Dec 31 2008
Petty Merger With Gillett Evernham Signed
After 60 years of racing and one of the founding teams of NASCAR Petty Enterprises will be closing its doors. A deal was signed between Petty and Gillett Evernham on Christmas Eve and is suppose to be announced early next week. When the 43 car rolls off the hauler at Daytona in February Reed Sorenson is expected to be behind the wheel. Bobby Labonte was let out of his contract in early December to look for another ride. The Gillett Evernham Petty team is supposedly going to be renamed under the Petty banner. Which I think is a good decision because it keeps Petty’s name up there as a owner even though its a lesser role. All of the 39 remaining employees at Petty are to finish up there on Wednesday. Robbie Loomis who was VP of racing operations is going to be kept with the merged teams. David Zucker who was in charge of the Gillett team is going to switch to being in charge of The Petty Driving Experience.
