October 24, 2010
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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It is just a little sad to see what is unfolding at Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) this week. The once iconic team headed by the Petty Family appeared to be within hours of closing its doors this week, and the future of the team still is unclear going into next season.
It has been an interesting road travelled to get where we are as of today with this team. I’m not talking about all that came before when RPM was actually Petty Enterprises (PE), owned only by the Petty family. I am instead referring to the events since PE merged with what was then called Gillette Evernham Motorsports, which then became RPM.
In a way, what happened this week has as much to do with a British soccer team as it does with Kasey Kahne being released from his contract after pulling what was essentially “I don’t want to do this anymore” and walking away from his team after a crash in last Saturday night’s race in Charlotte.
So how does a soccer team thousands of miles away have anything to do with a NASCAR team? About the same way the Boston Red Sox have something to do with a NASCAR team. And that is where the tip of the triangle meets in this odd story.
Several years ago, Jack Roush recognized the need to bring money into his race teams. He reached out to John Henry and the Fenway Group, owners of, among other things, the Boston Red Sox. Henry bought into Roush’s team, and it became Roush Fenway Racing (RFR).
Around the same time, Ray Evernham looked for a way to infuse money into his then Evernham Motorsports team with drivers Kahne and Elliott Sadler. He met with George Gillett, who had ownership rights to, among other teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool Football Club, a member of the English Premier League soccer organization, and Gillett brokered a deal where he bought controlling interest in Evernham’s team, thus forming Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM).
In late 2008, Petty Enterprises recognized the need to merge with a more financially secure organization to remain in the sport, and they felt that combining forces with GEM was the way to go. In January of last year, RPM was formed.
So, how does all of this lead back to a British soccer team?
The Royal Bank of Scotland, which has the financial interest in the Liverpool FC, stated that Gillett and his partner, Tom Hicks, were far behind in financial obligations to the bank. Gillett and Hicks attempted to find a buyer for the team, but couldn’t find anyone willing to pay the over $400-million dollar price they were asking.
Enter John Henry and his company, New England Sports Ventures (NESV) -- the same John Henry from RFR.
Henry brokered a deal with the Bank of Scotland to purchase the team for a much lower price. The $485-million takeover agreement includes $323 million to settle with the Royal Bank of Scotland, $65 million to cover non-banking liabilities, and $97 million for a new stadium, leaving not a penny to repay the current owners. Hicks and Gillett stated the deal was “a conspiracy”, and refused to accept it.
Now do you see where the bad blood is coming from? It has absolutely nothing to do with NASCAR other than the men involved each have a stake in a NASCAR team.
When RPM announced they were releasing Kahne from his contract on Wednesday, I immediately thought back to when Kyle Busch refused to get back in his Cup car after a crash three years ago, allowing Dale Earnhardt Jr. the chance to climb in to the No. 5 car and drive the remainder of the race for Hendrick Motorsports. Weeks later, it was announced that Junior was going to essentially take over Busch’s ride in 2008, and Busch was free to head over to Joe Gibbs Racing.
However, Gibbs and Hendrick race for different manufacturers, and aren’t battling over other sports teams.
After it was announced Kahne was out of RPM, it was almost immediately followed by the announcement that RFR had headed across the street to repossess the chassis and engines that they had provided to RPM for Talladega.
You see, RFR provides the equipment that RPM uses to race each weekend.
And so the plot thickens.
An emergency meeting was called between the leadership of RFR and RPM to discuss the next steps. Would RPM survive past today’s race in Martinsville? What about AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose, who have signed deals to drive for RPM in 2011?
An impasse was agreed upon between the two parties, and the cars and engines were returned to RPM so that they could race at Talladega. The hope is that they will be able to finish out the season using RFR supported equipment, and find a way to broker a deal to continue the relationship next season.
But that part is still up in the air.
It would be very sad to see the iconic Petty name wiped out of team ownership over what essentially comes down to a battle over a soccer team. Ownership of a NASCAR team should only pertain to NASCAR, not anything having to do what the owners have going on outside of the sport. Don’t make our sport pay the price for a battle over something that has nothing to do with it.
I understand the need in this economy to have funding from outside sources, but when those sources start affecting the outcome of whether teams survive or fail -- just because a majority owner in one team doesn’t want to play nice with the majority owner in another team over a dispute over something outside of the sport, that is when I feel a line needs to be drawn.
And if Richard Petty’s name is forced out of NASCAR because of a battle over a soccer team, I don’t know who I will feel worse for: Petty, who will be out of a sport he has been a part of his entire life, or Roush, who will have to live with being the man who essentially put Petty out of business by letting his partner bring his battle off the track into how Roush does business within the sport.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.
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