Car No. 19 history ;Elliott Sadler (2009–2010) Prior to the formation of RPM, Elliott Sadler had been driving the No. 19 for
Gillett Evernham Motorsports since 2006. In May 2008, Sadler reached a two-year contract extension with GEM. However, on December 27, 2008, GEM announced that
A. J. Allmendinger, who drove GEM's No. 10 car at the end of the season, would be replacing Sadler in the No. 19 for the 2009 season. At the same time the team also announced several of its sponsors were considering leaving the team and that Ray Evernham had cleared his personal belongings out of the team's race shop, but it was not clear whether it was related to the hire. On January 3, 2009, Sadler's attorney announced that he would be seeking a breach of contract lawsuit against GEM for the dismissal. Looking to avoid the lawsuit GEM and Sadler's attorneys reached a settlement six days later that would return Sadler to the No. 19 for 2009 while keeping Allmendinger with the team. in 2010 Sadler had five top-ten finishes in 2009, and finished twenty-sixth in points. Stanley was the team's sponsor for all 36 races in
2010. Due to a lack of results, Sadler announced his departure from the team in mid-season allowing this team to shut down. Since then, the team has remained inactive. The number 19 would later be reassigned by NASCAR to
Humphrey Smith Racing (which used the 19 in the now-
Xfinity Series as
TriStar Motorsports), and has since moved again to
Joe Gibbs Racing.
Car No. 19 results Car No. 43 history ;Reed Sorenson (2009) On August 26, 2008, Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced the signing of
Reed Sorenson to a multi-year contract to drive the No. 10 car. On Thursday January 9, it was announced that Richard Petty would sell his team to GEM, moving Sorenson to the No. 43 for the 2009 season in the process. The 43 ran multiple sponsorships from
McDonald's,
Valvoline, the
United States Air Force,
Super 8,
Reynolds Wrap,
Paralyzed Veterans of America,
Charter Communications, Auto Value Bumper to Bumper,
Liberty Medical, and
Siemens, but only had one top-ten finish; a ninth at the rained-shortened
Daytona 500. Sorenson was released the end of the season. Almirola earned a Pole start at
Charlotte in May, and collected one top 5 and four top 10s en route to a 20th-place finish in points. Aric's best run of the year may have been at
Kansas in October, where he qualified fifth and lead 69 laps after taking the top spot on lap 6. But on lap 121, Almirola blew a tire, sending his
Farmland Ford into the wall. He spun on lap 172 racing for the lead and lost a lap on pit road. After getting his lap back and working his way up to 13th, Almirola hit the wall once again, setting the front of the car ablaze and ending the promising run. In 2013 Almirola returned to the No. 43; at
Martinsville Speedway in October, the team ran the No. 41 to honor
Maurice Petty's induction into the
NASCAR Hall of Fame. During the 2013 season from Martinsville to Darlington, Almirola had the most consecutive Top 10s in the 43 car since
Bobby Hamilton in 1996. After being fastest in practice in Talladega, his crew chief
Todd Parrott was suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. Almirola finished a career high 18th in points. For 2014, the team hired Trent Owens, Richard Petty's nephew as crew chief. In January 2014, RPM announced a three-year contract extension with Almirola after working on one-year deals the previous two seasons. This coincided with sponsor
Smithfield Foods stepping up to fund 29 races in each the next three seasons with brands Smithfield,
Farmland,
Eckrich, and
Gwaltney. Almirola had a rather slow start to 2014, being involved in a 12 car wreck in the
2014 Daytona 500. At Bristol, Almirola posted his best career finish to date of 3rd, only behind winner
Carl Edwards and
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The next week at Auto Club Speedway during the
2014 Auto Club 400, Almirola got involved in an accident with part-time Cup driver
Brian Scott. Almirola made a pass on Scott for 4th place. Scott controversially moved into the back of Almirola to wreck himself and Almirola. In a post-race interview, an angry Almirola retorted "The 33 was obviously a dart without feathers and coming across the race track. He ran right into me. Man, he came from all the way at the bottom of the race track and ran into me. He's not even racing this series for points. He's out there having fun because his daddy gets to pay for it and he wrecked us. That's frustrating." At the
2014 Coke Zero 400, Almirola would earn his first career win in the Sprint Cup Series after avoiding two major wrecks, and leading the field when the race was called off after 112 laps due to rain. His win also marked the first victory by the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43, the first victory for the No. 43 overall in Cup since
