LOUDON, N.H. -- Long before the current wave of mergers and partnerships began in NASCAR, Richard Petty could have filled his famous ostrich-feather hat with offers from people interested in buying a piece of the most successful stock-car organization in history. He turned them all down, not wanting outside investors to crowd his company's famous name. Petty Enterprises would remain Petty Enterprises, now, then and always.

That mindset still permeates this team, where some employees turned wrenches back when the King still drove, and the initials of patriarch Lee Petty can be seen scrawled in concrete at the organization's ancestral shop in central North Carolina. They've always done it their way, the same way that won 268 races between 1949 and their last victory in 1999, even though other teams began to expand and improve and leave this historic outfit behind.

But the hard realities of competing in NASCAR's premier series, many of them financial, have forced the decades-old Petty organization to change. The first came in 2002, when Petty Enterprises began to outsource its engines for the first time. In January, team officials said they were exploring the idea of leaving their old compound in Level Cross, N.C., for a new facility in Charlotte, where the bulk of the industry is based. Now, Petty is talking with executives at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports about forming some sort of alliance.

But don't call the prospective deal a merger. Whatever happens, team president Robbie Loomis said, Petty Enterprises will not change its name -- that's one thing Richard Petty will not give up.

"We've got to get our performance up. Bringing in Bobby Labonte was a big pillar of that organization. The No. 43 car is now a pretty respected car on the racetrack., but as we go forward, it takes money," Loomis said at New Hampshire International Speedway, where Petty cars finished 22nd and 37th in Sunday's Sylvania 300.

"How do you get more money in the organization? How do you get the sponsors to step up and pay more? It's one of those Catch-22s, you have to do more before they pay more, unless you make the big story. [Rick] Hendrick, he did a great job this year with the big story. Dale Earnhardt Jr. coming on, that's generated more money in their whole camp. The Gibbs organization, they've taken and sold their long-term relationship with Chevrolet to Toyota. It's about money. They can say it's resources, they can say they want to lead. But it's about getting the most money into an organization that you can. For us at Petty Enterprises, that's what we're trying to look at. How do we raise that capital?"

Possibly by aligning with another entity like GEM and deep-pocketed George Gillett, who owns the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, part of the Liverpool soccer club, and bought into Ray Evernham's NASCAR team earlier this year. Loomis said any deal with GEM is likely to be some sort of working arrangement similar to the one struck last week between Roush Fenway Racing and Yates Racing, which will share resources and information but remain separate entities in ownership. (Continued)