Real sponsorship for Richard Petty Motorsports is looking very scarce

 

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    As I mentioned in a previous article, "Why Richard Petty Motorsports could be in trouble in 2022", sponsorship was very skimpy-looking for the No. 43 and Erik Jones. In this article, I'm going to dig deeper into this topic.

Erik Jones started off the 2021 Season with some new brand names for the No. 43, but nothing for more than 2 race partnerships.

Armor All sponsored Jones for the Daytona 500 (where Jones was involved in wreck), and at Homestead-Miami two weeks later. Then there was a RP Funding which was a sponsor only for the Busch Clash. 

That leads myself, and many others to question: What else does RPM have lined up for the No. 43 Chevrolet? 

Well, the United States Air Force is currently signed on for a two race partnership with the team. They will first appear on the car at Talladega Superspeedway in April, and then at Bristol Motor Speedway in September. Tide is also set to sponsor the No. 43, though as far as we know, this will only be for the upcoming Bristol Dirt Race. 

You may ask yourself, where did all of last year’s sponsors go to, and there’s a complicated answer to that:

For starters, DoorDash and McDonalds left with former driver Bubba Wallace, as he moved to the new team 23XI Racing. On the other hand, World Wide Technology, who has sponsored the team for multiple seasons, unexpectedly withdrew themselves from NASCAR completely, just before the 2021 season began. This of course means that they will no longer sponsor Richard Petty Motorsports either. Columbia is a sponsor we are closely watching. Columbia is still with the team, though so far only as an associate sponsor. Last year, they were a primary sponsor of the team. This suspected downsizing would provide Richard Petty Motorsports with less funding, and could possibly mean that Columbia plans leave RPM altogether. Though, this of course only speculation.

Everything else, thus far, has been out of pocket for RPM owners Richard Petty and Andrew Murstein.

 

Richard Petty owns Petty's Garage, which is a high performance speed shop, and Victory Junction which is a charity run by Petty in honor of his grandson, Adam Petty. Co-Owner Andrew Murstein is the owner of Medallion Bank, which has also appeared on the hood of the No. 43 in 2021. So far, in the 2021 season, sponsorship has been out of pocket for 3 races, and this weekend at Atlanta will make it 4, as the team will again run their Petty’s Garage paint scheme. That will make 3 consecutive races where the team was without any real primary sponsorship. Unfortunately this trouble does not look very good for Richard Petty Motorsports. 

What are your thought on the team’s struggle for sponsorship, let us know in the comments below, and we’ll be sure to get back to you!