Team owner Rick Hendrick said:

Our people have a lot of respect for Kenny and what he’s accomplished. We know the chemistry is already there with Kasey, and there’s no doubt Kenny will communicate very well with our folks. He’s a character guy who brings an awful lot to the table as a crew chief. When we look at “fit factor,” it’s a great situation.

Francis added:

Joining Hendrick Motorsports and continuing to work with Kasey next year is an opportunity I’m excited about. He’s a championship-caliber driver and good friend, and I’m looking forward to building on our relationship. Mr. Hendrick has built an impressive team and culture, and it’s going to be fun to be a part of that when the time comes. I’m very optimistic about the rest of this season and focused on getting to Victory Lane with the No. 4 team. I want to thank Jay Frye and everyone with the organization for the chance to be part of such a great group of people. We still have goals to achieve there, and those are foremost on my mind right now.

In April of 2010, Kahne signed a multi-year deal with HMS to drive the No. 5 Sprint Cup Chevy. At the time, Mark Martin was slated to drive the car in 2011. With the NASCAR-mandated maximum of four drivers under contract, Kahne was left to sign with a team for one year.

After much speculation that Martin would leave the team and sign with Red Bull Racing, Kahne ended up going to RBR.

A couple of months later, it was reported that Francis would move to RBR with Kahne. At that time, I speculated that Francis would move to HMS with Kahne for 2012, which would result in Alan Gustafson ending up as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr in 2012.

With last off-season’s reshuffling of crew chiefs at HMS, I don’t think that Gustafson or Steve Letarte will switch teams.

Lance McGrew, current crew chief of the team that Francis will take over when Kahne joins HMS, will return to HMS’s research and development department, including working on special projects and working with the development of the 2013 Sprint Cup car.

Lee Spencer writes:

The assembly line from Roush Fenway Racing and Roush Yates engines, which supply chassis and engines respectively, has stopped running to RPM. Engines have been picked up, cars have been repossessed, and sources on both sides — RPM and RFR — say no cars will be delivered beyond Martinsville this weekend.

RPM employees were told that they may not have jobs after the race at Martinsville.

The issue may stem from a lawsuit over the Liverpool Football Club of the Premier League. New England Sport Ventures, which was founded by RFR co-owner John W. Henry, bought the Liverpool team for $477 million. Shortly thereafter, RPM co-owner George Gillett threatened to sue.

About two months ago, Gillett and his business partner Tom Hicks put the Liverpool Football Club up for sale as the team was in its worst season in nearly 60 years, and bankruptcy loomed. Henry purchased the debt-ridden team earlier this month.

After day after the sale was negotiated and agreed upon, Gillett and Hicks, citing two higher bids for the team, tried to block Henry’s purchase of the team, calling the deal an “epic swindle.”

Right before the meeting to complete the sale started, a Dallas judge issued a temporary restraining order against three Liverpool board members, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and NESV.  Meanwhile, Hicks filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit, but later dropped it.

Hicks and Gillett were said to be scrambling to recapture the company, buying up the debt, and firing board members.

As a deadline to purchase the team rapidly approached, the Dallas court decided to hear the matter. If the sale was not completed by that evening, the team would’ve fallen into bankruptcy, meaning Henry wouldn’t be able to buy the team.

The British High Court ordered Hicks and Gillett to withdraw their claim or be held in contempt.

Henry tweeted:

We have a binding contract. Will fight Mill Hicks Gillett attempt to keep club today. Their last desperate attempt to entrench their regime.

The restraining order ended up being dropped, allowing Henry to purchase the team. To comply with the court order, Hicks and Gillett dropped the lawsuit, but it seems more legal action may be coming.

Many accounts of the sale described the situation as bitter, contentious, and heated. So, it’s likely that the business relationship between Henry and Gillett has been fractured to the point that the two could not continue their agreement in NASCAR, which could possibly explain why RFR repossessed engines and cars. This, however, is purely speculation.

Another possible reason for the repossession is that RPM is in financial trouble. Back in April, it was reported that RPM was in default on a $90 million loan. At the time, Gillett indicated that the default was technical, meaning that RPM did not fulfill one of the obligations of the loan, not that they missed payments

But an anonymous source told the Sports Business Journal that Gillett’s explanation was false. The source said that the default was indeed payment-related. If that’s the case, the team could still be in financial trouble.

The news that RPM is in financial trouble is interesting, given that Richard Petty came out and said the team was considering a third team in 2011. Petty said:

We’ve talked to a lot of people about a third car, but our main deal is make sure we’ve got two really good cars, and then we try to do a third deal. We’ve got until the end of the year [to make a decision]. If we’re downgrading from four teams to three teams, we’ve still got plenty of everything it would take to run that third car. It wouldn’t be like just having two, and then all of a sudden we’ve got to go out and get cars, people and trucks and all the equipment to run the third car. We can wait a pretty [long time], I think, as far as being able to get cars ready.

