Petty bringing race experience to Indianapolis 500
April 6, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -The Richard Petty racing experience is coming to a new venue next month - the Indianapolis 500.
And this is no ride-along, publicity stunt or gimmick.
The King of NASCAR plans to take his first crack at winning IndyCars' crown jewel by putting one of his former drivers, John Andretti, in the cockpit of an open-wheel car co-owned with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
``I'm not here just to be having fun,'' Petty said during Monday's announcement. ``I'm serious about this stuff. So we come here for a serious deal.''
To Cup fans, seeing Petty with an IndyCar will be a strange sight.
Petty won seven points titles in NASCAR and retired as the series' all-time leader in victories (200) and poles (127). He won a record seven Daytona 500s and in 1967 incredibly won 27 races including 10 straight.
Clearly, the 71-year-old North Carolina native is a born-and-bred NASCAR man. His late father, Lee, won three Cup titles. His son, Kyle, was still driving last season, and Petty also gives paying Cup fans thrills with those ride-alongs.
So why is he suddenly getting involved with IndyCars?
After merging his family owned Petty Enterprises with Gillett Evernham Motorsports this season, Richard Petty started looking for new opportunities. Indianapolis, which he always considered hallowed ground, was the top option.
In fact, if Andretti drives well May 24, it might be enough to delay Petty's arrival at one of the Cup series biggest races - the Coca-Cola 600, which will be run the same day in Charlotte.
``If he (Andretti) is leading the race, I ain't leaving, OK?'' Petty said.
Petty's new car will have an old look, though.
It features the familiar sleek red-and-light blue paint scheme, his old number, 43, and comes with all the usual trimmings except a roof, the stock-car frame and that famous STP logo.
``I don't think there were any discussions on the paint scheme,'' said Petty, who joked the car's colors were so bright he needed his trademark sunglasses to see it. ``The 43 and the paint scheme were going to be automatic if I was going to be involved.''
The decision means three current NASCAR owners - Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and Petty - will compete in Indy.
It also gives Petty a chance to reunite with A.J. Foyt, the four-time Indy winner and 1972 Daytona champion. Foyt also owns an IndyCar team.
Now more than four decades and a whole generation of IndyCars after Foyt tried to entice the tall, lanky Petty to get into an open-wheel car, Petty is finally coming to the 2.5-mile oval to compete in the speedway's signature race.
Indy Racing League fans will embrace Petty's entry for another reason: They'll get to see the 46-year-old nephew of 1969 race winner Mario Andretti attempt to make his 10th career Indy start. His best finish, fifth, came in 1991.
And it will turn the month of May into a family reunion.
Mario Andretti's grandson, 22-year-old Marco, will also try to qualify for the race. He drives for Andretti Green Racing, which is co-owned by Michael Andretti, Marco's father.
The twin brothers, Mario and Aldo, John's father, are expected to be here, too.
In fact, it was John Andretti who spent a year trying to get the deal in place. He has already driven for two of the most famous names in Indy circles, Andy Granatelli and Foyt, and drove for Petty's NASCAR team from 1998 till the middle of the 2003 season.
``For me, driving for two icons and driving for people who have won championships and won races is different than driving for guys who haven't because they understand the trials,'' John Andretti said. ``I remember when we were out in Phoenix one time and things weren't going very well, and Richard came over, patted me on the head and said, 'Don't worry, it's gonna be all right.' And we went out and won the pole.
``Our goal is going to be to make him late to Charlotte.''
Andretti has been driving for Front Row Motorsports on the Cup circuit, starting the first seven races this season without a top-10 finish. He said that team will need to find a replacement driver for the two points races he expects to miss - Darlington and Charlotte - before returning at Dover.
But if Petty's first foray into IndyCars delivers a victory, it may not be the last appearance for Petty at an IndyCar event.
``The basic deal right now is that it's an isolated deal,'' he said. ``If it was at Homestead or something else, I probably wouldn't be here. But this is the Indy 500, and the best way to get me involved (in IndyCars) is winning the race. Then I'll be there.''
I say its' precisely a publicity stunt. This team has no shot at winnings this race.
They can't even break to top 10 in a Cup race with 3 fucking cars running every single week.
I say its' precisely a publicity stunt. This team has no shot at winnings this race.
They can't even break to top 10 in a Cup race with 3 fucking cars running every single week.
I don't think so since it really doesn't take much to field a Indy team these days since everything is the same with all the teams from engines to chassis and since it pays so well all you need to do is make the field and your gonna make money.
Could we see STP coming back ?
Stock car legend Petty ready for 1st run at Indy
April 29, 2009
The King is coming to Indy.
And Richard Petty is bringing an Andretti along for the ride.
Petty. Andretti.
The family names alone fill pages of stock car and IndyCar history books. Now two of the most famous names in auto racing will again be united at one of the sport's most famous tracks.
For Petty, the driver long synonymous with NASCAR, the Indianapolis 500 offers a whole new kind of racing style and pageantry. More than 50 years after making his NASCAR debut, Petty will be a rookie at next month's Indianapolis 500, albeit as an owner.
``You've got to be there to really appreciate just how big a show it is,'' Petty said.
Petty got his first taste of the open cockpit 33-car field last year. The tradition and atmosphere were enough to convince the winningest driver in NASCAR history to put on his sunglasses and black hat and get to work on entering a car in this year's race.
He's going with John Andretti behind the wheel. Andretti drove for Petty Enterprises on the Cup circuit and recorded the last win for that team in Martinsville back in 1999. Andretti is the nephew of former 500 winner Mario Andretti and cousin of longtime race regular, Michael Andretti.
