Emporia’s Elliott Sadler will remain in the No. 19 Dodge of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. The announcement came yesterday, nearly two weeks after Sadler had been dropped by GEM in favor of A.J. Allmendinger. Sadler, who hasn’t won a Sprint Cup event since 2004, had threatened to file suit against the organization for breach of contract.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Petty Enterprises has reached a merger agreement with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, creating a four-car stock car racing team that will ensure the Petty racing team’s storied No. 43 competes in NASCAR Sprint Cup events in 2009. However, the merger marks the end of the Petty team as a stand-alone operation. Several sources have indicated many of the struggling team’s remaining employees will be laid off at the completion of the merger.

Elliott Sadler had hoped to jumpstart his career when midway through the 2006 Sprint Cup season he switched from Robert Yates Racing to Evernham Motorsports. With the exception of a handful of competitive efforts on the superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega, the Emporia native performed below expectations.