Conversation: Kyle Petty

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Petty's "early summer tour" has shown no sign of slowing down.

As the days count down to the long-awaited, mid-June opening of the Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina Petty's pace has actually picked up.

Petty spent some time after a recent test session at Daytona International Speedway with NASCAR.COM's Dave Rodman to discuss progress at Petty Enterprises, the charity ride, his proposed sports car team and family matters.

It's tough to test for a night race in the heat of the day, but you were here for two days getting set for the July 3 Pepsi 400. Would you consider it a success?

Kyle Petty: I think so. Our guys worked really, really hard and thanks to our guys and to all of Ray Evernham's guys -- and Bill Elliott -- (we made progress).

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I think we both kind of struggled at Talladega, sucking-up in the draft and that's what concerned us. You go someplace and run really good at Daytona, then you go and you can't hang on in the draft and you wonder why.

So we came down and worked on some aero stuff and engine stuff to hopefully help us when we come down here and get in the draft. And that helps us for both Daytona and Talladega -- it doesn't make any difference where you're testing.

It's kind of strange to be testing in the middle of the day like this when it feels like it's 200 degrees, but it worked for us.

You were able to run together in a draft with Bill, so do you feel like you made some progress, aerodynamically?

Kyle Petty: I think we felt like we made some progress on how the cars work in the draft. Obviously that's two Dodges running together and we're going to be running against Fords and Chevies and a little bit of everything else out there, it seems like, and the cars react differently to one another.

But I think running with the Dodges and running with the caliber of team that Evernham's is, obviously gives you a leg up for when you come back down here. At least you say, 'OK, we cleared a couple of hurdles -- we may have a few more to go, but we cleared a couple.'

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Jeff Green had a pretty good-looking car in the Nextel Open at Charlotte and you guys have shown better at a number of places. Are you satisfied with the progress you're showing at Petty Enterprises?

Kyle Petty: I think parts of the company have made huge progress. I think our aero program (is better) and the guys in the fab shop have done a tremendous job. I think our teams have gotten better and better and better.

We still struggle in other areas and we've got to keep getting stronger and stronger. I think that's just the way it is when you're trying to get caught up and trying to build at the same time. It's tough to race against people that are already established and have everything clicking the way it's supposed to be.

I think Jeff's been qualifying well. We struggled a little bit with our engine stuff but Mike (Ege) and those guys with the engines have worked really, really hard. When you push the envelope you're going to break stuff -- that's just the way it is and there's nothing you can do about that.

You keep plugging along and eventually we'll get it.

This sport is a lot crazier than people realize. After the first weekend in Charlotte you got the Busch-Biffle saga, you got the Ford engine thing -- what's the most pressing racing issue facing you at Petty Enterprises?

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Kyle Petty: Our issue is to get our teams organized and to get our stuff straight. We feel like our teams are stronger and that our fab shop is stronger, we feel like our shop crew is stronger and we've got to just continue on that trend. That's our pressing issue.

You hate to see two teammates like Kurt and Biffle get into it and you hate to see people like Darrell Waltrip and Tony Stewart get into it, from that side, because I think that really detracts from what's really going on.

But for us, we're focused on our team and whatever goes on, on somebody else's really doesn't concern us.

Anything showing on the horizon for Christian Fittipaldi?

Kyle Petty: Hopefully we'll run him in some races in the second half of the year. I don't know how many.

Financially, that's what it all depends on -- where the money comes from. We've been in racing long enough that we're not crazy. We're not going to race out of our own pocket no more than we have to because you've got to have sponsors and that's what makes this thing work.

We've established and put together pretty decent teams for Jeff and for ourselves and we've got some people waiting to work with Christian that we feel like are a good group of guys. But we can't just throw 'em out there unless we've got something (sponsorship) coming in.

What was your assessment of the first Chick-Fil-A Charity Ride? I know you enjoy them all, but do you try to out-do them from year to year?

Kyle Petty: You know, this year's ride, if it wasn't the best, it was one of the top-two. Everybody said that, and I think that's how you evaluate 'em -- you don't try to out-do them from one year to the other.

Chick-Fil-A came onboard this year for a multi-year year, Pilot Travel Centers came onboard in a multi-year deal and Coca-Cola has been with us for 10 years. Our corporate involvement stepped up a level this year and that was the biggest change.

I think along with the corporate involvement stepping up, I think so many of the riders had a lot more fun because there were so many things we were able to do because of Chick-Fil-A being involved and Pilot and Coca-Cola and companies like that.

They allowed us to not have to hustle across the country and break our neck to do little things -- we could do big things. The riders enjoyed it and we went to some cool places and did some cool things and next year the Chick-Fil-A Ride will only get bigger.

There was a special finale to this year's ride, when it ended at the Victory Junction Camp. What was everyone's impression when they saw the camp for the first time?

Kyle Petty: The special part about the Chick-Fil-A Ride is that those people -- that core group of people that ride on the Chick-Fil-A Ride -- have been so instrumental in bringing the camp about.

