During an appearance at a function for Dollar General on Monday, seven-time Sprint Cup champion Richard Petty addressed reports that his Richard Petty Motorsports team was considering a move from Ford to Toyota.
A Motorsport.com story from earlier this month reported that Petty met with Toyota representatives during the Toyota Owners 400 weekend at Richmond International Raceway back in April.
Additionally, the site reported over the weekend that Petty visited Ford headquarters in Michigan last week.
In that same story, Ford Racing director Jamie Allison stated that the team’s contract with the Blue Oval was not set to expire at the end of this season.
“Obviously, these manufacturer/team contracts are not for public negotiations,” Allison said to writer Lee Spencer.
“We’re at a good place with the King…We are going through and understanding could be available and what their interests are.”
Meanwhile, during his appearance yesterday at DG headquarters in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Petty took a big-picture approach to the subject.
“We’ve got to look at our team and look at our circumstances,” Petty said according to Mike Organ of The Tennessean. “We’ve got to look and say, ‘Okay, what’s going to be the best for us right now, what’s going to the best for us two years down the road, what’s going to be the best for us five years down the road?’”
Petty added: “We’re out looking and seeing what all the factories have got laid out for their future to see if we can fit into any of that.”
RPM currently fields two Fords for drivers Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola in the Sprint Cup series, and each of them have had some solid performances in the opening quarter of the season.
The team has been in the Ford camp since the 2009 season after jumping over from Dodge; that manufacturer would leave NASCAR at the end of 2012.
