SONOMA, Calif. — Richard Petty Motorsports has made news this season for all the wrong reasons. Caught in the crunch of Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the team had a recent round of layoffs and companywide salary reductions.
Star driver Kasey Kahne has been openly unhappy with RPM’s slow development of an improved Dodge motor, and the organization can’t shake whispers about its long-term stability.
A victory can cure most of those ills. Kahne returned team co-owner Richard Petty to Victory Lane for the first time in more than a decade with a much-needed win — on a road course, of all places — at Infineon Raceway on Sunday.
It snapped a 37-race winless streak for Kahne, who last won at Pocono a year ago, and was the first win for a Petty-owned car since John Andretti’s victory at Martinsville in April 1999.
“I feel just as good as (Kahne) does,” Petty, clad in his trademark cowboy hat and sunglasses, said before he sipped on a congratulatory glass of red wine. “It’s great, man. It’s great.”
Petty’s race team teetered on the verge of collapse at the end of last season and needed a January merger with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports to survive. Rebranded as Richard Petty Motorsports, the four-car organization kicked off the season with a strong showing at the Daytona 500.
But it’s been a rough ride, since. Chrysler, the team’s manufacturer, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and funding to RPM has slowed to a crawl as Dodge restructures. The team laid off nine employees this month while slashing salaries across the board, leading to quiet questions about a perceived financial instability.
It’s made for a frustrating season for Kahne, the star of the team, who at times this year has been vocal about RPM’s slow progress. Now he has his first victory on a road course — a remedy for any disgruntled driver.
“To me, we started the season a little bit behind,” Kahne said. “But it gave the guys that work at Richard Petty Motorsports a chance to build some better race cars, some better engines and work on the setups. It’s paid off. Today was a bonus, and it shows that we do have a lot of smart, really good people who work hard.”
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Top 10 finishers
1. Kasey Kahne, Dodge
2. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
3. Marcos Ambrose, Toyota
4. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
5. Denny Hamlin, Toyota
6. Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet
7. AJ Allmendinger, Dodge
8. Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet
9. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
10. Elliott Sadler, Dodge
Average speed of race winner: 71.012 mph
Time of race: 3 hours, 10 minutes, 0 seconds
Margin of victory: 0.748 seconds
Caution flags: three for 14 laps
Lead changes: 10 among eight drivers
Top 12 in points: 1. T. Stewart, 2,364; 2. J. Gordon, 2,280; 3. J. Johnson, 2,207; 4. Ku. Busch, 2,084; 5. C. Edwards, 2,051; 6. R. Newman, 2,046; 7. D. Hamlin, 2,009; 8. G. Biffle, 1,992; 9. Ky. Busch, 1,962; 10. M. Kenseth, 1,957; 11. M. Martin, 1,926; 12. J. Montoya, 1,917.