That quote leads me to believe that whatever caused the issue between RFR and RPM occurred recently because the team wouldn’t be planning to expand if they were that close to going under. Unless, of course, this was posturing.

Earlier this year, RPM had no drivers under contract for next season.

Kasey Kahne announced he was leaving the team back in April, after signing a deal with Hendrick Motorsports to drive the No. 5 in 2012. He was slated to drive for Red Bull Racing next season; and he was taking his crew chief Kenny Francis with him. But, yesterday he was released from his contract, allowing him to go there five races early.

Budweiser, Kahne’s sponsor, decided to leave the team to join Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 team and driver Kevin Harvick. Paul Menard is also leaving the team, taking his Menards sponsorship to RCR next season. And, Elliott Sadler announced in July that he was leaving the team.

Later that month, Marcos Ambrose was signed to replace Kahne in the No. 9 Ford with Stanley signing on to sponsor him. In August, AJ Allmendinger re-signed with the team.

Update: Jenna Fryer, of the AP, tweeted that RPM does have cars for next weekend’s Amp Energy 500 at Tallaedga Superspeedway. She wrote:

Free RPM! Free RPM! Hearing they have their Talladega cars, all is well in the world.

Update 2: There are rumors that RPM owes Kahne money, and that was part of the reason he asked for an early release. But, Kahne said that RPM met all of its financial obligations to him. He also defended his decision not to finish the race at Charlotte. He said that the decision to split was not the financial uncertainty surrounding RPM. He has agreed to honor his sponsorship commitments to Budweiser for the remainder of the year.

Kahne signed a contract with Hendrick Motorsports for the 2012 Sprint Cup season. But, because HMS had a full stable of drivers for 2011, Kahne signed on with RBR for the 2011 season. In 2012, he will move to HMS.

It seems that Francis will move to HMS with Kahne, though RBR sources would not confirm that. They indicated that he could stay with RBR beyond 2011, but that seems doubtful.

In September, I wrote that I thought that Francis would move to HMS with Kahne. They have been together since 2005, and have won 10 races and made the Chase twice in that timeframe.

If he does move to HMS in 2012, there’s a good chance Alan Gustafson will move from the team’s No. 5 Chevy to the No. 88 and driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Last season, when Earnhardt Jr and crew chief Tony Eury Jr we having problems, there were rumors that Rick Hendrick considered moving Gustafson to the No. 88 and Eury Jr to the No. 5. I wrote:

While those reports were denied, there is a good chance they were actually considered. And, if that’s the case, Hendrick had to think that the pairing of Gustafson and Jr would be productive, or he wouldn’t have considered it.    

And, I can’t imagine there’s a reason — if Hendrick considered pairing the two back then — that he wouldn’t try it in 2012, assuming the team’s performance continues on the track it is on.

Francis and Kahne have been together since 2005, when Francis took over crew chief duties from Tommy Baldwin Jr. in the middle of that season. Baldwin left the team to work with Elliott Sadler at Yates Racing.

Francis and Kahne have combined for 10 wins together, and have made the chase together twice.

If Francis moves to RBR to serve as crew chief for Kahne, it is likely — assuming he doesn’t sign a multi-year deal with RBR — to fuel speculation that Francis will also leave RBR following the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season to move with Kahne to Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 team.

If that happens, that would leave HMS with five crew chiefs and four teams in 2012, if no other moves are made between now and then. Of HMS’ current crew chief stable, it would appear that Alan Gustafson, crew chief of Mark Martin and the No. 5, would be the odd man out.

But, earlier this season, Gustafson signed a multi-year extension with HMS so he is likely to stay with the organization. There is a chance he will be moved to the research and development department.

But, I don’t think he will. I think that — assuming no other moves are made — he will become crew chief to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Before Tony Eury Jr and Earnhardt Jr were separated, there were rumors that team owner Rick Hendrick was considering swapping Eury Jr and Gustafson. While those reports were denied, there is a good chance they were actually considered. And, if that’s the case, Hendrick had to think that the pairing of Gustafson and Jr would be productive, or he wouldn’t have considered it.

After the rumors surfaced, Gustafson and Mark Martin began to improve their performance, stopping any chance for a swap.

If Gustafson were moved to Jr’s No. 88 team, that would pave the way for Lance McGrew to return to his previous role in the R&D department. Back in April, I wrote:

I don’t think — of course I don’t have insider knowledge — that McGrew would mind stepping out of the crew chief role. He seemed to be willing to accept the role as Earnhardt Jr’s crew chief more because Hendrick asked rather than because of a genuine interest.

So, if Francis does indeed sign on with HMS, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gustafson and Jr together in 2012.