Petty Enterprises' win at Martinsville in 1999, and 30 years to the day
Richard Petty won his 200th race in a
Curb Racing No. 43. On his big victory Almirola said "The good Lord was watching out for us today and we were meant to win. It's real special for me to win here. This is not only the 30th anniversary of this team's last win at Daytona, it is my hometown and I remember growing up watching Daytona 500s and Firecracker 400s here. To win is real special." Almirola's win guaranteed him a spot in the newly reformatted
Chase for the sprint cup. He was eliminated after the Round of 16 due to a crash at Dover. in the No. 43 at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2017 Longtime teammate
Marcos Ambrose left the team in 2015, and he was replaced by
Sam Hornish Jr. as the driver of Petty's other entry. Almirola scored a top-five finish at Dover early in the season but then barely missed out on the Chase in points, finishing sixteen points and one position behind the last man in,
Clint Bowyer. Almirola finished fourth in the cut race, doing everything he could to make it in. Despite missing the playoffs, Almirola scored another top-five at Dover, a track that the team had traditionally been strong at. He wound up finishing seventeenth in points, top of the non-Chase field. For the 2016 season Hornish was replaced by
Brian Scott, whom Almirola had previously tangled with in his career. Almirola said that he felt "more excited than ever" and was confident that his extended pairing with crew chief Owens would yield good results. However, after a strong 12th place showing in the
2016 Daytona 500, the team went into a slump, highlighted by last-place finishes at Martinsville, Kansas and in the season's final race at Homestead-Miami. Almirola finished the 2016 season with an average finish of just over 23rd and a 26th-place points finish. After the 2016 season, RPM announced that they would lease the charter of the 44 team and focus solely on Almirola's effort. The one-car approach paid immediate dividends as Almirola recorded a top ten finish in the
2017 Daytona 500. However, in the season's eleventh race, the
2017 Go Bowling 400, Almirola was caught in a wreck caused by
Joey Logano. After Logano lost control of his car and collided with
Danica Patrick's car, Almirola's car plowed into Logano's and the back end of the car left the ground. Almirola was then immediately airlifted to a hospital, where he would later be diagnosed with a shattered T5 vertebrae, for which he would miss eight to twelve races.
Regan Smith was named as the replacement for the
NASCAR All-Star Race, racing until the
AAA Drive for Autism at Dover.
Roush Fenway Racing's
Xfinity Series driver
Bubba Wallace made his Cup Series debut in the No. 43, driving the car until Almirola was fit to return to racing. Ford sports car racer
Billy Johnson drove the No. 43 at
Sonoma. Almirola returned to the car at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. In September 2017, it was announced that Almirola and Smithfield Foods were leaving Richard Petty Motorsports for
Stewart–Haas Racing after negotiations to extend the sponsorship deal fell through, although after Petty threatened legal action, Smithfield reached a settlement in which their subsidiary brands such as Food Lion Feeds and Farmer John would sponsor the No. 43 for a portion of the 2018 season. ;Bubba Wallace (2018–2020) in the No. 43 at
Sonoma Raceway in 2018 For the 2018 season, Wallace replaced Almirola in the No. 43 car who ran for Rookie of the Year honors. He got an impressive second-place finish at the
2018 Daytona 500. On May 1, 2018,
World Wide Technology signed on to sponsor the No. 43 car for six races. Wallace finished the season 28th in points and finished 2nd in the Rookie of the Year honors. Wallace started the
2019 season with a 38th-place finish at the
2019 Daytona 500 when
Kurt Busch spun in front of him and
Tyler Reddick hit him from behind, causing Wallace to collide with Busch. Wallace continued to finish consistently below the top-15, but he managed to make the starting grid of the
2019 Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race by winning stage 2 of the Monster Energy Open. At the
2019 Brickyard 400 Wallace managed to run top 10 the majority of the day and compete for the win with around 10 to go and would go on to finish third. On November 9, Wallace was fined $50,000 and docked 50 points for intentionally manipulating competition at
Texas when he spun his car on the track after experiencing a tire failure. On September 10, 2020, Wallace announced that he would not return to RPM in 2021. ;Erik Jones (2021) in the No. 43 at
Sonoma Raceway in 2021 On October 21, 2020, it was announced that RPM had signed
Erik Jones to a multi-year contract to drive the 43 car. During the
2021 season, Jones scored six top-10s and finished 24th in the points standings.
