The famed No. 43, the legendary Petty blue and everything that NASCAR's "King" Richard Petty helped to produce in his legendary 200-win and seven-championship career at Petty Enterprises seems to be slipping fast.The team released 35 to 39 more employees this week on top of over over 30 that were let go immediately following the Sprint Cup season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, bringing the total to nearly 70 people. ESPN says roughly 54 people remain at the shop.
Those 54 people are apparently waiting on any bit of good news that may come their way in terms of their employment -- and that news might just involve a merger with Gillette-Evernham Motorsports. Such a deal would see the famous No. 43 and possibly 2000 Sprint Cup champ Bobby Labonte move to the GEM stable to create a four-car team.
ESPN's David Newton said a possibility remains that the merger would happen and Labonte move to the GEM No. 41 Target ride while A.J. Allmendinger takes over the No. 43.
Petty's problems come directly from the fact that the team lacks full-season support for the two teams it wants to race in 2009 -- Labonte's No. 43 and a car for the young Chad McCumbee. General Mills left the team at the end of 2008 and will sponsor Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer in 2009.
Even more surprising is that a face of Petty Enterprises no longer associates himself with the team.
Kyle Petty, Richard's son who has driven for the team and served as the team's CEO from 1998 until early this season, said Monday that he's no longer an influence or an employee of the team his father co-owns.
In the article, Kyle said that when Boston Ventures invested in the team in the first part of 2008, it ousted him from being CEO and the team said that his driving services would no longer be needed in 2009.
Granted the decision wasn't too hard to make -- Petty hasn't won a race since 1995, and PE has a whole hasn't won a race since 1999 -- but its still pretty shocking to know that one of the most well-liked faces of the garage area not only got ousted from his father's team but will apparently be ride-less in 2009.
Before the season's penultimate race at Phoenix, we talked about how Petty could be looking at his final career race in NASCAR. He is scheduled to run the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.
Obviously, I don't expect Kyle to disappear from the NASCAR world -- he's a go-to guy for the beat writers, has the small television contract with TNT and, in my opinion, should be a constant member of a NASCAR broadcast team -- but the dire straits for PE sure are interesting.
Could we be seeing the end of NASCAR's winningest organization? At this day and age, that seems entirely possible.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-11-2008 @ 12:37PM
CJ said...
I have absolutely NO sympathy whatsoever for what's happening to the Petty's or Bobby Labonte. I think the Petty's got so focused on other things, such as their charity, which dont get me wrong it's a great thing, but was it worth the cost of a sixty year traditional legacy team? Kyle should be ashamed of himself for what he did to Petty Enterprises and im so happy to see he got canned and replaced, as i said if Petty Enterprises ever had a chance to move up, it would have to kick Kyle out of the car. Richard did all he could with his image to keep it afloat for as long as he did, but he's to blame for not only selling it off to Boston Ventures, which i thought they wouldnt be able to find sponsorship for that car, but for letting Kyle run that organization and let him keep putting guys like Jeff Green and John Andretti in that 43 car as long as he did. I understand Adam Petty was the future and i know that was a tough loss, but the Petty's gave up on racing when they should've soldiered on and been after a guy like Carl Edwards or Jimmie Johnson to put in the 45 and 43. And i hope i never hear Kyle say he only races to draw attention to the charity, because ill puke if i hear it! You should be out there because your not only competitive, but you do it for a love of it. All he's been doing the past few years has been embarassing himself out there!
And as for Bobby Labonte, i blame himself for his situation too! I thought he had the opportunity to resurrect his career when i know for a fact that RCR wanted him badly too go with Cheerios, and he resigned with that lousy organization. I think Childress put off signing a driver for as long as he could, and now it's too late because Childress had to sign that loser Casey Mears. I'd love to see a swap of Bobby Labonte with Mears and send Mears to the crappy team of EGR. It's really ashame that not only did the Petty's ruin their career and name, they also ruined Bobby Labonte's too!
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1-04-2009 @ 11:55AM
Dixie said...
You certainly are a mouthy M___ F___'er. You know nothing of the struggles of the Pettys. Next time you see a child who life will end all too soon, or remain handicaped for ever, give em' a good kick.