Petty's recruiting effort has his team back in hunt

By CHRIS JENKINS
AP SPORTS WRITER
Kyle Petty's improbable recruiting effort finally paid off.
For three years, Petty nagged Bobby Labonte to come drive the family team's famed No. 43 car.
He'd stop Labonte on the streets of their subdivision in Trinity, N.C., where Petty jogs and Labonte rides his bicycle. They'd talk on airplane rides. One day, they ran into each other getting a bite to eat at Panera.
Petty delivered the same plea every time: "Come drive that 43, man."
Petty was joking -- at least he thought he was. Why would Labonte, the 2000 series champion, leave an elite team such as Joe Gibbs Racing for a once-dominant team that has fallen on two decades worth of hard times?
Turns out, the chance to help turn around Petty Enterprises proved more attractive to Labonte than Petty anticipated.
"He had people throwing money at him, fortune and fame and houses and cars and all kinds of stuff," Petty said. "But in the end, this is where he chose to come."
Labonte's move is the latest and most high-profile step in a recent talent infusion that has the Petty people talking turnaround.
Other top recruits
Robbie Loomis, who left the Pettys to become Jeff Gordon's crew chief in 2000, has returned to become the team's executive vice president. Todd Parrott, who won a championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999, will be Labonte's crew chief. They join Paul Andrews, another championship-winning crew chief, who came to the team last season.
Petty calls the four men "cornerstones" who form the foundation for something the team hasn't had in years: hope.
"In a short period of time, morale really went through the ceiling," Petty said.
Labonte and Petty both were involved in crashes in the season-opening Daytona 500, but Labonte showed the team's potential in the middle of the race by climbing into the top 10 and staying there, weaving his way to as high as sixth.
Trying to be consistent
Asked to list reasonable goals for the season, Petty talks about trying to develop chemistry and becoming more consistent in the first half, then going after steady top-five and top-10 finishes in the second half.
And this: "I think Bobby can win races," Petty said.
A Petty car hasn't visited Victory Lane since 1999, and the team, which won 10 championships from 1954-79, has only three victories since 1984.
Richard Petty said the team lost its edge in the 1980s, when new team owners with big ideas and even bigger budgets entered NASCAR.
"A lot of them also looked a little further down the line in the future than we did," Richard Petty said. "We always did everything out of Level Cross [N.C.] in the backyard and we were fairly successful with the thing. Then it started being a bigger and bigger business. It started going and bringing more people in, more money, more technology, that kind of stuff. We still sat there in the backyard. By the time we got ready to do something about it, we were so far behind on our money and our engineering and all that stuff it's just taken us a little time to get going."
Technological disadvantage
The team widely is perceived to be at a major technological disadvantage to rival megateams such as Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Racing and Gibbs, but Labonte said the dropoff really isn't dramatic. An engine deal with another Dodge team, Evernham Motorsports, has boosted horsepower.
"They might not have the luxury stuff like some teams, but as far as having the stuff to work with, they've got it," Labonte said. "That's not a problem."
Petty suspects the chance to help lead a team back to greatness played a key role in Labonte's decision to join the team. Labonte seems to have embraced the role.
"When I quit driving it one day, I want to see 25 guys in line wanting to drive it because it must be a great car," Labonte said. "You want people to want to drive the car. That would be better than any money you could get to have that feeling."
Long-term goal
That's Petty's vision, too. The team's long-term goal is to become good enough to attract a hotshot young driver.
"Then we have a Kurt Busch, we have a Ryan Newman, we have somebody of that caliber and somebody who can step in and drive the second car," Petty said.
Petty's son, Adam, was supposed to be that young hotshot. But he was killed in a racing accident in 2000, sending the Petty family and the team into a spiral of grief. A talented driver who could charm the checkbook off potential sponsors, Adam was supposed to be the future of Petty Enterprises.
"If Adam was here, I probably wouldn't be driving today," Kyle Petty said.
Petty said the presence of Labonte and the other newcomers has boosted morale in the team's shop, especially among longtime employees who grieved for Adam with the family.
"The guys at the shop were here when Adam's accident happened, the majority of those guys," Kyle Petty said. "So it's huge for them to think, OK, five years ago for us, where we were at, and then where we are at this year at Daytona is a huge difference."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.