NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver Kasey Kahne is not sure what team he will end up with in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)
When Kasey Kahne went to California for a Goodyear tire test last month, he was racing a Ford after his Richard Petty Motorsports team switched from Dodge as part of its merger with Yates Racing.
What might be surprising, though, is that he had a setup provided by the Roush Fenway Racing team of Greg Biffle.
It’s that kind information exchange that the RPM drivers hope to benefit from with the car switch and merger. RPM, Yates and Ford officials are expected to formally announce the completion of the merger Jan. 19. With the addition of Front Row Motorsports and with Wood Brothers Racing returning for another part-time schedule, there will be 10 or 11 manufacturer-backed Fords at each event. Last year, RPM was part of a seven-car Dodge stable along with Penske Racing.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Kahne said at the Sprint Sound and Speed on Saturday. “I think we’re going to have a better engine package. Working with a bigger group of people should benefit everybody at RPM.”
The 2010 season will be critical for RPM. It’s the third consecutive season with some form of new ownership for the organization and all of its drivers – Kahne, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard – have contracts that are up at the end of the year. Only Kahne won races and made the Chase For The Sprint Cup last season.
It also will be critical for Roush Fenway, which didn’t win a Cup race after Matt Kenseth won the first two events of 2009 and only had two of its five drivers make the Chase.
“One of the things that led us to Ford was the open communication that they have between all their teams,” Sadler said. “Greg Biffle and myself have already talked about it. [Roush Fenway driver] Carl Edwards and myself have already talked about helping each other as much as we can because Roush didn’t have the best season they ever had last year by no stretch and, of course, we didn’t either.
“We both feel like we’re very humble as companies right now. We’re doing what we can to help each other. When Kasey went to test at California, he threw Greg Biffle’s setup in it to a T, just to give those guys something to look at. There’s definitely a lot of communication going on between both Ford camps right now, and I’m very, very happy to see that. We’re both at a stage that we know what we have to do to run with the Hendrick cars. We know we need to get better. Both companies do.”
