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Milwaukee JOURNAL SENTINEL Story on how former Liverpool owner George Gillet has made a mess of NASCAR's Richard Petty Motorsports.
Petty, a NASCAR legend and goodwill ambassador for 50 years, is associated with his former business in name only.
Gillett's problems tarnish Petty's image
By Dave Kallmann of the Journal Sentinel
Oct. 21, 2010 |(1) COMMENTS
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1 p.m. Wednesday
AUTO RACING
Dave Kallmann, beat writer
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Preview: Weekend auto racing glance
Vince Lombardi has his name on the NFL's trophy, but Chuck Noll won twice as many Super Bowls.
Jerry West was immortalized in the NBA's logo, yet if you grew up on Michael or Shaq or LeBron, that may just be a white silhouette separating a patch of blue from another of red.
The Babe will forever be the Babe, although the long history of baseball also delivered Hammerin' Hank, Teddy Ballgame, The Mick, and the Say Hey Kid, all legends as well.
So there may be no one single figure more closely associated with his sport - no icon more intertwined - than Richard Petty.
A likable sort who made headlines on the racetrack and friends off it, The King has taken care of five generations of fans while NASCAR grew up and spread out.
Now it seems his fate may come to represent all the problems associated with that expansion beyond the family into a corporate world, where contracts replaced handshakes (and even they don't mean much), and where promises die faster than a vintage Wood Brothers pit stop.
That's what makes the news of this week so sad.
When it was announced Wednesday night that Kasey Kahne was leaving Richard Petty Motorsports for Red Bull Racing five races earlier than scheduled, that seemed like a simple business decision that could benefit all sides.
But what has surfaced in the time since is far more disturbing.
Kahne, it appears, is owed large sums of money, and he's not the only one. The team's loans have been restructured numerous times, and it has been all but cut off by Roush Fenway Racing and Roush Yates, which supply its cars and engines. Employees questioned whether RPM would survive beyond Sunday.
The problems are of Petty's making only in the sense that he could no longer survive in the NASCAR business on his own.
This team is Petty's in name only, and majority owner George Gillett faces financial problems that extend far beyond racing.
The latest and most public of those was his forced sale of the Liverpool soccer club of the English Premier League - whose fans he had alienated - at a greatly reduced price. The buyer, ironically, was John Henry, who as half-owner of Roush Fenway Racing is apparently among Gillett's creditors.
Perhaps Gillett, a Racine native, will find his way out of this jam. But perhaps not. Whatever the outcome, he will be forgotten like Tim Beverley and Bobby Ginn and so many other here-today-gone-tomorrow businessmen.
But the man in the feathered cowboy hat and dark sunglasses will be remembered.
Not like this, we hope.
Petty, a NASCAR legend and goodwill ambassador for 50 years, is associated with his former business in name only.
Gillett's problems tarnish Petty's image
By Dave Kallmann of the Journal Sentinel
Oct. 21, 2010 |(1) COMMENTS
Chat
1 p.m. Wednesday
AUTO RACING
Dave Kallmann, beat writer
Submit Questions
Related Coverage
Preview: Weekend auto racing glance
Vince Lombardi has his name on the NFL's trophy, but Chuck Noll won twice as many Super Bowls.
Jerry West was immortalized in the NBA's logo, yet if you grew up on Michael or Shaq or LeBron, that may just be a white silhouette separating a patch of blue from another of red.
The Babe will forever be the Babe, although the long history of baseball also delivered Hammerin' Hank, Teddy Ballgame, The Mick, and the Say Hey Kid, all legends as well.
So there may be no one single figure more closely associated with his sport - no icon more intertwined - than Richard Petty.
A likable sort who made headlines on the racetrack and friends off it, The King has taken care of five generations of fans while NASCAR grew up and spread out.
Now it seems his fate may come to represent all the problems associated with that expansion beyond the family into a corporate world, where contracts replaced handshakes (and even they don't mean much), and where promises die faster than a vintage Wood Brothers pit stop.
That's what makes the news of this week so sad.
When it was announced Wednesday night that Kasey Kahne was leaving Richard Petty Motorsports for Red Bull Racing five races earlier than scheduled, that seemed like a simple business decision that could benefit all sides.
But what has surfaced in the time since is far more disturbing.
Kahne, it appears, is owed large sums of money, and he's not the only one. The team's loans have been restructured numerous times, and it has been all but cut off by Roush Fenway Racing and Roush Yates, which supply its cars and engines. Employees questioned whether RPM would survive beyond Sunday.
The problems are of Petty's making only in the sense that he could no longer survive in the NASCAR business on his own.
This team is Petty's in name only, and majority owner George Gillett faces financial problems that extend far beyond racing.
The latest and most public of those was his forced sale of the Liverpool soccer club of the English Premier League - whose fans he had alienated - at a greatly reduced price. The buyer, ironically, was John Henry, who as half-owner of Roush Fenway Racing is apparently among Gillett's creditors.
Perhaps Gillett, a Racine native, will find his way out of this jam. But perhaps not. Whatever the outcome, he will be forgotten like Tim Beverley and Bobby Ginn and so many other here-today-gone-tomorrow businessmen.
But the man in the feathered cowboy hat and dark sunglasses will be remembered.
Not like this, we hope.