January 4, 2009
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe start to 2009. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I spent the first day of the year enjoying a little racing at the Rock. Sadly, I wasn’t there in person, but was able to listen to it on the computer. Congratulations goes to Chuck Barnes for winning the inaugural Polar Bear 150…which actually ended up being about a 155... and might have been more of a demolition derby than an actual race. But cars were back racing at Rockingham, and I have 8 friends who were there and loved every minute of it.
As racing was returning to one place where NASCAR history was once made, another piece of NASCAR history was ending an era. I know that Petty Enterprises hasn’t really been Petty owned in a while, however it was still PE, and it still made you think of the family business that was started 60 years ago by Lee Petty. However, the last day of the year was the last day for the company that carried the PE name, and when the doors closed on Tuesday, they closed on a long history of one of the first families of NASCAR. It appears that what was Petty Enterprises will merge with what is currently Gillette Evernham Motorsports, and will become Richard Petty Motorsports….even though the King will have little to no ties with the team.
I have only been a fan of NASCAR since February of 2004, but even I knew who Richard Petty was long before I ever became a fan. You’d have to have been locked in a closet somewhere for the last 50 years not to at least hear of the Petty name. Lee was the founder, and Richard is the King. Adam was the future that was snuffed out before his time, and Kyle was the father of Adam and son of the King who will likely be best known for founding the Victory Junction Gang Camp as much as his four wins in NASCAR’s top series.
The 43 car has had many sponsors since it first took to the track with Richard and took its last PE-owned lap with Bobby Labonte, however it will always be linked to STP. Richard won 200 of PE’s 268 wins. The last win was made not by a Petty, but by a member of another famous racing family, John Andretti. On April 18, 1999, Andretti took the checkered flag at Martinsville Speedway, earning his second and final win in the Cup Series, and what ultimately became the Petty’s last win as owners of the storied 43 car.
"All of it right now is depressing," Andretti said of the recent events surrounding the Petty franchise. "Think of the number of years they've been in business, and what they've done, and the family keeping it going,” said Andretti this week. “Even though I'm not there and working for Petty Enterprises, I feel the pain for them…because when you work for them, you become part of their family."
I think many people feel the Petty’s pain, and many of them have never worked for, or even met them…but have instead just watched and cheered from the sidelines.
Sadly, in this day and age, when it is looking like many of the teams which ran in 2008 won’t even exist in 2009, and fielding a full 43 cars each weekend will be harder than one might think, history doesn’t mean much when dollars are what makes a race team run. A friend of mine explained it bluntly when the announcement was made: “(It’s) Sad to see the Petty Enterprise go. But, like any other business. Keep pace, or you’re gone.”
It is believed that Robbie Loomis, Petty Executive Vice President of Racing Operations, will assume some kind of managerial role under the new partnership. The Petty’s will retain control over the Richard Petty Driving Experience (which I experienced in Las Vegas a month ago), with David Zucker, who has been the chief operating officer of PE and the RPDE, remaining in control of only the Driving Experience. Zucker, who took over the reins at PE after the King sold his majority interest in PE to the private equity firm Boston Ventures earlier this year and Loomis, will apparently be just a few employees from the old PE to be retained in any position related to the race team once the merger is finalized.
The merger is leading to a minor skirmish at GEM as well, as Elliott Sadler, who has driven the number 19 Dodge for the team for the last two years, was notified Christmas Eve that his services would no longer be needed. In his place, A.J. Allmendinger will take over the wheel, after having run GEM’s #10 car at the end of the season to its best finishes of the season. On Friday, it was reported that Sadler’s attorney, John Buric, filed notice in Iredell County (N.C.) Court claiming breach of contract on the part of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. The papers were filed on New Year’s Eve, and give Sadler until January 20 to file an actual complaint, if he is unable to reach a satisfactory settlement with the team. Sadler’s contract had just been extended by GEM in May, and now it seems that contract extension is null and void.
Why Sadler can’t be retained to run the 43 car is a mystery to me. Personally, I think he would be a great fit to help ease the pain of seeing the car running for someone other than Petty Enterprises in 2009. Reed Sorenson was signed to drive the 10 car, and I don’t understand why he can’t remain in that car instead of being placed in the 43. But, that is just my opinion.
John Andretti summed up his thoughts on the merger, and the end of Petty Enterprises as we know it, like this. “I walk by my grandfather clock every day…I'd like to be the last guy to win for Petty Enterprises if I was driving for them next year. And only for a short period of time, because I'd like to see them win again and again and again.”
The 43 car may one day win again, but it just won’t be the same, because it won’t be driven by a Petty, or owned by a Petty.
I just hope that as we move forward in the history of the sport, we never lose sight of just what Petty Enterprises was…and what it meant to the sport as we know it.
I challenge all fans, old and young, to think of your favorite Petty memory, and make sure to pass it along to your fellow fans, your friends, and the next generation of fans who come along to the sport.
The Petty’s are a piece of history…and we wouldn’t have the sport that we love and know if it weren’t in a large part for what that family has done for racing.
Farewell Petty Enterprises. And thank you for all you have done for not only the sport, but for the fans, over the last 60 years.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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