RACING’S ROYAL FAMILY, PART 8

1997 was not the first time Petty
Enterprises had fielded multiple cars, but it was the first time since the
costly 1983 season that it had done so fulltime. The circumstances in the sport
were a lot different now, so they pretty much had no choice. Kyle’s satellite
outfit was named pe2 and operated out of the shops Rahmoc Racing had operated in
years past in Thomasville, NC – adding to the irony that Richard nearly drove
Rahmoc Pontiacs in 1984. Crew chief was Bobby Kennedy while engine builder Dave
Evans was also along. Sponsorship was from the Hot Wheels brand of Mattel.

As Kyle had no owner points to fall back
on, he had to qualify for the first four races on speed. Daytona was the first
big test and it proved a major one, as Kyle and the team thrashed to get the #44
Pontiac fast enough to make the field. In the 125s, they succeeded in making the
field, and in the 500 Kyle escaped a late crash that involved teammate Bobby
Hamilton to finish in the top fifteen.

Neither Petty Pontiac had a good day at
Rockingham, but both finished in the top ten at Richmond – Bobby crossed the
line eighth but a postrace check showed that Ricky Rudd and both Labontes had
passed him under the last yellow, so Bobby was elevated to fifth. They also had
a respectable day at Atlanta – there Bobby survived two scuffles; he dove three
wide under Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd and crowded Earnhardt into Rudd, who
spun as a result; later Jimmy Spencer tagged Hamilton in One and Hamilton let
him have it off Two; this caused Spencer to spin into Steve Grissom and Grissom
plowed into the inside wall, blasted a hole in it, flipped twice and threw his
fuel cell into the groove, where Geoff Bodine and others hit it and it erupted.

At Texas both Petty Pontiacs were knocked
out on the opening lap in a ten-car crash, and at Bristol Kyle had taken fifth
from Earnhardt when Earnhardt tagged him and he crashed.

Hamilton followed up a hard-earned 13th at
Bristol with second at Martinsville. After that, however, he hit a slump – he
broke while moving up at Talladega, ran sixth at Charlotte, then cut a tire
under green and finished 29th, and got lapped early on at Dover.

The bitterest of all was Pocono. Hamilton
won the pole and rocketed to a two-second lead on the start, but cut a tire
after retaking the lead from Jeff Gordon, got the lap back after Bobby Labonte
crashed, and stormed from 30th to tenth in 90 laps before socking the wall in
the Tunnel Turn. He followed up with mediocre runs at Michigan and California,
he was involved in a huge last-lap crash at Daytona, and blew a tire while in
third at New Hampshire.

Kyle, meanwhile, was getting better. David
Evans left the team and Rick Mann, the #43’s engine builder, now supplied both
Pontiacs. Kyle finished fifth at Dover, 14th after starting 40th at Pocono,
seventh at Daytona, and ninth at the July Pocono.

Finally, at the Southern 500, Hamilton
made the announcement that he was leaving Petty Enterprises. Following a blown
engine at the subsequent Richmond race, most felt the 1997 season was now thrown
away for Hamilton. Richard Petty, though, made a bet with Bobby – he’d get an
extra $100,000 from Richard if he won before the season ended. Hamilton followed
that with a stellar third at New Hampshire, an even harder-earned third at
Martinsville, and at Rockingham he gunned down Dale Jarrett and Ricky Craven for
the win. A third from the pole at Phoenix followed.

Kyle, meanwhile, pounded it out all day at
New Hampshire and finished 11th, then at Dover he started 23rd, passed the
entire field, and led 184 laps, but had to pit late for gas and finished third.
He added top tens at Charlotte and Talladega, and ran strong at Rockingham
before the car surprisingly faltered.

For the season finale at the
now-redesigned Atlanta track, Hamilton had just come onto pit road to begin
practice when Jeff Gordon came out of the garage, spun, and blindsided
Hamilton’s Pontiac. Hamilton had to take a provisional in a backup car, and
roared to finished seventh, while Kyle followed up with eighth. Thus the
Hamilton chapter of Petty Enterprises came to an end.

Returning to the STP Pontiac was John
Andretti, fresh off his first career win at Daytona the previous July, and a
driver who’d learned the hard way how good he’d had it at Petty Enterprises.
Vowing he’d never repeat the mistake of leaving and winning back over the crew
that had taken to belittling him behind his back previously, Andretti fitted
back in well and posted solid runs at Daytona, Rockingham, Las Vegas, Atlanta,
and Martinsville; there a sure second went away when the car surprisingly ran
out of gas with five to go. At Talladega John battled for the lead, fell behind
when another team’s tire blocked them in the pits, and then was eliminated in a
huge crash in the tri-oval. Though John was showing good form, it wasn’t until
the World 600 at Charlotte that he got his first top ten of the year.

