Petree on the outside looking in at Rockingham

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In general, NASCAR team owner Andy Petree's mood Sunday in the aftermath of the Winston Cup season opening Daytona 500 matched the rain-washed Daytona International Speedway garage area.

	Andy Petree has two career wins as a Winston Cup team owner. Credit: Autostock

The Winston Cup community -- after as many as 10 days in Daytona Beach -- was extremely happy to be heading home for a scant three days before moving on to its next date, at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham this weekend.

But short term, Petree had nothing to look forward to beyond his return to his East Flat Rock, N.C., base.

His 2003 Winston Cup program extends only a few races beyond the Daytona 500. And the next is four months -- not four days -- away.

"What next?" Petree asked rhetorically, with a wry smile. "That's a good question (and) I was just thinking that, as I was walking over here.

"I don't know -- we've got a few things we're going to do: Busch racing, Truck racing, some ARCA races."

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It wasn't hard to imagine what Petree, a former Winston Cup championship crew chief, wanted to be anticipating. That would be a return to Rockingham, a track his Winston Cup team conquered a scant 41 races ago, with Joe Nemechek.

"Six years plus in Winston Cup and we've had a lot of good things happen to us," Petree said. "We've won a couple races.

"But I guess it's like I was saying to my wife, it's like when you're the CEO of a company that works his way up to the top: There's only one way to go from there -- and I guess that's kind of what's happening to me."

Petree laughed as he said it, because in his career he's seen as much agony as he has exhilaration. But to look deep into his eyes on this cloudy day was staring down an abyss.

"I've worked all my life to stay in here," he said, "and it's kind of disappointing."

	Bobby Hamilton competed for Petree in 2002 but left to go run the Craftsman Truck Series, leaving Petree without a full-time driver. Credit: Autostock

From the height of owning two fully-sponsored Winston Cup teams in 2001 -- and having each of them win a race -- Petree first lost one sponsor at the end of that season.

After cutting back to one full-time team in 2002 realized he needed more funding from the other backer to continue even a single team in 2003.

He had one hoped-for merger, with NFL owner Jerry Jones, fail to come to fruition and he continues to seek sponsorship or a partner to continue his Winston Cup operation on some level.

His deal with Monaco Coaches, which is centered on several Craftsman Truck Series events, included only the Daytona 500 in Winston Cup.

Even with Sunday's disappointment, if nothing else he's forward thinking.

	Joe Nemechek won for Petree in Nov. 2001 at Rockingham. Credit: ASP

Petree wasted no time dwelling on what might have been. He was looking ahead, he said, to several announcements and getting back to his shop complex to get his remaining employees back to work on race vehicles for all three of NASCAR's national series.

"We've got about 25 guys and we've got enough to do to keep them all busy," Petree said. "We'll be working hard, but it will be hard not to be at all the Winston Cup races like we've been in the past."

Petree said he would drive the next race for APR, in a Monaco-sponsored Chevrolet truck at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif. That program encompasses four races, and Petree said he would also reprise his successful outing -- at least in qualifying -- in the Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

He said he also had a fully sponsored program for a "young driver to run some Busch, Truck and ARCA races, though not a full season."

"That will enable us to keep our core group of employees together while we try to build for 2004," Petree said. "Our next Winston Cup race is at Sears Point, and we got another young driver that we can't announce yet, for there."

While Petree would like to have finished better than 35th in the Daytona 500, he acknowledged he was pleased at the performance of former CART Indy car driver Christian Fittipaldi, who made only his second Winston Cup start in the series' biggest race.

"It wasn't all bad," Petree said. "It wasn't good, but it wasn't all bad, either. We had a little problem on pit road and that killed us."

But not as badly as missing Rockingham, or even the thought of it, has.