They made a pledge to do the aquatic center, so it's going to be the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Aquatic Center. It's more like a water park than it is just a pool. We've got splash pads and we've got a motorcycle you can slide down and there's all kinds of stuff.

They made that commitment, but over and above that, over the last two or three years just the ride itself has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the camp itself. So they're a founding member of the camp and I wanted those people to see what they had done -- not what Kyle Petty had done or what anyone else had done but what they had done by being a part of the Chick-Fil-A Ride.

So to me, to end the 10th anniversary ride there -- and it was our 10th anniversary -- it was special just to see their faces: Cliff Baldwin and Harry Gant and Don Tilley -- guys who have been on the ride every year.

Diane Baldwin and the Bartels from California -- people like that who have been on the ride every single year. I wanted them to say, what looked like a stupid idea 10 years ago -- look at what it's grown into.

We've been a part of it, and I wanted them to look at it and to let them get some satisfaction for something that they had done -- not something that we had done, but something that they had done.

Opening day for the camp is less than three weeks off. Are you going to make it?

Kyle Petty: Oh yeah. We'll make it. It's kind of like saying the opening day of the 2005 season is Daytona and it's only like four or five months off. Are you going to make it?

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Yeah, you're going to make it, come heck or high water because that's the beginning of your year. We've got kids coming in on the 20th and we're going to make it, that's how simple it is.

It's a phenomenal place. We've had so many people, like Rick Hendrick and those guys and Tony Stewart and all his crew who have done just a phenomenal job for us.

But the fans have been the big thing for us and I can't overstate that enough, I think. So much is made out of the celebrity side of what DuPont does or what Georgia-Pacific or Coca-Cola does -- you know, the corporate involvement.

So much is made out of what the superstars of this sport have done, like Tony and Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett and guys like that, and what they've done. But I don't think enough has been said about what the fans have done.

You know, we've raised what, $22-23 million or something in that range and probably a third of that has come from the fans.

It's pretty phenomenal to think that a guy will buy a ticket to a race and donate to a cause like this and I think it's because of the drivers and because of NASCAR -- because of what the France family has done and because we're very blessed to be an official charity of NASCAR, that the fans have gotten involved in it.

How's the first class of campers looking? Is there still space for additional children to come to the camp?

Kyle Petty: We can see 120 to 140 kids. The first week of camp I think we're going to see somewhere between 70 and 80, right now is where we're at. But we're still taking applications and they're still coming in.

We're not full, by any stretch, so if anybody wants to come they just need to go to victoryjunction.org and look at the disease groups and the weeks that they'll be there, from spina bifida to sickle cell to HIV to certain forms of cancer, like I said.

Our first week is hemophilia and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis so those are filling up but the other weeks -- if there are parents out there that want their son or daughter to come to camp, or if they want to come and volunteer -- we're still looking for volunteers and campers alike.

Catching up on the family a bit, is Montgomery Leigh going to be an equestrian instructor at the camp?

Kyle Petty: When she's not off showing her horses she will be (laughing). She's kinda like me -- when I'm not off racing I'm going to be a counselor at the camp. But Austin will be there and Pattie will be there and my father's been there every day.

He and my mother have been there almost every day so it's been kind of special for me. Obviously, since he's retired and he spends so much time traveling and doing stuff, for him to take time off from that and see that this camp gets built has been pretty cool to see him get involved in it.

My sisters, everybody in our family has been really involved in it.

And dad's a bulldozer mechanic, too -- right?

Kyle Petty: Bulldozer, dynamite -- whatever you want done, he can do.

The last time I saw your son Austin he was studying to be a pilot. Has he continued with that?

Kyle Petty: He's kind of dropped out of the pilot stuff. I tell you what -- he's really become my personal assistant. He works with me on a daily basis kinda doing stuff with me and that's been fun.

Obviously, he wasn't really involved in racing when Adam was, he was still in school and kinda still involved in that, and when he graduated he kind of didn't know what to do.

He comes down to the shop and hangs out there and does stuff there and he's just turned into an all-around good guy and has really kind of picked up the ball and run with it.

Watching the Grand American Rolex Series race up in a Canada a couple weekends made me think, are you still planning to run that sports car race a couple nights before the Pepsi 400?

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Kyle Petty: I would run every Grand American race there is -- that's how simple it is. If it didn't conflict with a Nextel Cup race right now I would be on every one.

I am still working, and have been working for six to 12 months trying to put together a Grand American team that can run even when I'm not here -- kinda like the way Chip Ganassi has his (sports car) team.

I'd like to move a Petty operation over to the Grand American division because looking at what the Grand American division is right now and what it can become is a great, great thing for sports car racing in this country.

Obviously I'm at a stage in my life where I still love to race and I still love to do this part, but after doing this for 25 or 30 years, maybe I want to turn right, some, so I'm looking at the Grand American division as maybe my next stepping stone.