Richard Petty Interview

On the possibility of retirement

(He laughs when asked about this.) I've been doing this since I was 11 years old. I'm not in a situation that Robert (Yates) was in. I don't know what his circumstances where or whatever, but he looked at it as a different deal. He used to work for somebody else, then he started his engine business and got into the racing business. If you'll listen to Robert and look at some of the things he said in the past, he never was that big on racecars in the first place. He was an engine man, and he's still an engine man. So now he's got rid of his racecars. I started not as an engine man, but I started in the racecar deal at 11 years old. So I'm still in that zone and I don't feel like changing.

On what his father, Lee, would say about the move

You know, that would have been interesting. I don't think he would have let us move. He would have went down fightin' in Level Cross. He was that stubborn. If he said that's the way it's going to be, he would work that hard to make it work. He would have said, OK, you're going to stay in Level Cross, so now figure out how you're going to win like we used to.

Does he wish he had made the move to Mooresville five or 10 years ago?

Not yet. If we come out of here like Jack the Bear, then I'm going to kick my butt for not doing it earlier. I don't see a major change. I don't see us busting out of anything. I just see it as the next step in busting out. I don't see us just doing it in a one-race deal, in three or four races, or even at the beginning of the year. Maybe by the middle of the year, we'll see where, hey, we should have done it differently.

On what it would mean to see driver Bobby Labonte get the No. 43 closer to victory lane

It would just mean that Petty Enterprises is getting back closer to what it's supposed to be. The guys who are doing the job, well, it just makes me feel good if the 43 is doing it, but it could be the 45 car. The deal is, I see Petty Enterprises running around there with our cars. I don't see Richard Petty, or I don't see Lee Petty, or Kyle Petty. I just see Petty Enterprises. From that standpoint, it doesn't get to be emotional except from a company standpoint.

On what NASCAR needs to do to reconnect with its core fan base

I don't know. I guess they're searching like everything else. The entertainment dollar is getting tougher and tougher from the standpoint there's so much more for the average fan to do. When I first came along, racing was a Southern sport. We didn't have football or baseball or basketball as far as any professional deal. Then all of a sudden we've got professional hockey and everything else. ... There's so many more things for younger people and older people to do now that it's hard to get them to say, OK, racin' is what they need to do. Even football, they're having trouble keeping everybody going, keeping everybody on their page. I don't know. What happens is we get diluted just because there's so much stuff going on. So if you just hold your own, you're ahead of the game because a lot of people are losing. If we can just stay status quo with our fans, our TV deal, and stuff like that, then we are gaining.

Is Petty Enterprises going to remain independent?

(He laughs.) It depends on how good a partner we can get. We're always open. We looked at it and said, OK, we're going to do this with or without a partner. If we do (turn things around) it might entice a partner to say, hey, these guys are on the move, and they might be more interested in partnering up with us than they would if they say, we'll they're all stuck over there, stuck in a time warp, and they're staying in that. We're trying to show the sponsors, the fans, and any potential partners that we talk to, that, hey, we're going to go forward and we're going to make this work, and if you want to join the game, then come on in.