"What we're trying to do is just get consistent," says Richard. "If we're consistently bad, we at least know what direction to go in. Right now we're not consistent, because we run good one week and run terrible the next five weeks. That's not consistency. If you run good then that's your benchmark and what everybody has got to shoot for."
Richard is an optimist at heart but he's also a realist. Building Petty Enterprises to the prominence it once held in motorsports didn't happen overnight, nor will turning it around occur suddenly. Getting his cars to run consistently in the Top 20, up from the back of the pack, is a reasonable goal for the immediate future, he says. "If you can move from there up to the middle of the field, then that's a pretty big jump at one time, I think."