His first top five came at the redesigned
Sears Point road course where he hammered out a third place finish. From there
he rode a wave of momentum – sixth at New Hampshire, seventh at Indianapolis
after getting drilled in the pits by Ricky Craven, ninth at Watkins Glen and
Michigan, third at the second New Hampshire, and fifth at Richmond after losing
a lap on two different occasions. John ultimately finished up the year 11th in
points.

In contrast, Kyle struggled throughout the
year, managing only two top ten finishes. As a result, he moved the PE2
operation out of the ex-Rahmoc shop in Thomasville and into the main Randleman
shop. The Thomasville shop, however, was still open, for PE2 now became a Busch
Grand National team.

1998 had been the coming out year of
Kyle’s eldest son, Adam Kyler Petty. Adam had driven late models the previous
few seasons and was signed for 1998 with Leroy Throop Motorsports in ASA racing,
with Spree telephone cards as sponsor and #45 on his Pontiacs. Kyle began
investing more and more time into Adam, and freely stated that his son had more
talent and determination than he had ever had. After a rough first few races,
Adam exploded forth at I-70 Speedway in late June and roared to victory; when he
telephoned his father (using a Spree phonecard, natch) about the win, Kyle was
initially nonchalant, until he then realized just what his son was telling him.
The win made Adam the youngest ASA winner ever.

Kyle then finagled an old Pontiac from the
Randleman shop, hired John Andretti’s pit crew, and entered Adam in Charlotte’s
October ARCA 100. Following a 12-car melee on the backstretch, Adam made a nervy
five-wide pass through lapped traffic into the lead, and held off Mike Wallace
at the stripe. He thus became the youngest ever ARCA superspeedway winner. Adam
ran the ARCA race at Talladega and was running eighth when he was hooked head-on
into the wall past the tri-oval by Tim Steele.

Now Adam’s career began moving forward
faster. For 1999 he was now in the Busch Series, running a Chevrolet as GM would
not let them run a Pontiac in BGN, and at Daytona he dodged a series of crashes,
including a scary tumble by close buddy Casey Atwood in the tri-oval, to finish
fifth. Adam managed a fourth at Nazareth and California and did a respectable
job in his first season in BGN.

1999 was also competitive for the Winston
Cup effort. John was waylaid in a crash on the start of the Daytona 125s and
later broke in the 500; Kyle, meanwhile, hammered home a seventh place finish.
He failed to qualify at Vegas and Texas, however, but after that he timed well
and hammered out top tens at Bristol and Martinsville.

Martinsville, however, belonged to Petty
Enterprises. The Craftsman Truck season stopped there on Saturday and Jimmy
Hensley hammered out the win in the Dodge by Petty #43; the Virginia native then
stopped at the stripe and "raised the roof" for the crowd. John
Andretti thus felt pressure to duplicate the feat in the Winston Cup race. After
getting spun out early – "Can I get off like O.J. (Simpson) if I kill the
guy who spun me?" – John made up a lap, passed half the field, and in the
final 100 laps clawed forward; in the final 20 laps he gunned down Jeff Gordon
and Rusty Wallace, then raced door to door for the win in the final seven laps
with Jeff Burton. Andretti muscled past with four to go, legged it through
lapped traffic, and had Petty Enterprises’ 200th career short track win.
"He drove like Richard Petty out there," Richard said.

The subsequent Diehard 500 weekend at
Talladega was another adventure. For Kyle the adventure began two weeks earlier
in mandatory NASCAR testing at Talladega; in the garage area the throttle stuck
open and Kyle rammed a fencepost. The car was repaired but Kyle had to take a
provisional. John, meanwhile, realized there were no Alabama natives in the
race, so he applied for temporary Talladega citizenship to give the home staters
a "native" son to root for.

They had plenty to root for. The Diehard
500 was a torrid battle involving the entire field. Kyle muscled to 15th in the
opening laps as John clawed forward, then got into a multi-lap door to door
battle with Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte before rocketing into the lead.
Andretti banged doors with Dale Earnhardt several times, led 23 laps, and was
running second in the final laps when he got swamped in traffic. He finished a
surprisingly poor ninth to Kyle’s hard-earned 13th – and this time fence posts
in the infield were spared the wrath of Hot Wheels.

