For Petty, stability is fleeting

[Schwartz Fan]

For Petty, stability is fleeting, as it's always been
By Monte Dutton
January 22, 2008 - 6:19PM

Kyle Petty, despite some evidence that time has passed him and his historic NASCAR team by, remains thoroughly modern, steeped in spot-on perspective and insightful. At age 47, Petty could pass for one of the Bellamy Brothers, what with his ponytail and receding hairline.

He’s an old hippie and he don’t know what to do / Should he hang on to the old / Should he drag on to the new …

“I’ll say this,” he said. “Have you ever seen us be stable for a year? When we didn’t change a (restrictor) plate rule, or a spoiler rule, or a tire rule, or when we didn’t change something?”

Regardless of what Brian France says about stability, it’s fleeting. If you’re waiting on NASCAR, you’re backing up, which is one of the reasons why bringing Petty Enterprises back up to speed is much more than a matter of two steps forward, one step back. It’s more like a dozen steps forward, 11 steps back. He’s a sandlapper struggling to make headway.

When Petty finished third in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, it marked his best finish in nearly 10 years. Still, Petty remains one of NASCAR’s originals. As hard as it is to image him as an old-timer, he is one. The difference is that he isn’t frozen in the past. He doesn’t rail about all those young whippersnappers who didn’t pay their dues.

Petty can even laugh about it. Others laugh along with him. Petty’s sense of humor would win the Cool Move of the Race Award in any season.

“Lots of fans are saying, ‘How can you keep up with it when it changes all the time? I can’t keep up with it.’ They (NASCAR) have gotten enough comments to the point where they’ve finally said, ‘OK, let’s just stop.’ It’s time to back it down and see where we’re at,” Petty opined. “But it’s a hard thing, standing here in January, not having ever run the COT (i.e., as of this year, the car) at Charlotte, at Texas, at Vegas, saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to change anything going into the year.’

“How do you know we’re not? How do you know we’re not to going to California, and Vegas, and have some of the worst races we’ve ever had?”

As noted above, stability is fleeting.

“Let’s go back to what the perceived great races of this sport were,” said Petty. “It was Richard Petty and David Pearson and Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker. Throw in one or two other guys. They were lapping people constantly. What happens now is, we all — 43 cars built by different teams — run within a half second of each other. They didn’t used to do that. That’s because the sport has grown more competitive, and as it grows more competitive, it’s less entertaining for the fan. It’s more competitive for those who are actually competing, but it seems less competitive for the fan.”

How so? Petty cited the example of a race at Talladega, where much of the field runs inches apart lap after lap. The sameness of being inches apart can actually get boring.

“I’ll give them that,” he said.

But, he added: “People keep hollering about the good old days. These are the good old days. Ten years from now, we’ll all be talking about how good this was.”

The fact that it’s more competitive doesn’t, by any means, suggest that today’s drivers were better than those mentioned above, Petty quickly added. (His father is, after all, the most successful driver in NASCAR history.)

“Here’s what I believe,” said Petty. “You could take Richard Petty and David Pearson, kick them back to being 25-35 years old, and they’d run with every guy out there. I also believe you could take these guys, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and some of these guys, kick them back to race in Richard Petty’s day, and they’d be just as good as Richard Petty and David Pearson and guys like that … in the right equipment, doing the right things.

“I don’t think the caliber of drivers has changed through the years. The caliber of equipment has changed drastically.”

As much as anyone still hanging around regularly at the racetracks of the land, Kyle Petty knows that of which he speaks.

In that context, he’s as viable as he ever was.



Sports: For Petty, stability is fleeting, as it's always been | petty, old, one : Gaston Gazette

[revvinjim]

But, he added: “People keep hollering about the good old days. These are the good old days. Ten years from now, we’ll all be talking about how good this was.”

Ain't that the truth!