Petty Enterprises

This article is about the defunct NASCAR team. For the team formed from the merge with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, see Richard Petty Motorsports.

Owner(s)	Richard Petty Kyle Petty Boston Ventures
Base	North Carolina
Series	Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series, Craftsman Truck Series
Notable car numbers	34, 42, 43, 44, 45
Notable drivers	Lee Petty Richard Petty Kyle Petty Adam Petty Buddy Baker Pete Hamilton John Andretti Bobby Labonte Carlos Contreras Bobby Hamilton Rick Wilson Jeff Green Bobby Labonte
Notable sponsors	STP, General Mills, Hot Wheels, Sprint, Georgia Pacific, Wells Fargo, Marathon, Coca Cola, Tire Kingdom, Schwans
Manufacturer	Ford, Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet
Opened	1949
Closed	2008
Career
Drivers' Championships	7
Race victories	282

Petty Enterprises was a NASCAR racing team based in Randleman, North Carolina, USA. The team was owned by Richard Petty, his son Kyle Petty, and Boston Ventures. At the time of its folding the team operated the #43 and #45 Dodge Chargers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Petty Enterprises ran from 1949 until 2008. The team closed shop in January 2009 and merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports after sponsorship could not be found for any of the cars in the Petty stable; the merged team took the name Richard Petty Motorsports, adopting a logo similar to that of Petty Enterprises' logo.

Car #43 History

Arguably one of the most recognizable numbers in motorsports, the 43 team debuted in 1949, when Lee Petty formed Lee Petty Engineering and the NASCAR Grand National Division #42. The team's first win came that year in Lee's 5th start at Heidelberg Raceway, with Petty and the team finishing 2nd in points that season. Petty won one race in each of the years 1950 and 1951, before collecting three victories in 1952. 1953 saw the team expand to a multi-car team for the first time, fielding a Plymouth for Jimmie Lewallen at Palm Beach Speedway, who finished 2nd to Petty. Lee grabbed five wins that season and finished second in points before winning the championship in 1954. He followed that with six wins the next season and two more the following year, making him one of the most dominating drivers in the series at that time. In 1957, Petty won 4 races as the team began running additional teams. Tiny Lund, Bill Mutz, and Ralph Earnhardt all ran races with the team, before Bobby Myers was killed in an accident at Darlington Raceway.

Glory Years

Petty's car used for his 1979 Daytona 500 win, on display at Daytona USA in January 2001

From 1954 to 1979, Petty Enterprises won ten championships in NASCAR's premier series. Three of those championships came with Lee Petty driving the #42, and a record seven championships came with Richard Petty driving the #43. The car pictured is a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Show Car prepared by Petty Enterprises to commemorate Richard's 1979 Championship. The car that Richard drove to his sixth Daytona 500 win was similar but with no stripes or sponsor logos on the top half of the car.

Dark Years

From 1980 to 1983, Richard Petty won eight races, which brought his career total to 198 NASCAR wins. At the 1983 Miller High Life 500, Petty's 198th win, the car failed post-race inspection. The car was found to have illegal tires, and an over-sized engine, and Richard's brother Maurice was mostly to blame. Petty was fined $35,000 but the victory was upheld. The incident increased friction at the team, and Richard left Petty Enterprises at year's end. He took the STP sponsorship and the #43 to Mike Curb for 1984–1985, where he scored wins #199 and #200.

For 1984-1985, Petty Enterprises concentrated on Kyle Petty's #7 7-Eleven-sponsored entry. Kyle earned eight top 5's, but no wins during that stretch.

For 1986, Richard Petty returned to the family operation, and Kyle Petty left to drive for the Wood Brothers. The Petty Enterprise team continued to sag in performance, and hit rock bottom in 1989 when Richard failed to qualify for four races. Richard failed to win another race, and retired following the 1992 season.

Resurgence

After Richard Petty's retirement, Rick Wilson took over the renumbered #44 car, but found little success. The car number was changed back to #43, and Busch Series Rookie of the Year Bobby Hamilton was hired in 1995. In 1996, Hamilton earned the team's first victory since 1983 at Phoenix International Raceway. Hamilton won again at Rockingham in 1997. He left the team at season's end to tend to his own race team in the newly formed Craftsman Truck Series, and to drive the #4 for Morgan-McClure Motorsports.

In 1998, journeyman John Andretti was hired, and he gave the team another win at Martinsville (which would ultimately be the final win for Petty Enterprises). Andretti would drive for the team until 2003, with only a second place finish at Bristol. In addition, Kyle returned to the family organization.

The team appeared to be on the rise again with fourth-generation driver Adam Petty joining the team. He made his first Winston Cup start in April 2000, and many experts believed he would be the future of the team. Kyle Petty was planning to move out of the cockpit soon after, and into the full-time ownership role of the team.

