CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Petty felt the need to make a house call prior to the start of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

He wanted to cheer up an old friend who has recently fallen on hard times in the racing world.

Petty surprises fans with ride-along offer

Cup driver Kyle Petty shocked fans at Lowe's Motor Speedway when he went around the campsite and randomly selected people to ride with him around the 1.5-mile track.

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"It's funny. I went and saw Michael Waltrip before the race started," Petty said. "I think everybody knows what those guys are going through [at Michael Waltrip Racing]. We went through the same thing at Petty Enterprises; I went through the same thing at Petty Enterprises, missing races. And I told him, 'You didn't forget how to drive a racecar. Michael Waltrip has not forgotten how to drive a racecar.'"

Apparently, neither has Kyle Petty.

After giving his pep talk to Waltrip, who crashed during qualifying and sat out his 11th consecutive Nextel Cup race, Petty parlayed a strong racecar and a fuel-mileage gamble at the end into an impressive third-place finish in the grueling Coca-Cola 600. It was Petty's best Cup finish -- he also placed third at Dover -- since the fall of 1997.

That was more than 300 starts ago for Petty.

"I think for me to come out here tonight, I showed a few people I didn't forget how to drive a racecar," Petty said shortly after stepping out of his No. 45 Dodge on pit road after the race. "But we've got a great team. That's what it's all about. I'm just one piece in this cog here."

Of course, Kyle's father Richard, who owns a record 200 career Cup victories, wanted just a little bit more.

"If he had run a little harder, we could have finished a little better," said Richard Petty, grinning. "He got a lap behind because they stayed out too long the first time on these tires, hoping for a caution that didn't come. Then he had to work really hard to get it back. Once he got it back, he was a top eight or top 10 car, no trouble."

It became a top five car when many of the cars running ahead of him had to pit for gas during the final 10 laps. The younger Petty knew he was cutting it close, but crew chief Billy Wilburn wasn't about to give up track position at the end.

"I can drive it from here to the truck, and that's about all," Petty said from pit road. "All I was praying for toward the end was for there not to be a green-white checkered [finish]. That's the way we had it figured. We figured we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Billy Wilburn just made a great call and it all worked out for us."

Robbie Loomis began his Cup career at Petty Enterprises and returned there as vice president of operations at the end of the 2005 season after a successful run as Jeff Gordon's crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports. Upon his return to Petty Enterprises, he talked about how he wanted to help rebuild the once-formidable team into a true Cup contender.

But Loomis laughed when he heard that Richard joked Kyle perhaps could have finished higher Sunday.

"You know Richard. He's won 200 of 'em, so he always wants more," Loomis said. "But, you know, we said from the start of this rebuilding process that we had to crawl before we walked. We're trying to get up walking now, but now the challenge is to go to Dover [next week] and keep it going."

Kyle Petty said there are reasons to believe his race team can do it. He also said Sunday was like a trip back in time for him -- back to the days when he was winning several Cup races while driving for Felix Sabates in the early to mid-1990s. Of his eight career Cup wins, six came while driving for Sabates from 1990 through the 1995 season. The other two came earlier when Petty was driving for the Wood Brothers in the late '80s.

"For us, this is like I'm 21 again and I'm driving for Felix in the Mello Yello car," said Petty, who will turn 47 years old on June 2.

"This is huge in a lot of ways. This is huge in points. This is big for us and for Petty Enterprises. [Teammate] Bobby [Labonte] has been able to come out and do it. We just have not been able to come out and capitalize on our chances."

Until Sunday night, when they finally did.

The strong finish enabled Petty to jump five spots to 26th in points. Labonte finished a respectable 13th in the 600 and moved up two spots to 17th.

In the end, it was left to the family patriarch to sum up the feel-good night. His trademark sunglasses removed from his smiling face, Richard gazed into the dark night sky at Lowe's Motor Speedway shortly after the race and did just that.

"Finally the sun shined on us," he said. "Or I guess it was the moon shine."

There was no better old-school way to put it for NASCAR's most-beloved old-school team.