Richard Petty Motorsports is about to find itself in the middle of a manufacturer love triangle.
RPM, currently with Ford, is working to extend its contract with the manufacturer and associated connection with Roush Fenway Racing, which ends at the end of the season. But Dodge, with whom Richard Petty has enjoyed a profitable relationship in the past, is currently without a dance partner of its own for the 2013 season and beyond, and could make a push for RPM.
"I would say you'd have to talk to Dodge," Petty said at a press conference. "I don't know [how interested they'd be in RPM]. Right now I think they're pretty confused because they got a plug pulled out of them and wasn't really expecting it. I would imagine they're going to have to sit down and have some prayer meetings to figure out really what they're going to do."
Dodge is without a major-team connection in the sport after this season thanks to Penske Racing's move to Ford in 2013. Finding a Chase-level team to align with could be rough. But, as Petty notes, the opportunity is there for an RPM-Dodge connection.
"Right now we've got our sponsors pretty well lined up for next year, but where we go with the cars and the engines and things like that, we don't really have a plan," he said, adding, "We've got a plan, but I don't know if anyone is going to go along with our plan or not."
In what must surely raise the blood pressure of everyone involved, these sorts of deals often don't get done until the last possible moment. So there is time for plenty of negotiation with both manufacturers ... and plenty of frustration and heartache, too.
"Anything can be done," Petty said. "All it takes is a little bit of time and a whole lot of money."
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