RPM team sticking with old Dodge engines

Each of the Richard Petty Motorsports [#9-Kahne, #19-Sadler, #43-Sorenson, #44-Allmendinger] drivers will race the R5 Dodge engine for the foreseeable future say team officials. Mark McArdle, vice president and director of competition for RPM about the use of the current engine: “We are using the R5P7 right now while the R6P8 engine is still in development with us. We look at it as a risk/reward issue and right now, we think it is a little bit risky considering the situation we are in with our teams. We like what we have right now. We are making decent performance numbers with the new engine and trying to develop a level of reliability in to it that we have in the R5. It’s our position that in the first third of this racing season we can’t afford the risk of giving away any points so we are going to be very conservative in what we do. We are keeping our options open with regard to our utilization of the R6P8. When we deem it wise to race it, we will. It’s likely you will see us compete with it at some point this season, but to what level of commitment we haven’t decided." The #44 Dodge of A.J. Allmendinger will carry the Charter Communications paint scheme this weekend. RPM PR