Richard Petty Motorsports halts Xfinity team citing missed payments

Jeb Burton is without a ride in the Xfinity Series.

Richard Petty Motorsports announced that it had suspended its No. 43 Xfinity Series team because of financial issues and missed payments by team sponsor J. Streicher. Burton, who competed for part of the 2015 season in the Sprint Cup Series, joined the team before the beginning of the season and had planned to run for the Xfinity Series title.

"This is an unfortunate situation," RPM CEO Brian Moffitt said in a statement. "We make commitments to both our employees and vendors that are based on sponsor commitments, and we take those commitments seriously. We will pursue every avenue to ensure the contractual obligations between RPM and our sponsor are met. We'll take each week as it comes and do our best to get the No. 43 Ford Mustang on track as much as possible this season."

According to J. Streicher's website, the company's "objective is to be the DMM (Designated Market Maker) of choice for the world's leading "listed" companies, on both the NYSE and NYSE Amex. This dual membership enables our mid size clients to seamlessly transition as their businesses grow and evolve."

This is probably not the evolution that RPM had in mind for its Xfinity team.

Burton, the son of Ward Burton and nephew of Jeff, had one top-10 finish in 11 starts this season. He competed in 28 of 36 Cup Series races in 2015 with a best finish of 27th for BK Racing. His lone NASCAR top-three series win came at Texas in 2013 driving for Turner-Scott Motorsports.

The RPM release said that Burton will drive the No. 32 in the Cup Series this weekend at Pocono.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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