Demise

About a month and a half after his first career Winston Cup start, Adam Petty was killed in a crash at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The tragedy deeply effected the team. Kyle Petty took over what was supposed to Adam's #45 car, and drove it for several seasons in his honor. The team lost longtime sponsor STP in mid-2000, and changed to General Mills. The team began a noticeable downward slide, and would never win another race in Cup competition.

John Andretti was released in favor Brazilian driver Christian Fittipaldi, who struggled and was also released. Andretti returned to fill in for a few races. Then Jeff Green took over for 2004-2005. In 2006, the team brought in 2000 Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte and former Hendrick crew chief Robbie Loomis. Many analysts saw this combination as the key to putting Petty Enterprises back into victory lane. The team's first year together showed promise, Labonte finished 21st in the points. In 2007, Labonte improved to 18th in points. In 2008, Labonte fell back to 21st, but posted two top-10 finishes. Labonte left the team before the 2009 season, leaving the car with no driver and no sponsor for 2009.

The team's merger with Gillett Evernham Motorsports moved the #43 over to that team, where it is currently driven by AJ Allmendinger and sponsored by Best Buy, Valvoline, Super 8, and Charter Communications.

Car #44/#45 History

The 44 car in 1997

The #45 was not always part of Petty Enterprises. The car actually started out as the #44 with PE2 which was formed by Kyle Petty in 1997, when he was unable to drive for Petty Enterprises. Sponsored by Hot Wheels, Kyle would not find success running his own operation. In 2000, Kyle merged PE2 into Petty Enterprises. Kyle would be sponsored by Sprint, now running the #45 in honor of his son Adam who was killed during Busch Series practice at New Hampshire International Speedway. From 2003 to 2005, Kyle would pick up Georgia-Pacific and Brawny as his sponsors (the two moving over from the #44 team), but was still unable to bring Petty Enterprises back to its former days. With the addition of both Bobby Labonte and Robbie Loomis in 2006, as well as sponsors Wells Fargo and National Tire & Battery, Petty improved his position to 34th in the points. For 2007, with the passing of Benny Parsons, Kyle would join TNT for six races, dubbed their "Summer Series". During this time, John Andretti returned to the team for four races, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Chad McCumbee made his debut at Pocono Raceway. Before his stint in the booth for TNT, Petty had some significant on-track success, finishing 3rd in the Coca-Cola 600, his first top-5 Cup finish since 1997. After the Centurion Boats at the Glen, Kyle injured his hand in the team's hauler due to punching a desk. Petty would sit out two races while Kenny Wallace and McCumbee filled in. The #45 team finished 35th in the 2007 owners points. [1] Kyle Petty in an interview with NASCAR.com said "I no longer work for the team" when referring to Petty Enterprises.

The #44 returned as a Dodge team in 2001 with sponsorship from Georgia-Pacific and Buckshot Jones driving. In his first year driving the car Jones finished 41st in points, failing to qualify six times and not recording a single top ten finish. Jones returned in 2002 but again struggled, and was released approximately mid-season. Petty Enterprises hired several substitute drivers including Jerry Nadeau, who nearly led the team to victory at Sonoma in June, and Greg Biffle, who ran the last three races.

After being used sparingly over the next season recent Petty signee Christian Fittipaldi took over the car for 2004, but was released.

In 2009, Petty said the #44 would return with McCumbee, but McCumbee said "the plans are up in the air" due to lack of funding. With the recent merger with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, those plans have been completely scrapped and McCumbee is without a ride for 2009. The #44 will instead be taking the place for the #10 at Richard Petty Motorsports, but in a part-time capacity with A. J. Allmendinger driving.

Relocation

Late in the 2007 season, Petty Enterprises moved its shop into the old Robert Yates Racing facility in Mooresville, North Carolina. It would be the first time since the inception of the company that it wouldn't be located in Level Cross, North Carolina. PEI believes that this is necessary to move forward with the team. Richard Petty said , "It's kind of hard for us and the people in the community to accept maybe we're not there anymore. We just feel for us to move forward and keep up with where NASCAR is going, we just felt we had to try to go somewhere else." [2]

Petty Blue

Richard Petty's "Petty Blue" 1970 Plymouth Superbird on display

One of the most distinctive features of the #43 car is its color. Petty Blue, as it's called, was created by the Petty Family. According to Richard, the color was created by accident when they didn't have enough white or dark blue paint to cover the entire car. The resulting mix of white and blue proved to be very popular and remains on the #43 car to this day. [3] Rumors state that Richard Petty would not allow STP to sponsor his car unless he could keep it painted blue. A compromise was reached to paint the car half Petty Blue and half STP Red. Thus was born one of the most famous paint schemes in racing history.

