Mike Ege Racing Engines must decide whether it will supply engines for the Nos. 43 and 45 for the rest of this season. Credit: Autostock

Pettys switching engine builders in 2005

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Petty Enterprises will have a new engine supplier for 2005, Kyle Petty confirmed Saturday, but it is unclear who will build engines for Petty and Jeff Green next season.

Mike Ege Racing Engines, which has built engines for the Pettys since 2002, will not return next year.

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"We're at that time in the season where we need to be making a change," Petty said. "We've talked about it for the last three or four months with Mike Ege Racing Engines, and it's come to a point where it's time to make a move. Next year, we'll do something different."

The Dodges of Petty and Green will use Ege engines in this weekend's EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, and Ege has the option of staying with Petty Enterprises the rest of this year.

"We've left that option up to him, if he chose to continue it or if he chose not to," Petty said. "We'll go from there. We have his stuff in down here."

But who will be in the No. 43 and No. 45 in 2005? Petty said rumors about a switch to Evernham Engines or Arrington Engines are simply rumors.

"There are rumors about everything, man," Petty said. "There are rumors I'm going to retire. What are you gonna do? That's why they're called rumors.

"We're not settled into anything. We're working really, really close with Dodge, trying to figure out which direction we need to go in. We're getting a lot of guidance from all the guys at Dodge right now."

The team won't return to building its own engines, as it did from 1949-2001.

"We talked about it three or four months ago, whether we wanted to open our stuff back up," Petty said. "We made a decision at this point in time not to go down that road. If we were two or three years further down the road, then, yeah, we'd probably look at it. But right now, no."