PETTY ENTERPRISES Getting Bobby Labonte as teammate buoys Kyle

The Petty group has been lackluster for quite some time.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
For Kyle Petty, getting Bobby Labonte as a teammate has opened up all kinds of possibilities -- not the least of which is having a couple of real good co-drivers for January's sports car race at Daytona.
"I'd like to be part of putting something together," Petty said, smiling. "He and [brother] Terry [Labonte] already have, so maybe I can con them into letting me be a part of it."
Fun. That's something Petty Enterprises has been lacking for years -- along with cars capable of winning NASCAR Nextel Cup races.
The last time a car representing NASCAR's first dynasty won a Cup race was in 1999. The pioneer team has entered 2,640 races since patriarch Lee Petty ran in his first NASCAR race in 1949, and it has 268 victories -- 198 of them by Richard Petty, Lee's son.
King Richard won his last two races in 1984, but he was driving for Mike Curb. So only three of the Petty Enterprises victories have come since 1983.
Fortunes changed
Worse, the team based in Randleman, N.C., in a sprawling race complex near the house in which Lee Petty lived, has not even been competitive for most of the last 10 years.
The King remains the active owner, making final decisions on the big questions, but Kyle, his son, has been running the day-to-day operation and trying everything he can think of to turn things around.
"This sport is probably more competitive than any other professional sport," Kyle Petty said. "When you get behind on some things, getting caught up again is tough. We've struggled with things for a while, but we've never given up on making it better and getting back to running up front and winning races."
Kyle Petty and the team were focused on making that resurgence several years ago behind his son, fourth-generation driver Adam Petty. But the promising youngster was killed in a crash during a routine practice session in May 2000 at New Hampshire International Speedway. He was 19.
Devastating loss
It was a devastating loss to everyone involved in the Petty team and to nearly everyone in NASCAR, many of whom had watched the gangly youngster with the infectious grin grow up.
But Richard and Kyle chose to carry on, with Kyle and wife Pattie adding the daunting task of starting the Victory Junction Gang Camp for ill and disabled kids, near the race shop, in Adam's memory.
That only added to Kyle's daily burden, and the team continued to struggle.
But there's no give-up in the Pettys.
All along, Kyle insisted the team was working toward something, building for the future. Two big steps in that evolution came recently.
First, the team signed Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon's highly respected crew chief, as its new vice president of racing operations. Loomis, the crew chief for John Andretti when he won that 1999 race for the Pettys, is finishing out the season as a consultant to Hendrick Motorsports. But he also has been consulting with Petty since signing on in September, and will begin his new job full time in December.
Labonte's move
Then, last week, Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion, obtained his release from the final three years of his contract with the powerful Joe Gibbs Racing team to move to Petty's No. 43 Dodge -- the car King Richard made famous. He replaces journeyman Jeff Green, who is 27th in the season points without a single top-10 finish.
Kyle will remain in the No. 45 -- Adam's number -- as his teammate. Petty goes into Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway 26th in the points, with two top 10s.
Labonte hasn't been that good lately, either. He's 24th in the points, with four top 10s. But he, like the Pettys, has been on top and remains confident the Petty team is ready to take a step up -- soon.
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