Petty's 800th start comes at a 'perfect' time, place

Kyle Petty was sitting outside his race shop when he called on Monday afternoon. He was getting ready for Indianapolis. He had just completed the Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride. His thoughts on that?

"It was perfect, man," Petty said. "But it was hot in Florida."

Really? In Florida? In mid-July?

• NASCAR on TNT

"Yeah, man. I mean really hot," he said. "It made the air conditioning seem even better."

Motorcycles have air conditioning?

"No, but when we stopped at a gas station everybody ran inside," he said. "That's where the air conditioning was. Man, it was hot."

No matter when or where Kyle Petty tells a story, the room stops, everyone listens, and Kyle simply talks. It's never a speech, or a lecture. It's a conversation, usually punctuated with humor and dramatic hand gestures, always with an intriguing ending.

This Sunday Kyle will add a page to his own story when he takes the green flag at Indianapolis in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. It will be his 800th career start.

Only five other drivers have made 800 or more starts in the Nextel Cup Series: Darrell Waltrip (809), Dave Marcis (883) and The King, Richard Petty, with 1,185 are three of them. Terry Labonte and Ricky Rudd are members of the 800-plus club, and counting. Terry heads to Indy with 848 starts, Ricky has 875.

Jeff Gordon has 473. Let's see, there are 17 more races this year, which would be 490. If the schedule stays at 36 races a year and Jeff doesn't miss a race, in nine years that would be 324 races, add 490 to 324, that's 814, I think. That means in 2016 Jeff Gordon will pass the 800 start mark. Ya think?

Peyton Manning would have to play every regular season game, 16 a season, for 50 seasons to get 800 starts. Sydney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League is a teenage superstar. If he plays every regular season game it would take him 10 years to get to 800 games.

Roger Clemens will turn 45 years old on Aug. 4. He shares a birthday with Gordon and Kurt Busch. Clemens made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox on May 15, 1984. He has appeared in 701 games (as of this past Tuesday). It is unlikely he will reach the 800-start mark. For the record, Clemens has 701 appearances, 699 of them have been as a starter.

Kyle likes to say that 800 starts in the Nextel Cup Series simply means he is old. He is 47 years of age. Longevity is a rare reward in any professional sport. And don't let him kid you, he knows it.

"I have never really thought about it," Petty said. "But I remember going to Michigan for dad's 1,000th start. My sisters were there. It was Father's Day. It was a big deal.

"I was just walking through Adam's shop the other day and there's a photo of my 500th start. I remember thinking, wow, that's half of what The King did. That's a lot of racing." People don't really hang around that long any more, but it's all I've ever known. I just love being around the races, around the cars, around the people that race."

Kyle's count could be even higher, but in 1991 he was injured in a wreck at Talladega and missed 11 races that season. He was injured at the Brickyard in 1996 and missed the next three races. He ran just 19 races in 2000, leaving his Nextel Cup ride to take Adam's seat in the Busch Series after his death in May of that year. And in recent years he failed to make a handful of races. This season he missed five races working in the TNT booth. (Continued)