The exodus is under way for Petty Enterprises.

By Jan. 2, most of it will be complete as the storied NASCAR operation moves its headquarters 74 miles south from Level Cross, N.C., to the recently vacated Robert Yates Racing buildings in Mooresville, N.C., much closer to most of the other top race shops who call North Carolina home.

For Richard Petty, the legendary driver and car owner who remains the nominal head of Petty Enterprises, most of the tears over the move already have been shed. Yes, it is difficult to move from a place the family-based organization has called home for nearly 60 years, next to the home where Richard grew up and still only a short drive from where he lives today. But he said the hardest part of the move, which is taking place in stages, was deciding to move in the first place -- a decision made months ago after seriously considering it for several years.

A new home

In November, Petty Enterprises announced they will move into the vacated Robert Yates Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C., to get closer to the Charlotte area in hopes of becoming more competitive.

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"The hard part was making the decision," Petty said. "It's easy after that."

Well, it's not that easy. The red moving trucks with the Petty Enterprises logos displayed prominently on the side have been rolling out of 311 Branson Mill Rd. (a Randleman, N.C. mailing address but actually located in Level Cross) for weeks now, heading south toward the RYR complex in Mooresville.

On Wednesday, the fabrication shop and machine shop personnel and their equipment were scheduled to complete their move from the old facility to the new. On Dec. 31, the finish fabrication and suspension folks and all their machinery is scheduled to arrive at their new working address. Most of the rest of the Petty operation will move into the new digs by Jan. 2, followed by the assembly and setup teams for the group's two Sprint Cup cars by Jan. 8.

The No. 45 car driven by Kyle Petty, Richard's son, will leave for the first week of testing at Daytona out of Level Cross but will return to the new shop in Mooresville on Jan. 10. The No. 43 car driven by Bobby Labonte will leave for the second week of Daytona testing out of Level Cross around the same time and return to its new base of operations for good on Jan. 17.

Thrones, old and new

Speaking out of his office -- modest yet still somehow formidable -- at Level Cross recently, Richard spoke candidly about his mixed emotions regarding the move.

"The deal is you've been somewhere for 60 years. Born in the house right up here, and never went nowhere," Petty said. "Then to be able to take the whole racing complex, as far as all the equipment and stuff, and move to another location -- even if it was just down the road, it would be just as hard to take.

"So like I've told everybody, 'You're moving our body, but you ain't moving our heart.' You know what I mean? Your heart is always going to be here because this is home."

Richard admits that he was among the last to be convinced the move was necessary for the greater good and the future of Petty Enterprises. Though located only a 90-minute drive from Mooresville and the general race-dominated areas around Charlotte, in recent years it began to seem like the rest of the race world was sometimes light years away -- and ahead.

The other Sprint Cup teams not only had bigger, better shops, but more state-of-the-art equipment either on-site or close enough that they could get to it and rent it for a day on the spur of the moment. There also was the matter of retaining top personnel in a market that grows more competitive daily. Most of the top players in all fields of racing either were located closer to Charlotte or had desires to be living there.

"We've talked about this for the last four or five years," Petty said. "We need to move closer to where the wind tunnels are and the seven-post rigs are, the stuff that we have to go outside to get. So we finally said, 'Last year was a little bit better than the year before, but still not good enough to get us back to the front of the pack.' So we said we were going to make this hard decision and try it anyway. And that's what we're going to do."

Down at the new shop, Steve Gray, a Petty Enterprises employee who is helping oversee much of the move, is busy making sure enough fresh paint has been ordered for areas of the old Robert Yates Racing shop that need spruced up a bit.

To say it is the "old" RYR shop is a misnomer, for it is quite impressive. Compared to what is being left behind in Level Cross, it is bright and gleaming and far more open. It is expansive, and there also is a large building across the street from the main shop that will be used for various purposes, giving Petty Enterprises more space to flex its racing muscles than it has had in nearly six decades.

Asked how many square feet the new place encompasses, Gray shrugs.

"The other place was big. This place is real big," he said.

History vs. future

The other place just didn't seem big. It seemed intimate. It dripped -- no, make that drips -- with racing history.

The white-painted buildings at Level Cross are low-slung and cramped and many at least appear to be made out of fabricated metal. But it remains something special, according to Dale Inman, Petty's long-time crew chief and, he says, part-time second cousin.

"I don't always claim him," Inman said with a smile and a wink.

Inman has a tiny office at the Level Cross facility and no doubt will be awarded a much larger, nicer one in Mooresville. But he knows it won't be the same, for him or anyone else.

"It won't make that much of a difference to me, because I'll be able to come and go as I please and I'm not sure how often I'll make the drive. But it will be a major adjustment for a lot of people," Inman said.

A few days later, Inman is at the new place, poking around and giving some semi-guided tours -- for even he isn't all that sure where everything is yet. You get the idea he won't be able to stay away all that much, from either the new place or the old one.

Looking out at the main floor just outside the reception area at the former RYR building, the place seems to shine with hope for the future.

Founded in 1949 by Richard's father, Lee, Petty Enterprises has claimed a record 268 Cup race victories -- but none since 1999. Last season Labonte finished 18th in the driver and owner's points standings, and Kyle Petty finished 35th. They all want more, and figured they had to move to Mooresville to get in position to get it.

"This place is nice," said Inman, gazing around. "But it won't get it done for us. We still have to do the work ourselves."

Back in Level Cross, Petty wants to make it clear that he isn't vacating the old place completely.

"I'm still going to operate out of here, as far as a bunch of stuff that I do," said Richard, owner of 200 of the race wins claimed by Petty Enterprises. "My secretary will still be here and all that stuff. I'll spend a lot of time going back and forth, seeing what's going on at the race shop. But all my scheduling and all my deals will be done out of here, so I'll spend half my time here and half my time over there."

Already folks are applying daily for jobs that mostly don't exist at the new place (all but "one or two" of the current employees will either relocate or make the daily commute from their current homes). But some of the jobs at the old place will remain in place as well -- at least for now.

"I've got some of the deal done for the body shop. I've got a bunch of cars for them to work on and stuff," Richard said. "We might move the museum back up here [from its current location in Randleman]; we might run a [Nationwide Series] car out of here. We don't know yet.

"Our main deal now is let's leave this place in limbo, and let's go get our [Cup] racecars going down at the new place, our new main deal. Then we'll figure out what we're going to do with what we've got left."

Petty also addressed rumors that the state of North Carolina is thinking of designating the Level Cross complex as a historic site.

"I think some of our people want to look into that -- like a Graceland. I mean, something like that. We've been here 60 years, going back to my dad. I've been driving out of here for 50 years," said Richard, his voice picking up steam.

"If you look at NASCAR, no matter where the road goes you've always had to come through here at one time or another. That's what I tell everybody: the place is old and all that, but when you walk through that gate, you're walking into history. We've had 268 race-winning Cup cars roll out of here; there ain't nobody else even close to that. Everything anybody else has done has already been done -- and it's been done up here."

Now the question is, can it be done again, 74 miles to the south? Richard Petty would like to think so.

"We're just different. But of course, we've been here a long time. When you look back at all that we've accomplished, most of that stuff [meaning all the race victories and the 10 series championships shared between him and his father] was done in probably a 20- or 22-year period," Petty said. "We ARE history, but now we're like the Green Bay Packers. They were down and now they're working their way back to the top. The Yankees have done the same thing. So we know it can be done. We just have to try to take the right steps to do it."

He hopes the biggest ones are taking place right now.