LMS Media Tour: Richard Petty quotes

LMS Media Tour: Richard Petty "The King" quotes from Petty Enterprises Breakfast Stop.

RICHARD PETTY (Owner Petty Enterprises)

COMMENT ON OUTLOOK FOR 2005

"We've been struggling for a pretty good while before I got out of the car. Petty Enterprises has been up and down over a period of years, and it's been down lately. Hopefully it's going in the right direction. We've got a new engine program this year. We've got the new Dodge Charger. We're going to have some different tires. We've got a lot of new things coming, but so has everybody else with the spoilers and the tires. We've got to learn as we go and everybody else has got to learn, too. We did pretty decent at the test at Daytona. Monday and Tuesday we're testing in Vegas and Wednesday and Thursday we're testing in California. We'll know more about what our engine program is and what our chassis program is and everything else after we run those races. Daytona is just one race and you've got 34 others. We don't want to sacrifice one for the others. Daytona is just the start of it. We've got a lot of races. We look back at what we've been doing. I don't think there's any one big thing. It's a combination of things. The car needs to get a little better. The engines need to be a little better. The drivers need to be a little better. The pit crew needs to be a little better. We've changed all that stuff, thinking we've upgraded it. From that standpoint and everybody will tell you they're looking forward to this year and they're going to win all the races and all of that. We don't set any goals. We just want to do better today than we did yesterday. If we can do that, we're headed in the right direction."

HOW DOES THE NEW CHARGER COMPARE TO THE OLD CHARGER?

"I liked the old Charger. If they can do just half as good with the new Charger as we did with the old Charger then it's going to be a good racecar. Under the rules and regulations that NASCAR puts you in now, the car is basically the same. It might have a different grille and tail light, but it's basically the same car as we had last year. The big change this year is going to be taking the spoiler away from it. Ford and Chevrolet has the same car, but it's going to be a new car to them because of the spoiler situation. We've got a new car, but it's really aerodynamically the same."

COMMENT ON FRANCHISING YOUR TEAM

"I think two or three of us are thinking about franchising and NASCAR is probably not. Basically, I look at the franchise deal in two or three different ways. The Woods and us and Childress, people that have been here forever, when we leave nobody is wanting to buy our equipment or whatever. We've got nothing built up over the years. With the top 35 making every race, that's sort of in that direction. We can go to General Mills and say 'OK, we're going to be in all the races' and they can go run a year-long promotion. The most embarrassing thing in the world is when a sponsor does a big advertising deal and then not be able to fulfill it because their car didn't make the race. It can happen to anybody. A lot of people haven't had it to happen, but it can happen to anybody any time. This kind of guarantees that. A lot of people want to race in, but you've got to look at the investment that sponsors and crews have. This is a guarantee you'll going to make the race. With the way they're going to do qualifying and the race, then it's a way of guaranteeing the good cars are going to be in the race. When NASCAR started, they were afraid that some guys would come in with qualifying motors and knock some guys out of the race. That was one of the reason of the guaranteed 35. That's not franchising, but it gives you the security that franchising would give. With all the time and work people put in, then a franchise would give you that stability with each other."

COMMENT ON DRIVERS IN THEIR LAST CUP SEASON

"You go back and look at NASCAR and about every 10 or 12 years we have turnover. We've got a whole different crowd. In the 50s you had Curtis Turner and the Flock Brothers and in the 60s they went away. Then you had the Pearsons and Yarboroughs and Allisons. When that crowd went away the Earnhardts and Gordons came along. When these guys go away, another crowd will come along. It just recycles."

COMMENT ON THE CHASE

"With the 26-race deal and then the 10-race deal that's the way the system is now and everybody has to play the system. Let's face it. With the 10-race deal, it's not basically who was the best that year. It was who was the best in those last 10 races. If you have a little bad luck or good luck.... Look at what Busch did last year in winning the championship. He spun out three times in three different races and ain't hit nothing. Then he breaks a wheel in the last race and just misses the guard rail. The wheel comes off. He gets a caution flag because the wheel's on the racetrack. He doesn't lose a lap and goes out leading the cotton pickin' race. Circumstances were just beyond anybody's imagination for winning the championship -- not that he wasn't capable of winning, but after having problems and still overcoming the thing. If you can make the cut, then the rest of it becomes luck. All those top 10 are very capable of becoming champions."

DO YOU EVER WATCH A RACE AND WISH YOU WERE STILL RACING?

"I sit there and watch these races and watch these guys run. I say I believe I think I could beat these guys. I ran against Pearson and Allison and Yarborough. Those were some tough guys. I look at these guys and they're a different breed. I look at 'em and I say, 'I'd really like to be out there.' About that time I look up and coming down pit road a couple of them are on the back of the wrecker. I say, 'I'm glad I'm not out there."

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