Petty Enterprises doesn't want sympathy, welfare

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- For a proud racing family, the very family that has in fact been christened no less than racing royalty, it is no small feat to admit that those days are long past.

Not necessarily long gone, because they hope to get them back; but definitely long past.

Kyle Petty admitted as much Friday at Martinsville Speedway, where Petty Enterprises has won a track-record 19 times at NASCAR's highest level of racing. Petty stated that while he believes the organization begun almost 60 years ago by his grandfather, Lee, and made most famous by the incredible driving exploits of his father, Richard, is on the rebound, it still has a long way to go to rejoin the elite in Nextel Cup racing.

Prime investor

Richard Petty said this weekend he is open to the possibility of selling a portion of his family's race team to an interested investor.

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"I think there are A teams, B teams and C teams," Petty said. "It depends on which group you're in. If you're in the C group, you're not really trying to close the gap on the A teams. You're trying to close the gap on the B teams. That's who you focus on.

"The 24 [Jeff Gordon] and 48 [Jimmie Johnson] are top-five teams week in and week out. The 5 [Kyle Busch] is becoming that. Tony Stewart is a top-five car week in and week out. Those are your A teams. B teams can finish somewhere in the top five, but they finish mostly in the top 10 and top 15.

"Then the C teams are the rest of the teams. They can jump up there and have a top-10. They can jump up and have a top-five. They can win a race, but they don't do it consistently."

Petty's analogy was given in response to a question about how much he thinks Petty Enterprises, which fields his No. 45 Dodge and the No. 43 Dodge of driver Bobby Labonte, has closed the gap on the rest of the Nextel Cup teams this season. Heading into Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville, Petty was 32nd in the driver points standings and Labonte, a former Cup champion when driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, was a very respectable 14th.

Labonte placed 21st in the point standings last year, the highest finish for a Petty-owned car since John Andretti finished 17th in 1999. Petty Enterprises has not had a car finish in the top 10 in points for a season since the late Bobby Hamilton ran ninth in 1996.

"To say close the gap, the way I look at it, it's harder to say in four or five races how much you've closed the gap," Petty said. "We've not even got in a rotation yet. I've broken a couple of motors, tore the quarter-panel off at Daytona. Really the two races I've run I've finished 20th and 22nd. That's not closing the gap on anybody. (Continued)