A blast from the past: Petty car in championship hunt

HAMPTON, Ga. -- To Richard Petty, winning never gets old.

"Get up on race morning, our job is to win the race. Get up on Monday morning, our job is to win the next race," the seven-time NASCAR champion said. "It never gets old when you win. I've been real fortunate, won a bunch of races and stuff. It never gets old. I've never won enough that it got old and boring as far as that part is concerned. Again, it's a new adrenaline flow every time we run a race or win a race."

A step closer

Kasey Kahne pulled away with 10 laps to go in Atlanta and boosted his Chase prospects with one race remaining.

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This from a man with 200 career race victories, more than any other driver in the history of NASCAR. Now he has two this season as an owner, the latest coming courtesy of Kasey Kahne, who shot to the lead on the final restart and held on Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In his red Richard Petty Motorsports car, Kahne didn't dominate the Pep Boys 500 -- two other drivers led more laps -- but a late caution gave him the opportunity to overtake Kevin Harvick for the victory.

The King will take it.

"No matter how you run, or how good you run or how bad, circumstances [are] beyond anyone's control," Petty said. "Circumstances fell our way on that last caution flag, and that put us in a position for the pit crew to do their job and the driver to do his job."

For all his success on the race track, winning is something Petty hasn't experienced much of the past decade. His Petty Enterprises team, a staple on the NASCAR circuit for six decades and family owned for most of that time, struggled mightily before it was absorbed prior to this season by the organization formerly known as Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Kahne's first win this season, on the Infineon Raceway road course June 21, was also the first for a car bearing the Petty name since John Andretti won at Martinsville in 1999. That was the 258th and final victory for a Petty Enterprises outfit that produced 10 championships, but was ultimately done in by sponsorship woes. (Continued)