Hall of Fame Racing (#96) Shuts Down and will not race in 2009

According to sources close to the situation, Hall of Fame Racing has shut its doors. Just days before the holiday season, team personnel were reportedly told the team would close shop. The team has reportedly been contacting other organizations indicating their equipment is now for sale.

Losing their affiliation with Joe Gibbs Racing, without a full-time sponsor secured for 2009 and with no driver to pilot the ride, owners Tom Garfinkel and Jeff Moorad have apparently decided to cut their losses and call it quits.

Brad Coleman, who looked to be the future of Hall of Fame Racing, was signed by Joe Gibbs Racing to help pilot the No. 20 Nationwide Series ride last Friday. Layoffs cut the staff of the team and according to many reports team?s lease on their race shop expires this month.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Dexter on January 1, 2009 at 1:23pm

Figures thats a single car team I hope that never happens to Robby in the future.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on January 1, 2009 at 1:54pm

The only issue is RG still has some affiliation with Sony, and DLP definately is a competing technology. The Sony support has been less and less over the years, but he still has decently sized Sony logos adourning his pit wagon and garage setup...

I agree though, this would be a nice pickup, although I am partial to the Sony LCD tvs...

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on January 1, 2009 at 2:10pm

I believe DLP will be with Joe Gibbs Racing as a large associate sponsor.

There's several sponsors that planned to return to Cup in 2009, but hasn't been mentioned lately...got to wonder what they will do:

State Water Heaters - stated they planned to evalute and be a proud sponsor in Cup in 2009
Marathon Oil- Was signed for 12 races with Kyle Petty...no word yet
Wells Fargo - Has a 12 race deal with Kyle Petty for 2009...no word yet
Coca Cola - lost several drivers Elliott Sadler, Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty from the Coca Cola racing family...unless they get new rides.

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Permalink Reply by Edward M. Corrado on January 1, 2009 at 2:19pm

It will be interesting to see where Kyle and his sponsorship for about 2/3rds of the season end up. I would have liked it to be a second Robby Gordon team, but now that Robby is with Toyota I don't see it happening. Seems like one of these teams without a sponsor would pick up Kyle and his sponsorship.

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Permalink Reply by Jan on January 1, 2009 at 2:42pm

I don't think we'll see Kyle at a Cup race in 2009 unless it's in the broadcast booth. It doesn't appear that Kyle is even interested in a "ride" in the series. The last I heard, Kyle was looking at Rolex Grand Am & Wells Fargo was interested in staying with Kyle as a sponsor, wherever he went. I couldn't find the article I saw before X-Mas about the GEM-Petty merger that mentioned Kyle's future plans. This is a small part of what was mentioned back at the end of Oct from Frontstretch.com.

Petty was behind the wheel of the No. 45 Orbit Racing BMW Riley Daytona Prototype as he prepares for his seventh career start in the Rolex 24 and his first since 2006. But Petty says that the 2009 Rolex 24 could be the first of many sports car events next year with Orbit Racing as he and Orbit Racing owner Rodger Hawley are working on a potential deal for the entire Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season.

“We’re trying to put something together to run not only the 24 Hours but all year long,” Petty said. “Obviously I’m in a place with the Cup stuff where I don’t really have a ride right now. I have always said this is where I wanted to be. From the time I came here for the first time, I said to run the Grand American division would be the next step up. I don’t want to go back to Nationwide and I don’t want to go run Trucks. That’s a step down from the Cup Series. This is a step over. I don’t look at this as a step down. This is a step to the top of road racing. It’s been a lot of fun out there so far. I forget where the infield goes sometimes.”

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on January 2, 2009 at 1:36pm

Jayski - hearing that after the Daytona 500 with James Hylton, the #08 EM Motorsports team will run Kyle Petty in up to 14 races with sponsorship from Wells Fargo and others TBA. Supposedly the car number will change after the Daytona 500, to #71 and the team will run Fords and Dodges. Also, supposedly the team will use road course specialists at the two road course races [Watkins Glen and Infineon Raceway], no word on who those drivers may be.

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Permalink Reply by Jan on January 2, 2009 at 7:54pm

Jayski Update
New ride for Petty? UPDATE denied: hearing that after the Daytona 500 with James Hylton, the #08 EM Motorsports team will run Kyle Petty in up to 14 races with sponsorship from Wells Fargo and others TBA.(1-2-2009)
UPDATE: been told that this is not true and nothing is signed.(1-2-2009)

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Permalink Reply by Keith on January 1, 2009 at 2:31pm

Marathon pulled out totally. That's what grounded the 44. They had a deal and at the last minute Marathon pulled the plug. Wells Fargo was said to be "iffy" as the buyout of Wachovia has drained their resources more than anticipated.

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on January 1, 2009 at 2:47pm

Marathon pulled out it's sponsorship of the #44. They had a 12 race deal with Kyle for 2009 (it may be terminated now due to the circumstances at Petty, but no official word yet).

Petty was quoted the other day saying his plans for 2009 are still up in the air. He said he has a 12-race deal with Wells Fargo to run a limited schedule if the right team was willing to provide him a car. (IMO- it sounded like Wells Fargo would have the right to say "Yes or NO" to a team if offered. I could see a couple of one-race deals like Daytona, Indy or other tracks. It would be good PR for a team to put the #45 on the track). I could see Robby putting Kyle in a car for a one-race type deal.