Head2Head: Team Petty

The saying goes: This ain't your daddy's (insert subject here). For Petty Enterprises, the subject here is NASCAR. This ain't Kyle Petty's daddy's NASCAR. For that matter it's not Kyle's NASCAR, either.

The glory days of Richard Petty are long gone. And so, too, are the competitive wares of Petty Enterprises. It has less to do with the location of its race shop, the people it hires to lead the race team and the drivers -- including Kyle himself -- who seem unable to get the job done. It has more to do with the economics of today's NASCAR, where teams are not so much more operations as they are conglomerates.

Hendrick Motorsports is a conglomerate, so is Roush Fenway Racing. They are the examples Richard Childress cited for his team adding a fourth car to its stable beginning in 2009 -- and possibly the beginning of the end for Petty Enterprises with General Mills shifting its sponsorship dollars from the famed 43 car to the new 33 of RCR.

It's not as if RCR is struggling. Currently, drivers Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick are 1-2 in the point standings, and Clint Bowyer is 12th. All three drivers made the Chase last year.

So what is it saying when Childress feels so strongly his team cannot continue at its current pace without the additional resources a fourth car would bring? Joe Gibbs Racing? Switched to Toyota's mega-millions. Yates Racing? Can't find sponsors. The Wood Brothers? No longer relevant. Petty Enterprises? Banking on the name.

Unfortunately for Petty Enterprises, the results no longer match the name. It's been two decades of decline. The additions of championship-winning crew chief Robbie Loomis and championship-winning driver Bobby Labonte have yet to reap the desired results. Labonte has three top-fives and 11 top-10s in 78 starts in the 43 car. He had four top-fives and seven top-10s in 2005, his last year in JGR's 18 car. Kyle Petty's weekends are spent trying to stay in the top 35 in owner points, of which currently he is not. He'll turn his seat over to Chad McCumbee this week at Texas.

Kyle didn't give a specific reason, but one might think he sees the writing on the wall. That could be the case for Petty Enterprises, as well. It would be sad not to see the 43 on the track, but it's also sad to see it as it is today.

Richard Petty forever will be a prominent and popular figure, and NASCAR has no better goodwill ambassador than Kyle Petty. There will always be a place for the Pettys in NASCAR at the track. It's just no longer on the track.

Times are tough at Petty Enterprises right now, but has the sport passed the team by -- no way!

The team was founded in 1949, the same year as NASCAR, by Lee Petty and has been around for all 60 seasons of the sport. To put it simply, Petty Enterprises is NASCAR and to claim the team has run its course is ludicrous.

Yes, times have been tough on Petty Enterprises for a while. The team hasn't won a race since 1999 when John Andretti took the checkered at Martinsville, but you have to look at progress -- and believe it or not, there has been some.

From 2000-2005, Andretti scored Petty Enterprises its one and only top-five -- the team has had four in the last two seasons with Bobby Labonte scoring three and Kyle Petty adding one.

There are seven teams currently in NASCAR who don't have as many top-fives the last two seasons including Wood Bros. Racing, Hall of Fame Racing, Bill Davis Racing and Yates Racing. Is it time to close up shop for all of them as well?

For Petty to be successful again changes will need to be made and the team has already proven it will do what is needed. It wasn't easy to relocate to Davidson, N.C. from the home base of Randleman, N.C., but they did it. The team also added championship crew chief Robbie Loomis as vice president of operations in 2006 -- and improvement can already be seen.

It won't be easy to take Kyle Petty out of the No. 45, but giving the ride to Chad McCumbee in Texas is the right step and hopefully Kyle realizes his racing career has come to an end and it's time to do what he was meant to do which is television. McCumbee has improved tremendously in the Truck Series this season, with two of his six career top-10s coming this year along with his first top-five, a fifth at Atlanta.

It will be tough to replace General Mills as sponsor of the No. 43, but it can be done. One major factor will be Labonte, whose contract with the team is up after this season. If Petty Enterprises can keep Labonte, something that seems like more and more of a possibility, then a sponsor will come. It's the famous 43, trust me, someone will back it with some money.

Will Petty Enterprises dominate the way it did in the 80s and before? Probably not, but the team is still a viable one. Labonte still has some years left in him, McCumbee could be a breakout star and not enough time has passed for Loomis and the shop move to show in the results.

Let's not close the book on Petty Enterprises just yet, doesn't "The King" deserve better?