There has been a lot of mention about Bubba Wallace becoming the first full-time African-American driver in NASCAR's top series since 1971.
Richard Petty isn't one of them.
Petty told reporters that he doesn't care about the color of Wallace's skin. He just cares about talent.
Wallace being African American, "That was the least of my considerations. We looked at the talent. We looked at how we thought he handled the fans, how he handled the press, how he handled sponsor deals, all this kind of stuff. I didn't care what color he was, where he come from, any of that.
"If you look back at the Petty history and stuff, we've had a driver from Brazil that drove for us for a while, one from Mexico that drove a Truck race for us. It's not anything different than what we've done before."
Wallace had been rumored to join RPM but a lack of sponsorship held things up. Now, the team can concentrate on the other matters it faces, namely, finding a new home and announcing the sponsorships it has lined up.
"We're still working on really where we're going to wind up next year," Petty said. We've got a couple, three options. We just going to sit down with Bubba and the crew chief, our sponsors and stuff, say, Okay, where do we think our best move is? What do we need to do? When it does come to be, we'll let everybody know about it.