Inside the Halls of Petty

Wow, I can't believe this season is over halfway in the books. It doesn't seem like it has been that long ago that we were in Daytona for Speedweeks. Time flies these days. We are only six races away from the Chase for the championship, which will determine the final NASCAR Nextel Cup champion before the series changes names to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008. It will be a tall order for Petty Enterprises to get a car in the Chase, but we are still setting goals to ensure that we finish the season on a positive note.

Kyle's Korner

Kyle Petty talks about the week's big sports and entertainment stories.

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Bobby [Labonte] could make things really interesting over these next six weeks. He races well at many of the tracks that make up the rest of the schedule. He had a solid 19th-place run at Indy on Sunday. That pushed him back inside the top 20 in the point standings. Our goal is to get the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team into the top 15. However, the team is only 265 points out of the 12th spot for the Chase heading into this weekend's race at Pocono.

That may seem like a lot, but it's not impossible. He needs to gain 45 points per race on the guys in front of him to make it in. Stranger things have happened. You can gain as much as 160 points on another driver in only one race. Bobby would definitely have to visit Victory Lane and he would need some outside help to make the Chase. Both Bobby (2000) and crew chief Paul Andrews (1992) have won championships. They know how to prepare for what lies ahead. You can bet that team will bring their "A" game.

Kyle [Petty] is back in the No. 45 Wells Fargo/Marathon/Tire Kingdom Dodge for the rest of the season. His time away helped him recharge and refocus. Chad McCumbee and John Andretti did a great job filling in for Kyle while he was in the TNT Sports broadcast booth. Chad and John really helped both our teams by testing for us at places like the Kentucky Speedway. We were able to work on coil-binding setups and all of the other stuff you hear on television. The improvements in our cars have been substantial.

Our intermediate program is better now than it was before Kyle got out of the car. Remember, Kyle grabbed a third-place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway right as he was going into the broadcast booth. With half of the remaining races taking place at 1.5- to 2-mile intermediate tracks, we feel confident that we can get Kyle back inside the top 30 in points, despite missing five races. He needs to gain 243 points to do that. Crew chief Billy Wilburn is a master at getting his guys to go to battle for him. With a rejuvenated Kyle Petty behind the wheel you can bet that everyone on the No. 45 car will be on the same page and working toward that goal.

2007 has been a season of change on the Nextel Cup circuit. Some teams have come right out of the box and had immediate success. The rest of us have had up-and-down experiences this year. What is left now is for us to finish as strong as we can and let the chips fall where they may. Winning races is the easiest way to accomplish the goals we have set.

See you in Victory Lane,
Robbie Loomis