by richard teague tinynascars@yahoo.com
First, I want to give my condolences to the France Family for their loss of Bill France Jr. I pray that he can form a series from the drivers that have gone before him. Big Bill made everything that we have come to know and love about NASCAR. Since 1972, when Bill Jr. took over, he has brought it into every part of the country and started the changes that have made it a household name for years. The Winston Million Dollar Race and the name Winston Cup, with the championship fund at the end of the season, rose from under a million to more than two million dollars. He signed the deal with CBS that brought the first complete live race to television for the 1979 Daytona 500.
Besides Richard Petty winning, Donnie and Cale battling it out on and off the track gave the program such high ratings and press coverage that Bill had no problem getting other TV networks to sign on for the next 21 years. It’s amazing how the races were only second thoughts for sports shows before, and today NASCAR has multi-billion dollar TV deals. He knew what it took to take racing in the South and go nationwide. In 2000, when told of his cancer, he put Mike Helton in charge. Then, in 2003, he made Brian the top man. He always wanted the best for the drivers, teams, owners and fans, and I want to thank him very much for the sport that I love.
Kyle Petty, is he retiring, stepping back or taking a vacation? Kyle has decided to take on a job in a booth and get out of the car with TNT. He has been working, or rather learning, the new avenue in the Busch (soon to be something else) series for the past few weeks and it’s time to move up to Cup. Kyle didn’t fully intend to enter the world of racing when he got started. He had several scholarship offers from colleges after his performance in high school sports, such as football and basketball. In 1979, after his grandfather Lee and dad Richard, he finally decided that he would keep the family tradition to race and won his first race in the ARCA series in a Dodge.
After his win, the move to Winston Cup was planned, but, like so many young guys, he couldn’t make a race and he crashed in qualifying over the next several tries. With what could be called a last bullet in his gun, but really a remaining car from Petty Enterprises with the #42 STP on it, he made the August race in (where else?) Talladega. I guess he had more room to travel and got the car around the track because he got the 18th starting position and finished at a very respectable 9th, his best in five races. His next five years with Petty didn’t bring any wins, but he did get 4 top fives and 28 top tens, but alas no wins.
In 1985, Kyle went to drive for the Woods Brothers, a move that made me wonder what Richard must have thought. It was with the Woods that Petty got his first (and not only) win. One in 1986 and again in 1987 at Richmond and Charlotte respectively. The four years in the #7 7-Eleven and the #21 Citgo cars got him 19 top fives and 48 top tens, putting him well on his way to making a name for himself as a Winston Cup driver. Then he made another team move to Felix Sabates and back to his #42 car with three different sponsors for the next eight seasons. While starting out in a Dodge for a few years, and then to Fords, he is now in a GM Pontiac and is also a well-accomplished driver with six wins, 28 top fives and a remarkable 69 top tens!
All these stats came in the first 6 years. In 1997 he is the prodigal son in his return to Petty Enterprises, where he is seemingly winding down his career. Kyle Petty, for me, has always been the anti-establishment, far-out kind of dude that you wouldn’t be scared to go up to and say, “hey dude you want to burn one?” Maybe he would or maybe he wouldn’t, but he got my respect as a driver and a person long ago and will continue to have it from now on. He is the last of the racing empire of Lee and Richard. With the tragic loss of Adam in 2000, there is only the memory of this style of driver but making room for new ones is probably for the best.
No he isn’t gone yet, he’s just out for five races while he’s in the broadcast booth. In one week he’ll be doing it from the car, which will be real interesting to say the least. CTS driver Chad McCumbee will fill this week while ol’ you-know-who (John “No Drive’m” Andretti) will do the other four. Then Kyle should be back for the rest of the season. Kyle says that one day he’ll give it up, but “it’s not that time.” When the time does come for Petty to retire, I think he will do just that and not be one of these part-time drivers like Martin and Elliott. Kyle is deeply involved with his other favorite thing, the Victory Junction Gang Camp, which has so much meaning for him and Pattie, that you know he’ll have a full time job with the greatest rewards of his career.
Well Tony Stewart is using his favorite line again: “racing people with respect.” This time it’s all about Kurt Busch. Busch puts it, “I raced the guy all day long and for some reason he just didn’t give an inch.” Okay Kurt, is a guy supposed to just pull up and let ya go by just any ol’ time you want to pass? Tony thinks that your diving is worth a million bucks, so he wants to make it worth your while. To take it to the pits is a real dumb thing, even if you do admit that, it still don’t make it right. Maybe that’s why NASCAR parked your butt the rest of the race. Stewart said long ago, after his run in with Matt Kenseth, that he was going to drive just like Matt and Kurt. You ain’t no different. You can relax because Tony said he won’t get even any time soon, or rather, the next race. But you can believe that Tony Stewart is becoming another Jimmy Spencer: “He don’t forget!”
Now let me see if I can get some of this straight. Dale Jr. is going to Joe Gibbs Racing and Joe don’t want no beer, so Visa is the new sponsor and JGR is talking with Chevrolet about renewing their deal. In the meantime, Toyota is trying to woo them over to their cars. So if I read this right, we will see Junior in a #8 VISA Toyota next season, is that right? Also, if I hear things right again, Michael Waltrip Racing and Penske Racing are working on a partnership to combine the numbers 2, 12, 55, 44 and the double zero cars in Toyotas. Well that’s nice, but that would be a five car team, which NASCAR ain’t allowing anymore. Since Dale Jarrett just got one more year on his contract, I guess Michael could sit out one season, is that right?
The funny thing is that Gibbs ain’t heard a lot about much of this, and even if he did, it ain’t going to be known for some time, at least until Kelly breaks the news. Junior is busy talking to Richard Childress, where everyone with a brain says he’s going and no one is saying it’s a done deal yet, but we know it is, don’t we? I am still pulling for Bobby Ginn and feel that would be Earnhardt’s best move, although RCR could, one day, become RCRJR. What ya think? If you need to contact me you can do it at tinynascars@yahoo.com and remember, If it ain’t NASCAR, It ain’t s**t!
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