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Benevolent Petty pushes on
Son of racing legend answers questions about charity and career
By DAVID SCOTT
The Charlotte Observer
Kyle Petty hasn't won a NASCAR Winston Cup race since 1995. Since he was fifth in points in 1993, his best seasons have been 15th-place finishes in 1994 and 1997. But Petty, 43, son of NASCAR legend Richard Petty, has no retirement plans and has continued running a full schedule since his son, Adam, was killed in a speedway accident in 2000.
Kyle Petty runs the family business, Petty Enterprises, and there are few pro athletes as active as he is in charity efforts. Petty and wife Pattie have organized – among other causes – their Victory Junction Gang Camp, Visa Fun Walk for Charity and Charity Ride Across America. Petty spoke with The Observer's David Scott at NASCAR's stop at Dover, Del., last week.
Q. Where do you find the time for all you do?
I don't really pay that much attention to it. Maybe that's how you juggle it. You throw the ball way up and forget about it for a while until it comes down and then you've got to throw it up again. You drive race cars and you look after the company, too. That's the way we've always been. My grandfather did it, my father did it and that's way our company's always done it.
Q. What's your management style?
The whole point of it becomes delegation. I don't run this team by any stretch of the imagination. The bigger it gets, the easier it's become. When it's small, you feel like you need your hands on everything. But you've got be smart enough to know you can't do everything. You go through that period where you think you can. You run everybody into the ground and you tear everything up. Now, it's not that you're not keeping tabs on everything, you just delegate.
Q. How did doing charity work become so important to you?
I grew up in a really small community (Level Cross, near High Point). You had farmers in a rural community, where everybody helped everybody. Forever there was one guy in town with a farm and a hay machine for baling hay. He'd bale everybody's hay, and when he went to bale his hay, everybody would come over to help him get his hay up. Everybody would help each other.
I think growing up with my grandparents, and my mother, there were always bake sales and church get-togethers. That was always part of the community. Now when we started doing this, Dover's our community, L.A.'s our community, Watkins Glen is our community. When you look at it that way, it's easy to become involved.
Q. With all these balls in the air, what kind of relationship do you have with your dad?
He raced. I raced with him. I went somewhere else to race, and raced against him. It's still in the context of father and son, father and son that work together and father and son that love each other. It just keeps rotating around.
Q. Any retirement thoughts?
No, but that would probably be different sitting here today if Adam hadn't had his accident (and been killed in a practice crash at New Hampshire). I might be in a different position in my life and with the company. My focus might have been narrower.
But I was talking to (Evernham Motorsports owner) Ray Evernham, and he said Bill (Elliott) is 47, so I might have four or five more years. Know what I mean? The issue is if you want to. If you really want to, you've got years left.
Son of racing legend answers questions about charity and career
By DAVID SCOTT
The Charlotte Observer
Kyle Petty hasn't won a NASCAR Winston Cup race since 1995. Since he was fifth in points in 1993, his best seasons have been 15th-place finishes in 1994 and 1997. But Petty, 43, son of NASCAR legend Richard Petty, has no retirement plans and has continued running a full schedule since his son, Adam, was killed in a speedway accident in 2000.
Kyle Petty runs the family business, Petty Enterprises, and there are few pro athletes as active as he is in charity efforts. Petty and wife Pattie have organized – among other causes – their Victory Junction Gang Camp, Visa Fun Walk for Charity and Charity Ride Across America. Petty spoke with The Observer's David Scott at NASCAR's stop at Dover, Del., last week.
Q. Where do you find the time for all you do?
I don't really pay that much attention to it. Maybe that's how you juggle it. You throw the ball way up and forget about it for a while until it comes down and then you've got to throw it up again. You drive race cars and you look after the company, too. That's the way we've always been. My grandfather did it, my father did it and that's way our company's always done it.
Q. What's your management style?
The whole point of it becomes delegation. I don't run this team by any stretch of the imagination. The bigger it gets, the easier it's become. When it's small, you feel like you need your hands on everything. But you've got be smart enough to know you can't do everything. You go through that period where you think you can. You run everybody into the ground and you tear everything up. Now, it's not that you're not keeping tabs on everything, you just delegate.
Q. How did doing charity work become so important to you?
I grew up in a really small community (Level Cross, near High Point). You had farmers in a rural community, where everybody helped everybody. Forever there was one guy in town with a farm and a hay machine for baling hay. He'd bale everybody's hay, and when he went to bale his hay, everybody would come over to help him get his hay up. Everybody would help each other.
I think growing up with my grandparents, and my mother, there were always bake sales and church get-togethers. That was always part of the community. Now when we started doing this, Dover's our community, L.A.'s our community, Watkins Glen is our community. When you look at it that way, it's easy to become involved.
Q. With all these balls in the air, what kind of relationship do you have with your dad?
He raced. I raced with him. I went somewhere else to race, and raced against him. It's still in the context of father and son, father and son that work together and father and son that love each other. It just keeps rotating around.
Q. Any retirement thoughts?
No, but that would probably be different sitting here today if Adam hadn't had his accident (and been killed in a practice crash at New Hampshire). I might be in a different position in my life and with the company. My focus might have been narrower.
But I was talking to (Evernham Motorsports owner) Ray Evernham, and he said Bill (Elliott) is 47, so I might have four or five more years. Know what I mean? The issue is if you want to. If you really want to, you've got years left.