by Ron Fleshman  |  About The Author   |  Discuss

With mixed emotions, I read the news about Petty Enterprises today. I’m a little older than most of the readers here, but there has always been something sacred about Petty Enterprises. It starts with the sports one and only king—Richard Petty.

For those of you too young to remember, Richard Petty earned his “King” nickname by winning just about everything there was to win in the 1960’s and 70’s. They were THE Plymouth or Dodge team on the track and the one everyone expected to be at the front of the pack. In the late 70’s, Chrysler moved out of NASCAR and the Petty’s fielded all sorts of GM cars, but they were always remembered for the blazing blue car with the No. 43 on the side.

Petty Enterprises has fallen on hard times the last three decades. After Richard retired, a long list of drivers has had very little success. Many have said they were too cheap to spend the money to field a competitive car, but the truth is they were short on sponsorship and short on engineering. The move back to Dodge several years ago seemed to invigorate the team and the hiring of 2000 Sprint Cup champion gave them new life, but still they weren’t competitive. Even the King’s son, Kyle Petty, found himself as an also-ran. Something had to be done.

Rumblings of finding an outside investor started last year, but nothing came of it. The Pettys moved from their Level Cross, North Carolina shops to the Charlotte area to try to attract more knowledgeable personnel, but nothing worked. Finally, they did what most every team except Hendrick Motorsports has done. They sold out.

It’s a fact of this business of stock car racing that money buys speed, but it also gets you a good sponsor and probably some engineering help. Richard Childress did it years ago. Even Jack Roush and Ray Evernham went in that direction, so it makes sense that the Pettys were next, but it’s a shock to the system.

As our sport becomes more expensive and sponsors are harder to find, the loss of General Mills as a sponsor seemed to have had an impression on the organization. Sponsorship had been difficult for the famous No. 43 car, but more especially the No. 45 car that Kyle drove. The result was the announcement on June 11th that controlling interest in Petty Enterprises had been sold to Boston Ventures, a holding company with a track record for success.

The hope is that Boston Ventures will help bring the needed sponsorship to the two Petty cars and also bring the Petty cars back to being competitive in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. I really hope this is the case. Many of us remember the days when the bright blue Petty cars were battling with the red and white Mercurys of the Wood Brothers every week. We can only hope that happens again, but the Woods have the next move.

If there is another team that needs a hand, it’s the Woods. A single car team that struggles every week to get in the big show, they need to bite the bullet and do what the Pettys did today. They need to find an investor to get them back to the front. Pride and old ideas are strong emotions, but in today’s NASCAR, that’s what it will take.
The history of this sport is all too precious for teams like Petty Enterprises and Wood Brothers Racing to just fade away like Bud Moore Racing Engineering and other pioneers of the sport. You might add Yates Racing to this conversation. The domination of Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs, and Childress should have a challenge. Maybe this move and others to come will hopefully get us back to the time when you just didn’t know who was going to win the race. For too long, the “Big Four” have had a lock on Victory Lane. This may be the start of breaking hat up. At least I hope so.

You can contact Ron at ron.fleshman@verizon.net

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