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I thought that this day would never come. In all the years that I have followed Nascar Racing, I have heard time and time again, ” Petty Enterprises is staying in Level Cross North Carolina, PERIOD!” that was always the answer anytime someone in the press asked either Richard or Kyle Petty about possibly moving the entire racing organization south to Mooresville, the home of Nascar Racing. So what is different now?

Petty Enterprises has been in Level Cross North Carolina for over Sixty years. Started by The King’s father, Lee Petty, It has grown from a small one car operation to the multi car big money operation that it is now. The move was just a necessary evil if you are going to be competitive in today’s racing community. Mooresville N.C. has been the unofficial home of Nascar for years and years, all of the support companies are there, including testing facilities and wind tunnels. Also There has always been an underlying problem of getting the best technician’s and engineers, when taking a job at petty enterprises always meant you either had to move or commute more than an hour to and from work everyday. No matter what happened you could always hear Richard Petty saying that it will always be a home town family organization. I guess that after the number four car team, which was based in southern Virginia and owned by Morgan-McClure Racing, moved south a few years ago and improved its competition, Petty enterprises saw the writing on the wall.

Adam Petty

Not even the Signing of a top name Champion like Bobby LaBonte could get the Petty’s out of their rut. Frankly I am glad that this is taking place, I was a fan of The King of Nascar since I was a little boy watching it on television in my mothers living room. For years as an adult I have been embarrassed by the level of competition that was achieved by the organization. Losing Adam Petty in a horrible crash during Busch series practice at New Hampshire International Speedway in 2000 didn’t help matters any. It’s hard to recover from that I know, and I had great hopes that Adam was going to be the next big Petty star. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kyle, But he is just not the chip off the ole block that Adam was starting to look like. Someone once said that it skips a generation. Maybe so, but we will never know in this case as Adam is no longer with us.

State of the Art Digs 

All in all, I hope that this is a new beginning for Petty enterprises. They are occupying the facilities vacated by Robert Yates Racing. These new facilities are like moving out of an old farm house and moving into a new four thousand square foot custom built home if it were you and me. The Level Cross facilities are nice and have served the Petty’s well, but there ain’t no comparison to the state of the art digs that RYR left behind. Moving has already begun, most of the fab shop is in transit as I write this. Kyle’s race car will leave the Level Cross facility and head to Daytona for testing and then return to the new facility in Mooresville. When asked about the move Richard Petty was a little emotional, understandably so after so many years in Level Cross. Richard said ” The deal is you’ve been somewhere for sixty years. Born in the house right up from here, and never went nowhere. Then to be able to take the whole racing complex, as far as all the equipment and stuff, and move to another location, even if its just down the road, it would be just as hard to take. So like I’ve told everybody, your moving our body, but you ain’t moving our heart. you know what I mean? Your heart is always going to be here because this is home.”

Well lets start a new chapter in Petty enterprises shall we? They didn’t do too bad if you look at Bobby LaBonte, he finished 18th in driver and owner points, but kyle finished way down in 35th in 07. If this move gets them to be at least twice as good in 08 then Kyle would end 08 in 17th and Bobby in the top ten, making the chase. I know that those are stats based on nothing but lets wait and see OK?

Other News

In other news that you might have heard, The Penske Racing Team of Kurt Busch was allowed to transfer its 07 owner points to the Penske Racing Number 77 team of Sam Hornish Jr. enabling him to be in the top 35 to start the 08 season. Why do this? Well that means even if Sam Hornish Jr puts in a really bad Qualifying lap, he can get in the race by the merits of having owners points in the top 35. I don’t like it, I think that it stinks to high heaven. If you hired him to drive a car in the newly Renamed “Sprint Cup Series”, you should start him like everyone else has had to start, With no points! This rule needs to change, but that ain’t gonna happen now until the 09 season because the cats out of the bag now with this points transfer. Don’t read anything into this that ain’t there though, I am not a fan of Penske Racing, but I don’t dislike them either, I just think that this is a stupid rule no matter who it affects.

Lets analyze this for a second shall we? Sam Hornish Jr. is a Three time Indy Racing League champion. He will be debut full time in Nascar Sprint Cup in 08. We all know how Juan Pablo Montoya did in 07 right. He did a pretty good job for an Indy Car driver. Is this an attempt by the ALMIGHTY SANCTIONING BODY to make some story lines for the up coming season. To me? It smells fishy as all get out. I don’t care a dang about Sam Hornish Jr., I don’t care about any Indy car drivers coming over here. What I do care about is favoritism being shown through the rule book. I know that it has been done before but I’m sick to death of Nascar chasing the almighty dollar by pumping up the story lines. Nuff said, I’m out!

Stay safe out there and remember that winter has a lot of tricks yet up its sleeve. Slow down and help each other out.

peace