Smithfield's Petty Squabble

Aric Almirola and Richard Petty's win in the 2014 Firecracker 400 was the highlight of a partnership that suddenly has been torn asunder


Rumor that Smithfield Foods, one of the most prominent sponsors in NASCAR and one of the primary sponsors of Richard Petty's #43 team, would shift over the Stewart-Haas Racing organization has been circulating for a number of weeks.    The rumor became fact September 12 with announcement of the changeover and concurrent announcement that Aric Almirola would leave Petty's team, the rumor being he will be shifted to the SHR #10, replacing Danica Patrick.

Where the story turns eye-popping comes when Richard Petty himself expressed disappointment in the decision, stating Smithfield had expressed interest in staying with the team and even gave a handshake agreement to stay - "I come from a time when did major deals with sponsors like STP on a handshake."  

Smithfield's CEO strangely took umbrage at that, claiming that Petty "is lying" and attacked the team's performance.   The claim that Petty is lying is beyond incendiary, for Petty is famous for giving his word and staying with his word even at his own expense, most famously in the ill-fated two-year period under the Curb Motorsports aegis.   There is also speculation that it was Smithfield leaking out claim to be leaving; the rumor by all accounts never emanated from Petty's shop.

The team's present performance has certainly not been a winning performance; it has, though, been encouraging and strikingly strong (the #43 has been among the cars passing more cars than anyone else), notably the Daytona 500 and Winston 500 before Aric Almirola's disastrous back injury at Kansas.   Indeed the biggest irony is Smithfield attacks "RPM's inability to deliver on the track and the organization's repeated failure to present a plan to address its lack of competitiveness" yet is switching to a racecar, the #10, with fewer top-tens (one) than Almirola this season.

And the claim of "inability to deliver on the track" is grossly simplistic given encouraging efforts not only in the team's three top-ten finishes so far but also in promising efforts at the Firecracker 400 and Kentucky, Indianapolis, and Michigan, plus a decent run at Richmond.    This for a team that has had to field four drivers in one car this season and is recovering from the disastrous effort at building its own chassis in 2016 - which incidentally constitutes an attempt to "address its lack of competitiveness."  

The journey of Petty's team has been an enterprise of survival.  Reestablishing winning legitimacy has dogged Petty since the ultimately failed Curb Motorsports period, yet it finally got there in 1996, winning three times in a four-season span as the sport's economics became increasingly absurd.  It faltered badly in 2000 and had to survive the sport's fratricide of 2008-09.   Petty is still standing as a team owner when teams like Andy Petree, Robert Yates, Ray Evernham (whose team disintegrated and wound up being absorbed into the Petty organization), DEI (likewise absorbed, into Chip Ganassi's team, the two teams once fielding six racecars and from the beginning of 2010 a truncated two-car version of its former lives), and even Petty's present equipment supplier Roush Racing have either disbanded or are a mere shell of themselves.  George Gillett's merger of Ray Evernham's former team into Petty's organization and the signing of AJ Allmendinger gave the team competitive spark, but Gillett would leave and the team nearly foundered at the end of 2010; it was Petty who kept it going, winning twice at Watkins Glen with Marcos Ambrose in the #9 team before Almirola's Daytona win in 2014.

Smithfield's decision comes after the Subway chain of sandwich shops abruptly quit Joe Gibbs Racing in an apparent snit that one of its drivers made an ad for the Dunkin Donuts breakfast and coffee chain in promotion of New Hampshire's coming race.    It also comes amid commentary by Regan Smith, who on FOX Sports' NASCAR news show proclaimed discomfort with Smithfield's argument because he competed in Petty's #43 in two races this year on a handshake deal.  

One also should keep in mind Target's decision to leave Ganassi Racing despite the recent surge of success of Kyle Larson, this after some striking inconsistency.   Sponsors looking for reasons to leave find them for reasons unrelated to performance.

It all adds up to a stunning and disconcerting development - the team working to get better in essence gets ambushed by its sponsor.    Petty, the ultimate participant in stock car racing even today commands a respect unmatched in racing outside of AJ Foyt, his equal in Indycars, and his #43 on the racetrack personifies racing now and forever.    Effort to win has never been an issue, and Smithfield's rhetoric was ugly and grossly improper.  

With this development, the word is Darrell Wallace will drive Petty's #43 in 2018; after his very encouraging four-race tryout in 2017 one can feel confident he will make the team stronger.  It is no criticism of Almirola; the scuttlebutt was the original Petty plan was to field a two-car team for Almirola and Wallace under the aegis of RCR (a rumored RCR alliance supposedly explains the team's decision to vacate its present shop).   One feels the #43 will continue to make effort to win, and the possibility of success, despite the unfortunate criticism of Smithfield, remains real.



UPDATE, October 30, 2017: Smithfield apparently has worked out its disagreement with Petty and will sponsor the #43 in 2018 with driver Darrell Wallace Jr.