Petty Enterprises struggled throughout 2001, missing races and running at the back of the pack, and that is, perhaps, a sign of the times in NASCAR more than anything else. We've seen it happen before: A struggling former champion, beset by the youthful vigor and deep talent that has come to define his particular sport, hits rock bottom and attempts to climb back to the top.
Richard Petty stopped driving in 1992 and even then he was a decade past being consistently competitive. A younger driver would step in, benefit from the King's wisdom and guiding hand, win a race or two, and put Petty Enterprises back at the top. The King might be down as a driver, but Richard Petty, team owner, would be right back on his throne, once and forever the King of NASCAR. It seemed so simple.
We know now, nearly a decade since Petty retired as a driver, that it's not so cut and dried. Petty Enterprises has shown but glimpses of its former self in the nine seasons since the King retired as driver.
Among the miserable statistics: the failure to crack the Top 10 in Winston Cup points since a ninth-place finish in 1996; three wins in the nine seasons since Richard retired as driver; and the abysmal performances, week after week, that defined the 2001 season.
The story of Petty Enterprises is a complex one. It's the story of a business trying to operate in the shadow of the sport's first true icon. But try as it may, Petty Enterprises will never live up to its namesake. Yes, it's a strange little paradox: The King's very own business, the one he led to greatness, will never live up to the King himself.
At the very core of the matter, however, Richard Petty is a former champion whose business is facing tough times, and he knows it. And, significantly, he's doing something about it.
SetbacksTo appreciate where Petty Enterprises is going-"If you walk through and talk to people and see things, it's just a completely different place," says Richard-we must look at where it's been recently.
Petty Enterprises agreed early to become part of Dodge's re-entry into NASCAR for the 2001 season, becoming the first organization to join the automaker. Instead of a shot in the arm for the Petty organization, the move proved to be a setback. Other factors coincided with the switch from Pontiacs to Dodges, and contributed to the struggles: Robbie Loomis, one of the sport's bright, young crew chiefs, left Petty Enterprises at the end of 1999 to become crew chief for Jeff Gordon; the Pettys added a third team in 2001, with Buckshot Jones running out of the Pettys' Randleman, North Carolina shops; and Kyle Petty's son Adam, who was expected to help re-position the organization, died in a crash at New Hampshire International Speedway in the spring of 2000.
Then, that same year, the first season after Loomis' departure, John Andretti's performance in Petty's No. 43 slipped from 17th in points the previous season, with one win, 10 Top 10s and three Top 5s, to 23rd in points, with no wins, no Top 5s, and just two Top 10s. Part of that performance, of course, can be attributed to Adam's death, which cast a pall over the organization.
The struggles in 2001, meanwhile, were often monumental. Andretti was the top performer among the organization's three drivers, but Andretti finished 31st in points, besting Buckshot Jones' 41st and Kyle's 43rd. Andretti managed the only two Top-10 finishes for Petty Enterprises in 2001 and had two the previous season. Over the last two seasons, in fact, Petty drivers had a grand total of five Top-10 finishes.