The King Richard Petty Regains Control of His NASCAR Empire

Richard Petty is once again king of his own kingdom. The King of NASCAR had lost majority control of his organization several years ago as the ailing team saw fit to bring in additional investors to financially secure the organization that had been around NASCAR for 50 years.

Today the Richard Petty announced that a group of investors, including himself, had acquired all assets of the team from George Gillett Jr. whose financial woes had put Richard Petty Motorsports in jeopardy since the forced sale of his Liverpool football club. In addition Gillett is also being sued to the tune of $117 million for debts incurred due to his investment there.

"Today is a great day for me, my family, our fans and our wonderful sponsors," Petty said, "Ford, Stanley Tools, Best Buy, Valvoline, Reynolds, Air Force, Super 8, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), WIX Filters and Menards have supported me through thick and thin and I thank them from the bottom of my heart."

Petty's team had only bared his name is recent years as he was relegated to a figurehead role in the organization and only 4% ownership. The financially strapped organization could barely get their cars to the track in the last few races of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season due to increasing debt owed to Roush-Fenway Racing among others.

Medallion Financial a company that holds a leading position in the origination and servicing of loans to finance the purchase of taxicab medallions and DGB Investments are among Petty's nine new financial partners in the organization that will run AJ Allmendinger in the famous #43 and Tazmanian Marcos Ambrose in the #9. DGB Investments, owned by Doug Bergeron acquired VeriFone Systems from Hewlett-Packard for $50 million in 2001. VeriFone is worth more than $3 billion today.

"Richard is one of the greatest names, not only in NASCAR, but in all sports.....Ample working capital has been invested in the company to ensure this great team and legend will not only continue to perform, but will thrive and be back in the winner's circle." said Andrew Murstein, president of Medallion Financial.

"Our partnership with Andy Murstein and Doug Bergeron will help take us to a whole new level and I could not be more excited about our future." said The King.

This is great news for motorsports, NASCAR and fans of sports in general. Richard Petty is more than a figurehead. He is an ambassador for the sport and played a key role in increasing the sports popularity and attracting the type of competitors we see on the track today.