STATESVILLE, N.C. – Richard Petty confessed the longing to rekindle competitiveness of his race team Tuesday at the reveal of Petty GMS Motorsports.
Petty and Marty Gallagher, the founder of GMS Racing who just last week purchased a majority stake of Richard Petty Motorsports, rolled out the plans of their joint venture inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Petty GMS Motorsports will field two chartered entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, with Ty Dillon driving the No. 42 and Erik Jones behind the wheel of the No. 43, and Petty will serve as its Chairman.
It’ll be the first time since 2016 with Aric Amirola and Brian Scott that Petty will oversee a multi-car Cup Series team on a full-time basis.
During the period Petty made due with one Cup car, GMS Racing has assembled one of Chevrolet’s finest organizations in NASCAR, producing two Camping World Truck Series championships and 41 series wins.
“I’m looking at being more competitive than what we’ve been the last couple of years,” Petty said. “Even before that, we just didn’t have the car. We’ve always, not always, have had to depend on somebody else’s equipment and work it up from there.
“Now, with the new operation here, we have our own equipment, we have our own factory,” Petty added. “We’ll build everything I guess except the engines. That, the competitive part of me, says ‘OK, this is the way it needs to be.’ I miss looking back [and] looking forward to being competitive.”
The new-look team will run out of GMS Racing’s complex in Statesville, N.C. It’ll also resurrect the No. 42 and its historic font Richard’s father Lee Petty adorned from the third race in Cup Series history in 1949 through the ‘61 season.
With Chip Ganassi selling his race team to Trackhouse Racing this fall and Trackhouse opting to drop the No. 42 in favor of the No. 1, the number became available for the first time since Kyle Petty drove for Felix Sabates in 1996.
“The wheel’s [gone] full circle I guess to get the No. 42 back,” Richard Petty said. “It was perfect timing coming in with the new car and getting the number back, getting the No. 42 and the No. 43, was always a good team. It’s great to have that back in the fold.”
Needless to say, Petty, the 200-time Cup Series winner and bearer of seven series titles, needs no introduction. But his team’s structure has long needed a shot in the arm.
Marcos Ambrose in 2014 is the last driver to take Petty to victory lane in the Cup Series, the memorable last-lap showdown in which he beat Brad Keselowski at Watkins Glen Int’l.
Petty’s last multi-win year as an owner extends back to 2009, when Kasey Kahne won twice in a first season partnership between Petty and Ray Evernham.
Beyond that, the previous time the Petty name scored two wins or more in the Cup Series goes all the way back to 1983, the year Petty won three times and finished fourth in the point standings.
This year Jones’ six top 10 finishes and average finish of 19.7 were both highest for Petty since the 2017 season with Amirola. But the team never finished in the top five, placing a subsequent 24th in the final standings, the sixth-straight point finish outside the top 20.
“Standing atop the truck, running [from] 20th to 25th, racing to stay there … we have to be able to take our organization forward,” Petty said. “I’m looking forward to the progress we can make. The main deal is the competition. I just want to be more competitive than what we’ve been the last few years.”