2022 Daytona 500: Petty GMS Motorsports 'very hungry' for success

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Richard Petty, known for his signature cowboy hat and nickname of "The King," has not strapped into a race car for a NASCAR Cup Series race in 30 years.

But the 84-year-old still makes it to the racetrack, a showing of perseverance and love of the sport. Petty won’t need any sort of pass or identification to enter Daytona International Speedway for NASCAR's biggest race, the Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX), as he remains one of the most, if not the most, recognizable figures in the sport.

When it comes to trophies, the sport hasn’t loved him back as much as he would've liked the past 20 years. As the sport grew, Petty Enterprises struggled to keep up from its shop in the North Carolina community of Level Cross.

In 2008, Petty sold majority interest to private equity firm Boston Ventures, and the organization merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports by the start of the 2009 season to become Richard Petty Motorsports. George Gillett Jr., who owned the Liverpool soccer team and the Montreal Canadiens, operated the organization before selling to New York City taxi medallion baron Andy Murstein following the 2010 season.

A few months ago, Murstein was bought out by Maury Gallagher, the founder of Allegiant Airlines. Petty hopes that this time, a partnership will produce results. 

"Over the years, we've been up, down, all in between," he said when the deal with Gallagher was announced in December. "The last few years, we've been kind of on the wrong end of the stick."

So why should Gallagher lift the Petty name — now part of the new Petty GMS Motorsports — any higher than the previous three Petty partners? The hope is that Gallagher’s racing experience and racing operations, headed by former Petty Enterprises crew chief Mike Beam, will provide the best mix of competitive savvy and, probably more importantly, trust.

GMS Racing has 41 wins and two championships in NASCAR's truck series. Beam has led the organization thanks in part to what he learned while crew chief for Kyle Petty from 1981 to '84 and Richard Petty in 1985.

"He’s a world phenomenon," Gallagher said of Richard Petty at the announcement.

"So I couldn’t be more excited to be involved with him, and I want to stand behind him and cheer him and see him out there doing what he wants to do. He’s just the best."

Gallagher will continue to have Beam oversee the organization. If Beam needs to talk to Petty, he can easily find him.

"We’re trying to get stuff done, and I just go over to Richard's house," Beam said. "It’s not like I’ve never been there before."

Petty hasn’t always had the trust with his partners, as he worked with people who were investors, while Petty’s family oversaw much of the day-to-day operation, from competition to sponsorship hunting.

The performance in those areas — five wins in 13 years and some years of open sponsorship inventory on the cars — led to frustration. Investors had hoped to capitalize on the Petty name (he would take a salary for that), but they couldn’t guarantee wins and playoff spots.

"This sport is absolutely tough," said Aric Almirola, who drove for Petty from 2012 to '17. "It doesn't matter who you are, what you've accomplished in the past. 

"It matters about what you're doing today. And it doesn't owe anybody anything."

If it did owe somebody something, it would be Petty, one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors as a NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural class inductee. He holds the record for Cup wins, with 200, and is tied for the most championships, with seven.

"That guy is salt of the earth," Almirola said. "He has meant so much to me, not only professionally but personally.

"I've had the opportunity to sit in the motorhome with him without his cowboy hat on and without his sunglasses on. I've flown across the country with him many times making appearances. I wish him nothing but the best, and I hope that this new merger with GMS proves to be a successful one for him and his legacy."

Erik Jones was tapped to carry on that legacy prior to the 2021 season, as the driver of the famous No. 43 car, replacing Bubba Wallace. Jones has a new crew chief for this season, and about half of his team is new following the merger. The entire competition side comes from GMS.

As rumors swirled throughout the previous season about a possible sale of the team, Jones hoped that the deal with GMS would come to fruition.

"I felt really confident about what was going on and what was happening," he said. "And I thought the whole time it was really going to be better for us."

The Petty organization left its shop on the Richard Childress Racing campus and moved to the GMS Racing shop (ironically, the former Gillett shop). Petty had been getting its cars from RCR, which had the engineering depth to provide good equipment but didn’t allow the organization to tailor the car build to what it might have wanted. 

Now Petty has more of a comfort level, knowing he can control various competition aspects he couldn't previously. 

"Maury and them already got so much more equipment than what we had, and that’s just going to put us over the hump," Petty said. 

"I don’t think any of us have the idea that we’re going to come out and start winning races, but I think we’re going to start further up than what we have in the past. Then it is going to take us a little while to put it all together. Come back in a year and … we’ll be pretty damn close to winning races." 

Murstein looking to possibly sell and Petty looking for a way for the team to control its destiny led to discussions between Petty, Beam and Gallagher. Beam took Gallagher to Level Cross to get a better understanding of where the Pettys came from.

"We're going to do the right thing," Beam said of his relationship with the Pettys. "And I know he will, too. It's not like we have to date here. We're already married because we know each other so well."

Jones will start 13th in the Daytona 500 to open the 2022 season Sunday. Ty Dillon, who signed with GMS before the merger, will start 26th.

Jones, a former Joe Gibbs Racing driver pushed out in favor of Christopher Bell, was 24th in the standings last year. Dillon wasn’t even full-time in the Cup Series as he sought sponsorship and a ride.

"Everybody's got a lot to prove here," Beam said. "It's a very hungry organization." 

Why? A pretty simple reason.

"There's been a Petty in racing ever since they threw the first Cup flag here in Charlotte," Petty said. "And we still want to continue that."

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!