reed Sorenson and Elliott Sadler though have been struggling since their Top 10s at Daytona and are way down in points. We'll see if Kahne or Allmendinger can improve a bit to make the Chase.

The reason Earnhardt-Ganassi is a bit behind Richard Petty Motorsports at this point is sponsorship. Losing one of their cars could be a big factor in the performance of the other two remaining drivers. Maybe Juan Montoya will keep on the Cup Series radar and change my opinion but so far, I still think EGR is on the path to nowhere and it'll take Truex and Montoya to change that fate. No #8 is a big sign of a grim future.

Burnout wrote:....recent shutdown of the famous #8 car due to a lack of sponsorship. Aric Almirola hasn't at all performed and I'm not surprised that they couldn't attract sponsors....

Guitar Hero sponsors are going good for him..

Will this change the names for teams next year or will it be effective now?

I guess I didn't clarify the #8 enough. The car DOES have sponsorship from Guitar Hero but there isn't enough races with it to cover the season. If they can't start a race with another sponsor, they will lose money if they perform poorly. So they have no choice but to suspend the car indefinately until sponsors come, but its unlikely until they get a quality driver in that ride. RPM has managed to dodge that bullet with Allmendinger and even though A.J. is 20th in points, he's done one hell of a job getting to where he's at now. If only EGR had Allmendinger lol, thats what is giving Petty Motorsports the edge. I think I heard a pizza company will sponsor A.J.'s #44 through the second Richmond race.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see someone like Scott Riggs or Terry Labonte in the #8 car sometime this year. They can bring sponsors no doubt.

Will this change the names for teams next year or will it be effective now?

Don't know Burn. I think EGR will hold together though with two decent drivers and be able to keep that name. They still have Ganassi's #42 number and DEI's #1 number. And the 8 car as of NOW has been shut down indefinately.