KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- George Gillett, majority owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, had just seated himself at a microphone in the media center at Kansas Speedway on Saturday when his cell phone rang.

The ring tone offered a rousing rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone, the song that is the anthem of the Liverpool Football Club that Gillett and his family also own a 50 percent stake.

“

I would resist the concept of chaos -- because if we're in chaos, then there are a number of other teams that are a step beyond chaos, whatever that is. And I don't think that's the case.

”

-- GEORGE GILLETT

Glances were exchanged around the room. Who could it be? Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah Al Saud of Saudi Arabia? King Richard Petty of Level Cross, N.C.?

It turned out it was neither. It was Geoff Molson of the beer-brewing Canadian Molson family, sort of royalty in their own right.

"That's my other beer-drinking buddy, Geoff Molson," Gillett said before telling Molson he would return the call later, flipping the cell off, and getting down to the real business at hand -- which was explaining what he recently was doing in the Middle East, and just what in the heck is going on with his NASCAR operation.

Gillett went on to make it clear that he certainly will never walk alone in any of his many future business endeavors, which may include helping found a stock-car racing series in Saudi Arabia and could eventually include welcoming Saudi investors to claim a "very small" stake in the otherwise all-American RPM.

Gillett also said that RPM's pending merger with Yates Racing remains on track and that he fully expects RPM's cars to switch manufacturers from Dodge to Ford beginning next season. He did, however, backtrack on what appeared to be an earlier pledge to definitely run four cars in the Cup Series next year.

"We'll have for sure three teams, and hopefully four," said Gillett, who said he could not give specific names as to which drivers would be in which cars -- despite earlier reports linked to the organization that listed Kasey Kahne, A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler and Paul Menard as comprising the RPM stable in 2010.

Gillett said his main reason for making a rare media appearance at Kansas Speedway was to clear up misconceptions about his recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

"As I came back from Europe, I came back into a maelstrom of massively inaccurate stories," Gillett said. "[On Friday], I was watching practice and qualifying coverage and people were saying things on television who are perfectly well-intentioned people. But somebody or other has given them the wrong story."

Gillett admitted that his company's attempt to make an announcement last Wednesday that it had entered into a "commercial collaboration" agreement with F6, a leading Saudi Arabia-based sports management firm, probably "was not the way to go and produced more questions than answers." (Continued)