Petty Enterprises -- Light
at the End of the Tunnel
November 16, 2007
Jack Lewis - SCR
It has been some fifteen
years since “The King” Richard Petty last competed in a Winston (now Nextel, soon-to-be Sprint) Cup race in his
famous No. 43, and most today are now waiting for the day the team once again becomes a perennial front runner.
Some new to the sport
may wonder why the No. 43 and Kyle Petty's No. 45 team haven’t had the same success that Richard had throughout his
career. Richard scored an unprecedented 200 career Cup victories, 95 more than his closest competitor, David Pearson.
For "The King", 196 of
his 200 career wins came under the Petty Enterprises banner, the Petty family patriarch, Lee Petty also scored another 54
victories. Lee won three championships in the 1950's to go with the wins, and was very influential throughout Richard’s
racing career.
In the late '70s, another
Petty was up-and-coming, and looked like a great talent. Richard's son Kyle, a third generation driver, won his very first
ARCA race, at Daytona Int'l Speedway of all places. A year later, he was put in a Petty Enterprises machine at the Talladega
Superspeedway, and in his debut scored a 9th place finish. "The King’s" son would run his first full Winston Cup schedule
in 1981. At the end of the 1984 season Kyle announced he would leave his Petty Ent. -- to go to the Petty's arch-enemy,
the Wood Brothers. It was there that Kyle won his first career Cup race at Richmond
in 1986.
While many were seeing
that Kyle did not possess the greatness of his father, Kyle would win one more race with the Wood Brothers -- the Coca-Cola
600 in 1987, before leaving the family-owned team to go drive for NASCAR newcomer, Felix Sabates. He would score five wins
with Sabates, the last coming at Dover
in 1995, and in 1997, Petty returned to his family's organization, by this time the famed No. 43 was being piloted by Bobby
Hamilton. Hamilton would give Petty Enterprises their first win (at Phoenix
in 1996) since "The King’s" 200th in 1984. Hamilton would win one more race
in the No. 43 in 1997. In '98, John Andretti was the new pilot of the STP No. 43 he was the last driver to win a race for
Petty Enterprises at Martinsville in 1999.
Towards the end of the
20th century, a fourth generation Petty was making headway to becoming the new face of Petty Enterprises. Kyle's
son, Adam, was busy winning short track races across the southeast, including a few ARCA races, and in 1998 was put in a Busch
Series car for three races, before running a full campaign in '99.
In 2000, Adam made his
debut for Petty Enterprises in the Winston Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway. Ironically, his father failed to qualify, and
had to be a spectator to his son's first Cup start. It ended short, while another rookie, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first
Cup race, but the potential was still there.
A few weeks later, Lee
Petty passed away at the age of 86, but he still got to witness his great-grandson's rise to the elite levels of NASCAR he
once ran.
Then tragedy struck again.
On May 12 at the New Hampshire Int'l Speedway, Adam Petty crashed during practice for the following day's Busch Series event.
Petty was pronounced dead soon after.
Adam's passing seemed
to mark the low point in the entire Petty organization. But they all said they would keep racing, and in 2001, Kyle ran the
No. 45 Dodge his son was supposed to run full-time in the Cup Series. His first race with the team -- Dale Earnhardt's last.
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The year of 2001 would
also be the year Petty Enterprises incorporated a third team, with driver Buckshot Jones driving the No. 44 Dodge. In March,
Andretti came close to delivering a win for the Petty's, but in another ironic twist, Kyle's old team, the No. 21 Wood Brothers'
team, scored the win at Bristol.
It was Elliott Sadler's first win, and the Wood Brothers' most recent Cup win. Leaving the Petty’s still winless for
a couple of years.
In 2002, Jones failed
to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500, and after the 8th race of the season, was replaced by numerous drivers throughout
the remainder of the year, including Greg Biffle, Christian Fittipaldi, Jerry Nadeau, Ted Musgrave, and Steve Grissom.
Midway through the '03
season, Andretti left the team, and was replaced by Jeff Green. Green would drive the No. 43 Dodge through the 2005 season.
At the end of the season,
it was announced that Robbie Loomis would return to Petty Enterprises. Loomis was with the Petty’s all the way back
when "The King" ran his final race, and Bobby Hamilton won his first race. He left the team in 2000 to go to Hendrick Motorsports
and Jeff Gordon, where he helped guide the No. 24 team to their fourth series title in 2001. He stepped down as crew chief
when Gordon failed to make the Chase, and left Hendrick at the season's end.
After Loomis came back
to reunite with the Petty’s, Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Winston Cup Champion signed with the team. Labonte was leaving
Joe Gibbs Racing, where he drove Gibbs' machines since 1995. Labonte's crew chief was Paul Andrews, who won the 1992 Winston
Cup Championship with owner/driver Alan Kulwicki. In yet another ironic twist, the race what determined Kulwicki's championship
was Richard Petty's last race.
All the pieces seemed
to fit well for the Petty's entering the 2006 season, as it was now a two-car operation again. After showing small glimpses
of promise, neither Labonte nor Kyle Petty scored a victory. The winless streak continued through all of this season as well.
For six weeks through
this season, Kyle was an analyst for TNT Sports along with Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach. Here's another ironic twist --
Dallenbach drove the No. 43 for 14 races in the 1994 season.
Chad McCumbee, a young
rising driver was given the nod to drive Petty's No. 45 at Pocono in June. That weekend, he won the ARCA race, a first for
him. Petty piloted his Dodge at Sonoma two weeks later, as a driver/analyst, and
in the other four races; Andretti reunited with the Petty’s to drive their car.
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Over the past few seasons,
the Petty’s have leased engines from Evernham Motorsports, who earlier this season formed an alliance with George Gillett.
There have been rumors recently that have Gillett-Evernham Motorsports merging with Petty Enterprises, forming one organization
that may prove to have a positive impact on both teams.
Just last week, Petty
Enterprises announced they will move their race shop from their home since the beginning in 1949 in Level Cross, NC, to a
former Robert Yates Racing building, closer to other race shops in hopes of gaining on the competition.
Other rumors lately have
said that Jeff Meendering, the car chief for Jeff Gordon, may leave his place on the pitbox to be Bobby Labonte's crew chief
in 2008. If so, that makes it two personnel from Gordon's team would leave for the Petty's in three seasons (Loomis being
the other).
If the pieces of the puzzle
weren't there before, they sure look like they will be next season and beyond, especially if the Petty’s sign McCumbee
to a contract to drive their No. 45 Dodge. That coupled with a possible merger with Ray Evernham, and the Petty's are inching
closer to their winning ways once again.
That is something I am
sure all race fans would like to see.
2006 StockCar Review.