John Andretti was the first driver to compete in the Indy 500 and the Cup's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. IndyCar's premier race now starts later, making the double an impossibility for drivers. But not for an owner like Petty, who plans to attend the races in Indianapolis and at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.
``It's going to be easier on me than on the driver,'' he said.
Petty and Andretti tried to find a sponsorship deal to get them in last year's 500, but it never materialized. They found a sponsor this year for No. 43 car that is co-owned with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
``I'd still be at Indy, but now it's special because I'm going to Indy in the 43 and I'm going to Indy with Richard,'' Andretti said. ``In my mind, he's still the biggest name in NASCAR.''
Petty is still as much a presence at Cup tracks as Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson even though he never found the success in ownership that he did as the sport's greatest driver. He won seven Cup titles and is the series' career leader in wins (200) and poles (127). He also won a record seven Daytona 500s before he retired in 1992.
His stock car commitments kept him from Indianapolis each May. But Andretti always chirped away at his boss at how special it was to race on the 2.5-mile oval. Sure, Cup racing had come to the Brickyard in the 1990s, so Petty was familiar with the pagoda and the bricks and the history that makes Indianapolis special to so many drivers.
But Indy has a different flavor in May.
``Every year that I drove the 43 in the Cup series, the month of May would come around and I'd talk about Indianapolis the whole month,'' Andretti said. ``I think he was a little bit tired of hearing about it. Hopefully, he's going to have fun at it.''
Andretti will make his 10th career Indy start and he's never finished better than fifth (1991). He has only two career Cup wins and no top-10s this season in nine starts, and will miss points races in Darlington and Charlotte before returning at Dover. He's not anywhere near title contention, so his absences won't really hurt.
Petty and Andretti both say this isn't a publicity stunt. They're going to the Speedway intending to field a competitive car and go for the win. No Andretti driver has won a race since Mario in 1969, though Michael Andretti has won as an owner.
``People have seen us together at other places so they might as well see us in Indy,'' John Andretti said. ``We've been to Indy before together with the roof on so now we're going to run the convertible and do it different.''
Petty is calling the run at Indianapolis a ``one-shot deal.''
Who knows, though? A Petty-Andretti win, or a more likely a strong run, could give a boost to both their careers and make them want to take the trip to Indy for a regular run each May.
``If you're going to go,'' Petty said, ``go for the big show.''
Petty enjoys 1st competitive day as IndyCar owner
May 9, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Richard Petty got a full immersion into Indianapolis 500 competition on Saturday.
There were tricky winds, delays between qualifying rounds and all those tenuous moments his team debated whether to send John Andretti onto the track. The visit even came with a ruling more reminiscent of Petty's NASCAR days - Justin Wilson's early penalty for failing post-qualifying inspection.
Maybe the seven-time Cup champion can't escape those stock-car roots after all, even when he's trying a new venture.
Still, The King of NASCAR seemed right at home on the classic 2.5-mile oval with his old friend Andretti driving on Pole Day as an IndyCar owner.
We finally, finally, got to come to the biggest race there is here,'' Petty said. ``Just to be around the crowd, seeing the cars and stuff, I think what fascinated me about the Indy deal is the cars more than maybe the people or the circumstances.''
It's not as if Petty is a newcomer to the track.
Petty's pilgrimage to Indy began when his father, Lee, brought his teenage son here in the mid-50s. Later in his career, Richard Petty returned to do autograph sessions and sponsorship appearances or to mingle with friends such as A.J. Foyt, who tried to coax him into driving a car. Last year, Petty even showed up as a spectator.
But this was a completely different environment.
For the first time in his long and illustrious racing career, Petty took a break from NASCAR's race day preparations in Darlington to watch the familiar Petty blue-and-red No. 43 car with the unfamiliar open cockpit drive around the historic oval. He headed back to the race Saturday afternoon.
Petty was his usual self throughout the day in a racing community that welcomed his arrival.
He wore a white cowboy hat, a blue oxford shirt, a jacket and, of course, those trademark sunglasses. He cracked jokes and reflected on the old days, even telling a story about the time Foyt handed him a pair of shoes so he could get into a car. They were size 7 and Petty wears 11 1/2.
It's good to have him here,'' Andretti said after running nine laps with a best speed of 218.538 mph. ``He brings a lot of people around him. He had a really good time, and that's what's important. He's done enough in his life he doesn't have to come, but to have him here is great.''
Petty noticed other changes around the track.
There's now part of a golf course on the track's infield. They added SAFER barriers to protect drivers. And those wooden garages Petty remembers so vividly have been replaced by concrete buildings.
The first time we really came to watch the qualifying and stuff, wasn't none of this modern stuff here,'' he said. They still had the old garage areas and it was like - I told them it was sort of like me going out behind the house, looked like a bunch of barns for horses and cows and stuff. Then you come back and you see all the deals of modernizing the racetrack. I guess time took care of everything.''
Even turning Petty, finally, into an IndyCar competitor.
Until Saturday, the first of four days of qualifying, Petty's only competitive events here had come in NASCAR's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
He plans to return for the Indy 500 on May 24. Otherwise, this could be the first and only time Petty finds himself coming here with something at stake.
This was sort of a one-shot deal, guys,'' he said.
But there is one thing that could keep Petty coming back.
If we come up and win the race,'' Petty said, drawing laughter. ``Circumstances can change. If we had a little success here, we'd be liable to get a little more interested.''