I read a very interesting article while looking for some Richard Petty news today on the web. The author of the article was Jay Busbee with Yahoo sports. The article came across to me as bashing Richard Petty being back on top, but it wasn't the bashing that upset me, it was the information used to support it. The stats and comparisons used to support it seemed very “on the fly” and I completely disagree.
If you haven’t read the article, click the link and read it first. The main statistics Jay uses here are Petty’s lack of success from 1984 to 2008, and saying that Petty Enterprise’s lack of success was a direct cause of Richard Petty Being in charge after he got out from behind the wheel in 1992.
After actually researching the reasons why Petty faced a lack of success from 1985 to 1992 and as an owner and head of operations after 1992, I came to many conclusions. The Driver’s age, Increase in competition, and Resources and Technology were the reasons, not Richard Petty.
It is not uncommon for great drivers to eventually to lose their edge on the competition later in their careers. Every big name has had his rise and fall. Richard was 47 years old entering his 1985 season and finally relinquished the wheel in 1992 when he was 55 years of age. Sorry to point it out, but Richard wasn’t exactly a spring chicken during these years. He was racing against people ten, fifteen, and twenty years younger than him. Also during the period of 1985 to 1992, other big names were making a splash into the sport. If your name wasn’t Dale Senior, Bill Elliot, Darrell Waltrip, Davey Allison or Rusty Wallace, there is a good chance you didn’t win a race, let alone a championship. These 5 drivers accounted for 139 wins out of 231 races, roughly sixty percent. So using Petty’s lack of success during this era I feel is a low blow, he was at the end of his Hall of Fame career, and racing against NASCARS biggest new names.
The second era referred to is 1992 to 2008. The article suggests that Richard being in charge was the cause of Petty Enterprises lack of success. Once again, the factor was not Richard Petty’s leadership, but the age of drivers that replaced him, level of competition, and the technology and resources available to the other teams. We will start it off with driver age. Rick Wilson, John Andretti, Bobby Hamilton, Jeff Green, and Bobby Labonte were an average of 39.4 years of age when they entered the driver seat fulltime for the 43 car. These were obviously not NASCAR’s young talent filling the seat, no offense to the respected drivers.
NASCAR saw the likes of Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Junior enter the Sport in 2000 or before. Most of these are all champions. Post 2000 names such as Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, and Denny Hamlin were in by 2006. All of these drivers have accounted for about sixty percent of wins since 1993. If you add in the likes of Dale senior, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, and Mark martin you find that these nineteen drivers have won 82 percent of races since 1993. Do you know how many drivers have been in the sport since 1993? A lot more than nineteen. All the drivers listed have raced for either Hendrick, Roush, Childress, or Gibbs and have amassed 17 of the 18 championships. The Last person to win a championship without driving for these was Dale Jarrett in 1999(Yates).
I make it a point to describe the team names of all these great drivers because it directly correlates with their success. The names Roush, Hendrick, Childress, and Gibbs have always had the best equipment and the most talent behind their wheels. When you have a team comprised of three, four or five cars, (Roush ran a five car team from 1997 until 2009), the sponsorship money as well as the advertising and success make it easy to have the funds to make sure your teams have the best equipment, newest technologies, and best drivers. Hendrick was also able to steal away Robby Loomis, VP and the crew chief for the only wins the 43 has seen since Richard, but luckily Loomis has returned back to be the current VP of operations. Once again, this is not a reason to put the blame on Richard Petty.
The circumstances that lead to lack of success were not Richard Petty, but the evolution of the sport passing Petty Enterprise by. I Believe Richard being back in charge puts a positive vibe back into Petty fans. Petty isn’t in the same situation prior to the buyout by Medallion and DGP investments. He has two successful drivers and sponsorship deals that match the numbers seen at the bigger stables. Also, by using Roush equipment and ford, Petty Motorsports has the technology that is top of the line. I say this in good faith for Jay Busbee’s future articles, “Research the topic before you decide to bash the people in it, especially The King.”
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