Car No. 43 results Car No. 44 history 2009–2015: No. 9 Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola (2009–2010) in 2009 Kasey Kahne had been driving for Evernham Motorsports since his rookie season in 2004. Kahne continued to drive the No. 9 car after the merger between Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises. In 2009, Kahne scored his first road course victory at the
Toyota/Save Mart 350 and won again at Atlanta on Labor Day, earning him a berth in the Chase. However, early misfortune at
Loudon put the No. 9 team out of contention for the championship, finishing 10th in points. 2010 would start the No. 9 team off on a high note by winning the second Gatorade Duel in a photo finish. However, the team was plagued by inconsistency and was knocked out of Chase contention before Richmond. With a lack of results, Kahne departed the team before
Martinsville and drove
Red Bull Racing's No. 83 Toyota. On October 8, 2014, it was announced that
Sam Hornish Jr. would drive the No. 9 car starting in 2015.
Twisted Tea returned for four races including the
Daytona 500. and other companies including
Mercury Marine and Lyon Financial. Hornish struggled during the year, with only three top tens including a best finish of eighth at Talladega in May to finish 26th in points. At the second to last race of the season at Phoenix, Richard Petty announced Hornish would not return to the team following season's end. Scott had a career-best 2nd at Talladega in the fall, and a few weeks later, announced he would retire for family reasons. Petty would later sell the No. 44 equipment to
Go FAS Racing.
Car No. 44 results Car No. 98 history 2009: No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge ; A. J. Allmendinger (2009) The merger between GEM and
Petty Enterprises in January 2009 suddenly expanded the team to four rides; the team was renamed to
Richard Petty Motorsports and Sadler remained in the 19, while Sorenson moved over to the newly absorbed No. 43 car. The only starts guaranteed for the team were the
Budweiser Shootout and the first eight-point races of 2009, with the possibility of more races if the team could secure sponsorship. The team unveiled a retro
Valvoline/Petty Blue paint scheme for the
Daytona 500, and opened the year with a third-place finish in the "Great American Race". Later in the season, Allmendinger finished ninth at Martinsville. They secured sponsorship through the
Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond in the fall. RPM announced in April that Allmendinger was being signed to a two-year deal, which would keep him in the No. 44 through the end of the 2010 season and sponsorships from
Hunt Brothers Pizza, Super 8,
Harrah's Entertainment, and Ford allowed him to complete the season. The 44 would also run
Fords in several late season races in preparation for a manufacturer switch the next year. Considering the circumstances the year began on, Allmendinger had a solid season, with one Top 5, six Top 10s, and a 24th-place points finish. He would move over to the 43 the next year.
2010: No. 98 Menards Ford ;Paul Menard (2010) in the No. 98 during the
2010 Toyota/Save Mart 350 For 2010, due to the buyout of
Yates Racing by RPM,
Paul Menard replaced
Reed Sorenson (driver of the 43 in 2009) and drove the No. 98
Menards Ford Fusion.
Car No. 98 results ==Xfinity Series==