Bud may not make final NASCAR sponsorship payment

Anheuser-Busch has told Richard Petty Motorsports that the NASCAR team “will not receive the final payment on its 2010 sponsorship contract,” according to sources cited by Dave Moody of Sirius NASCAR Radio.

Anheuser-Bush’s contract with RPM “called for Kasey Kahne to be the driver of the Budweiser Ford, and when Kahne left the team five races early to join Red Bull Racing, that contract became null and void.”

There has been “no confirmation from either the team or Budweiser, and no word on what the final installment of that sponsorship would have been worth to the team.”

Budweiser was on RPM’s No. 9 car driven by Aric Almirola for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy Juice 500, but ESPN’s Terry Blount noted it is unclear whether they will be on the car the rest of the way and how that affects whether the 9 car will finish the season.

RPM’s future is in jeopardy due in part to co-Owner George Gillett’s financial woes, but Blount said, “It does no one any good — not Richard Petty if he hopes to take over the team, not Roush Fenway and not the creditors — to shut things down with three races to go. I think they’re going to do everything possible to have all four cars finish the season for the last three races.”