Richard Petty Motorsports returning to former home base - MotorSportsTalk

One day after it was revealed that Richard Petty Motorsports will have to find a new base for its racing operations, the legendary Hall of Famer’s teams are going home in a sense.

No, RPM is not moving back to the company’s original homestead in Randleman, North Carolina, where it was based for more than its first 50 years of operation.

Rather, RPM will be returning to its first home after leaving Randleman, the former home of Robert Yates Racing in Mooresville, N.C., team officials announced Sunday.

RPM was based there for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. The address is 112 Byers Creek Road, located in the Talbert Pointe business park in Mooresville.

“We’re moving back to a place that we have been before and really liked,” said Richard Petty, Co-Owner, Richard Petty Motorsports. “It’s familiar to us and we know it gives our employees the tools they need to prepare our cars to win. This is just another improvement that we’re making to move the race team ahead.”

MORE: ‘The King’ looking for another palace: RPM needs new home

The return to the old RYR locale, which is significantly larger than its current base near Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport, will allow for greater room for operations for its two Sprint Cup teams and one Nationwide Series team.

“We needed a new location that allowed for more space to increase our performance,” RPM CEO Brian Moffitt said in a media release. “We continue to invest into the race operations to better ourselves on the track.

“It all starts in the race shop and having the best resources and assets. That’s what this move will allow us to do.”

The new/old location is in a great neighborhood, with several other race shops in the same business park, including JR Motorsports.

The move is somewhat curious.

While the extra space will allow for the ability to hang bodies on chassis and engineering and simulation, it’s also about 25 miles away from Roush Fenway Racing, which RPM has had a working relationship with for the past five seasons.

RPM’s current shop is literally a short burnout away from RFR.

At the same time, rumors of a potential and eventual switch to a relationship with Penske Racing will likely ratchet up now, given that team Penske’s headquarters is only about two miles away from RPM’s new home.

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports