Richard Petty Motorsports

In the midst of a struggling economy, in January 2009 Gillett Evernham Motorsports merged with fellow Dodge team Petty Enterprises, which could no longer find sponsors for any of its cars, thus expanding the team to four cars. The organization was renamed Richard Petty Motorsports in the process. Ray Evernham was not involved in the merger negotiations, and both he and Richard Petty only maintained minority shares in the new team. Near the end of the season, the team announced its departure from the Dodge banner and switched to Ford. The team would also merge with Yates Racing, owned by Ford head engine builder Doug Yates, which had fielded several successful NASCAR drivers including Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, and Ricky Rudd.

By 2010, RPM's continued operation was put into question when lead driver Kasey Kahne announced his departure by the end of the season for Red Bull Racing Team. Kahne would be released by the team before the second Martinsville race with five events left in the season, after several mechanical failures. Kahne's decision was in the midst of financial problems for the Gillett family in several of their ventures, which included George Gillett defaulting on a $90 million loan he had used to purchase the team. With lackluster performance and rumors from week-to-week that the team would shut down, the chaos peaked in October when RPM's cars for the second Talladega race were briefly confiscated, and again in November when RPM's four team haulers remained parked at Texas Motor Speedway instead of heading to the next race at Phoenix, in both cases due to payment issues with engine and equipment supplier Roush Fenway Racing. The situation was resolved in November, when Richard Petty partnered with Medallion Financial (headed by lead investor Andrew M. Murstein) and DGB investments (headed by Douglas G. Bergeron) to purchase the team for "less than $50 million." Petty once again was at the helm of a race team, and retained a one-third stake in the company by investing "several million dollars" of his own. Murstein had been seeking a sports investment since 2008 when he formed a special purpose acquisition company together with Hank Aaron, a Medallion board member, and others worth $215 million. The team contracted from four teams to two following 2010. Bergeron's share was bought out by Murstein at the end of 2014.

In 2015 the team began fabricating its own bodies, and in 2016 began building its own chassis, reducing its technical reliance on Roush Fenway Racing.

For the 2018 season, RPM switched their alliance from RFR to Richard Childress Racing which also came with a manufacturer switch to Chevrolet.

On December 1, 2021, RPM sold a majority interest in the team to GMS Racing for US$19 million. The deal included both of RPM's charters; the No. 43 continues to operate with its charter while the second charter – which was leased to Rick Ware Racing for the No. 51 from 2019 to 2021 would be transferred to GMS' No. 42.

^ Cite error: The named reference AutoWeek-GEM-RPM-092 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

^ Cite error: The named reference ESPN-Petty-GEM-Merger-093 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

^ Peltz, Jim (December 12, 2008). "Petty racing team discusses merger with Gillett Evernham". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

^ Cite error: The named reference Sporting-News-Yates-RPM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

^ McCubbin, Ashley (October 28, 2010). "Richard Petty Motorsports' Drama and Financial Problems". Bleacher Report. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

^ Demmons, Doug (October 22, 2010). "Will Talladega be the last hurrah for Richard Petty Motorsports?". al.com. The Birmingham News, Advance Publications. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

^ Blount, Terry (April 17, 2010). "Gillett says RPM will rebound". ESPN.go.com. Fort Worth, Texas: ESPN. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

^ Demmons, Doug (November 11, 2010). "Financial drama at Richard P