Petty #44 gets shafted by silly NASCAR games

Richard Petty was feeling a little bait-and-switched on Friday. The sponsors that Richard Petty Motorsports have been courting for the #44 Dodge felt even more so, he said. NASCAR's recalibration of owner points for the start of the 2009 season put Petty driver A.J. Allmendinger 36th, one spot below the cutoff for automatic entry into the first five races of the season. Clint Bowyer's #33 Chevrolet — a new fourth car at Richard Childress Racing — and Sam Hornish's #77 Dodge garnered top-35 spots by bringing in points-possessing former car owners as partners. Bowyer's car will now be listed under former team owner Bobby Ginn, and Bill Davis has formed a partnership with Roger Penske to own Hornish's car. RPM has only an eight-race deal with Valvoline and is courting sponsors, a less-arduous process if the team is guaranteed of making races. Petty said NASCAR told him at the end of last season that the points of the #10 Gillett Evernham Dodge (now applied to the #44 after Petty merged with GEM) would be in the top 35. "It puts us in a bad situation with a sponsor, because when we went in, that was part of our selling point," Petty said. "All of a sudden, we don't (make the top 35). They blame us as an organization for leading them down a path." Allmendinger failed to qualify on time for the Daytona 500 in his first two attempts at Red Bull Racing. St Petersburg Times