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Sunday, September 07, 2008

Kyle Petty draws praise for speaking his peace about NASCAR not policing its ‘mega-owners’

Kyle Petty is one of the few drivers willing to stand up for what he believes (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

RICHMOND, Va.

Kyle Petty is taking some hard shots at NASCAR’s inability to hold Cup team owners in check and to keep the sport’s biggest owners from getting even bigger.
On his weekly TV show Petty pointed to the close ties between four-team owner Rick Hendrick and Tony Stewart’s new two-car team, terming that essentially a six-car operation. And Petty drew praise from fellow small-team owners for his blunt assessment about NASCAR’s failure to keep the playing ground level.
Petty termed the new Stewart team as “Hendrick South.”
“And I said that’s no different than Jack Roush and Doug Yates,” Petty said, referring to those Ford team owners who have partnered in what clearly looks like a six-car operation.
Petty also pointed to the new closer business ties between Chevy owners Richard Childress and Teresa Earnhardt’s DEI as another example.
Two years ago NASCAR CEO Brian France said owners will have to pare down to three-car operations. But the trend, Petty – a two-team operation – says things are going the other way: “They just went from super-teams to mega-teams.
“The thing that NASCAR tried to eliminate they couldn’t, because everyone is getting around the rules. And if you think any different, you’re wrong.”
However, Roush says the trend toward such expansion was started by Hendrick, when Hendrick helped launch Joe Gibbs several years ago.
And Roush says bigger is simply better because of “economics of scale.
“There are forces in the marketplace that encourage economics of scale…but NASCAR has made it clear that no owner can own more than four teams,” Roush says.
“But there has been the precedent of teams building cars for other teams; Hendrick started it years ago.
“And as owners want to retire from this sport, it’s not straightforward how you get out of this business – it’s like the mafia in a way, the only way you can get out is in a pine box. So for us to have affiliations that allow us to have economics of scale, once Hendrick started it, he put the rest of us in a reactionary mode.”

Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/

Ken Schrader (L) talks with Patty Petty (C) and Kyle Petty (R) before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 7, 2008 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

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Kyle Petty draws praise for speaking his peace about NASCAR not policing its ‘mega-owners’

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