Petty Enterprises Sells Majority Stake, Locks Up Labonte For Four Years

[UNHWildCats]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/8234058/Equity-firm-takes-over-Petty-Enterprises

[onbison09]

This was pretty suprising to me. Petty Enterprises used to be unbeatable. Oh how far the mighty have fallen.

[Eyes of Old Main]

Hopefully this will work out for the Petty's, but consideirng their image and the other holdings of this VC group, I would be concerned that they are going to whore out the Petty name and then leave a bigger mess when they sell the thing down the road tothe next guy. Locking up Labonte is a good move, "retiring" Kyle would be a better move. If they want to expand to a third team as rumored, they should do it through acquisition like DEI. Perhaps used the new money to buy out Ganassi or some other small Dodge team.

[UNHWildCats]

I would imagine an announcement will come soon that Petty will step out of the #45 after this season.... When u finish a race like 12 laps down without crashing or mechanical problems, you have issues.

I would then expect them to get a young driver to compliment the veteran Labonte and if they have interest in a third car hold off until 2010 for that.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I think this a good move. Labonte is a really good driver driving inferior equipment. I think he's a lot like Bill Elliott was before he moved to Evernham and had one last run of success. Hopefully the team can get the resources now to put two competitive cars on the track. As crazy as this sounds if Petty would switch back to GM, he ran pontiac for a long time, Stewert might consider a move there. It seems quite obvious he wants out of Gibbs.

[UNHWildCats]

I think this a good move. Labonte is a really good driver driving inferior equipment. I think he's a lot like Bill Elliott was before he moved to Evernham and had one last run of success. Hopefully the team can get the resources now to put two competitive cars on the track. As crazy as this sounds if Petty would switch back to GM, he ran pontiac for a long time, Stewert might consider a move there. It seems quite obvious he wants out of Gibbs.

Stewart wants ownership stake, thats unlikely now..... I wonder if they approached him about it before going the route they went. Im not sure theres any other existing ownership opportunities out there. He could very well start his own team, though he would probably need to start off connected with another team as he would have a hard time building up a orginization in time for 2009, he certainly could work out a deal with Hendrick to supply cars for a couple years while he builds up an orginization and theres no better exisiting owner to work with.

[jstate83]

This was pretty suprising to me. Petty Enterprises used to be unbeatable. Oh how far the mighty have fallen.


It's not so much that they fell.
They just tried to stay a TRUE family owned race team in Mordern NASCAR times way too long.
They should have made this move year's ago.
Unless you Bill Gates, that's not going to happen anymore.

When you talking a $5 to $10 million investment per car, the Petty's don't have the money to compete with Hendrick, DEI, Joe Gibb's, or any other team that is partnered with corporate America beyond the "endorsement on the hood" types of deal's.

How can the Petty's compete with a team using TOYOTA Race Car's with TOYOTA RACING backing them.
They can't. xsmhx

[Eyes of Old Main]

I don't blame the Petty's for trying, I blame them for hanging on too long. When the sport changed, they didn't change with it. They got behind in the late 80's, got further behind in the 90's, and can't even make the field sometimes now. This might not be the best partnership out there, but at least it throws some cash at the situation. More time testing, better employees, better equipment and the like will help close the gap. Labonte is as good as anyone else they could reasonably get, Kyle is not (even on the occasions he qualifies well, he falls to the back within a few laps). They need to get a new young driver (like Chad McCumbee who they used a few times) and build for the future with the #45. As it stands now, I'm afraid Kyle is going to keep honoring his son's memory by getting himself killed if he doesn't stay in the broadcast booth and out of the race car.