The season, though, proved a tough one.
John was competitive race after race, and Kyle began nickel-and-diming out
finishes on a more consistent basis, but wins were hard to come by. At Pocono
John passed 11 cars on the first lap, got sideswiped out of the groove on a
subsequent restart, reached fifth in the final 50 laps after stops, then was
swept into a late crash; he started 31st, dodged several wrecks, including a
late melee involving Ricky Rudd and Ward Burton, and finished 3rd at Sears
Point; at the Firecracker 400 he rocketed to a running battle for third and got
sideswiped hard into the wall off Two by Earnhardt; he led 50 laps at New
Hampshire but ran out of gas while running second in the final two laps and
finished an inglorious 17th. September proved the worst month – punted into the
first turn wall at New Hampshire; blown tire and crash at Dover; running second
when Tony Stewart hooked Bobby Hamilton into his path at Martinsville. When
John’s grandfather died before Phoenix, John desperately wanted a win, and he
won the pole and led much of the race, but the win would not come. At Homestead
he led early and ran third for most of the race, but an ill-timed yellow cost
him a lap.

And on top of this, October saw two
announcements – with the purchase of the Chrysler Corporation by Daimler-Benz
and its aggressive, hard-living chairman Jurgen Schremmp, Dodge began
preparations for a return to Winston Cup racing in 2001; prominently displayed
at the announcement ceremony were Richard’s 1972 Dodge Charger and the #43
Craftsman Truck. Rumors that Petty Enterprises would return to the Mopar fold
began right away; Richard, however, held off on any announcements until
Speedweeks 2000; it was there that he and Bill Davis confirmed that their
Pontiac teams were going to Dodge for 2001.

A prominent part of the deal involved
Adam; his BGN team would be part of a three-car PE Dodge team for 2001 alongside
Kyle and John. In addition to working hard on Adam’s program, Kyle was also
taking on more and more responsibility with the entire Petty Enterprises
operation. Helping them out with their end of Dodge’s preparations was Steve
Grissom, hired on to drive the #43 Craftsman Truck.

2000 began in rough fashion. The Craftsman
Truck Series made its debut at Daytona, and Steve Grissom timed well but was
caught in a six-car crash on Lap 13. Despite the damage, Grissom clawed forward
and stormed into the lead by halfway. He was well ahead of the frightening melee
where Geoff Bodine ripped open 100 feet of fencing and landed in the middle of
ten other Trucks. Following the two-hour red flag Grissom blew the right front
tire, then later blew another right front, and ultimately finished an inglorious
tenth.

The Goody’s 300 BGN race wasn’t any
better. Adam had moved up into the top fifteen when a five-car crash erupted in
One and Adam was eliminated.

The ultimate humiliation, however, was the
500. With the cars running spec shocks that were far too stiff, the cars pushed
like crazy in the dirty air of the draft, and it made passing too difficult.
Kyle never got untracked. John had broken late in his 125, but he clawed his way
forward and reached the top thirteen, but was sideswiped by Jimmy Spencer and
later eliminated in a crash with Dale Earnhardt and Kenny Wallace.

It set the stage for the season. John ran
well at Rockingham and at Atlanta, but could not cash in on strong finishes.
Kyle struggled at both and it seemed no matter what was done the #44 would not
respond.

The opposite was true of Steve Grissom’s
#43 Dodge Truck. At Phoenix he finished seventh, then at Mesa Marin he stormed
from 23rd into the lead, lost the lead on late stops, and finished a strong
fourth.

At Texas Kyle failed to qualify, but his son
Adam made the field for his Winston Cup debut. Adam stayed out of the way and
logged laps before the engine failed. John strained to get forward but was
eliminated in a crash.

A few days later, however, came the
passing of Lee Petty. His passing seemed to give Petty Enterprises a shot, for
at Nashville Adam clawed his way into contention for the win, but was eliminated
in a huge crash near the end. Kyle ran hard at Martinsville but crashed; John
reached third in the final laps but was punted out of the race by Michael
Waltrip. Steve Grissom managed to salvage something for the team, finishing
fifth in the Truck 250 at Martinsville.

Talladega then provided another boost.
Adam drafted well in the Touchstone 300 and finished 12th. Kyle and John raced
like crazy all day and finished together in the top eleven.

But everything was then turned upside down
when the Busch Series reached New Hampshire on Mothers Day weekend.

It is appropriate that the story end for
the time being here, for while it will go on, it will never be the same without
Adam. One can only keep pulling for racing’s royal family, and hope that out of
a tragic year will come a rebound we can all support. After all, this family
made NASCAR what it is, one autograph at a time, one fan at a time, one year at
a time.

Godspeed to the Petty family.