History of Drivers

#1 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Dick Brooks	1985	Petty Enterprises	Ford
Morgan Shepherd	1985	Petty Enterprises	Ford

#2 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Johnny Dodson	1957	Petty Enterprises	Oldsmobile

#7 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Kyle Petty	1983–1984	7-11	Pontiac/Ford

#11 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Buddy Baker	1971–1972	Dodge/STP	Dodge

#38 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Lee Petty	1949	Petty Enterprises	Buick

#40 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Pete Hamilton	1970	Petty Enterprises/7-Up	Plymouth

#41 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Buck Baker Jim Paschal Lee Petty Maurice Petty	1964	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth

#42 History

Lee Petty's #42

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Lee Petty	1949–1964	Petty Enterprises	Various
Richard Petty	1965	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth
Marvin Panch Paul Lewis Tiny Lund G.C. Spencer	1966–1967	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth
Dan Gurney	1970	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth
Kyle Petty	1979-82	STP	Various

#43 History

John Andretti on pit road before qualifying, for the June Pocono Race 1998 #43 car

Bobby Labonte's 2007 #43 car

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Bob Welborn	1954	Petty Enterprises	Dodge
Bill Lutz	1957	Petty Enterprises	Oldsmobile
Richard Petty	1958–1983; 1986–1992	Chrysler Corp./STP	Various
LeeRoy Yarbrough Darrell Dieringer Jim Paschal	1965–1967, 1970	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth
Wally Dallenbach Jr. John Andretti	1994	STP	Pontiac
Bobby Hamilton	1995–1997	STP	Pontiac
John Andretti	1998–1999	STP	Pontiac
John Andretti	2000	Cheerios/Betty Crocker	Pontiac
John Andretti	2001–2003	Cheerios/Betty Crocker	Dodge
Christian Fittipaldi	2003	Cheerios/Betty Crocker	Dodge
Jeff Green	2003–2005	Cheerios/Betty Crocker	Dodge
Bobby Labonte	2006–2008	Cheerios/Betty Crocker	Dodge

#44 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Bob Welborn	1954	Petty Enterprises	Dodge
Rick Wilson	1993	STP	Pontiac
Kyle Petty	1997–2000	Hot Wheels	Pontiac
Steve Grissom	2000	Hot Wheels	Pontiac
Buckshot Jones	2001–2002	Georgia Pacific	Dodge
Jerry Nadeau	2002	Georgia Pacific	Dodge
Christian Fittipaldi	2003	Bugles	Dodge

#45 History

The #45 car

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Adam Petty	2000	Sprint	Chevrolet
Kyle Petty	2000–2002	Sprint	Pontiac/Dodge
Kyle Petty	2003–2005	Georgia Pacific	Dodge
Kyle Petty	2006	Wells Fargo Marathon Tire Kingdom Schwans MyCokeRewards	Dodge
Kyle Petty Chad McCumbee John Andretti Kenny Wallace	2007	Wells Fargo Marathon Tire Kingdom Coke Zero Goody's Cool Orange	Dodge
Kyle Petty Chad McCumbee Terry Labonte Boris Said	2008	Wells Fargo Marathon PVA.org Garmin GPSStore	Dodge

#46 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Bobby Johns	1960	Petty Enterprises	Plymouth

#88/188 History

Driver	Year(s)	Sponsor	Make
Ralph Earnhardt Tiny Lund	1957	Petty Enterprises	Oldsmobile (ran as #88 for 1 race)
Jim Linke	1958	Petty Enterprises	Oldsmobile

Boston Ventures

In 2008, Boston Ventures invested into Petty Enterprises and Bobby Labonte signed a four-year extension to drive the #43 Dodge for the Pettys. General Mills will leave the #43 after the 2008 season and go to Richard Childress Racing's fourth Cup car. Boston Ventures owns investments in companies such as Six Flags. Rumors surfaced in early December 2008 that Petty Enterprises may cease operations and liquidate its assets. In January 2009, Petty Enterprises merged with Gillette Evernham Motorsports and the #43 car was absorbed into the team. Reed Sorenson will drive the #43 car in 2009. Boston Ventures was not able to secure sponsorship for either car, so they decided to liquidate the assets of the race team to pay off the loans taken out to purchase the team. Boston Ventures owns the legal rights to the Petty Enterprises name currently. As of January, the only employees left are Robbie Loomis and the King Richard Petty himself. CEO David F. Zucker has been reassigned to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, which Boston Ventures also controls.

External links

• Official site
• All-time statistics at racing-reference.info