‘The King’ surveys evolving NASCAR empire

LOUDON, N.H. – They call him “The King.”

Richard Petty won seven NASCAR Nextel Cup points championships and has more Cup wins (200) than anyone else.

He has watched the sport evolve, including the addition of the 10-race championship chase implemented three years ago.

Instead of having the champion decided over a 36-race schedule, now the first 26 races whittle the competitors down to the top 10 in points and they are the only ones eligible to win the points championship over the last 10 races.

He admits that he wouldn’t have liked it if they switched from the old format to the new one when he was driving, but he says change is good.

“To get bigger and better, you’ve got to have some changes,” said Petty. “The old-timers don’t like some of the changes being made and probably some of the new-timers don’t like them either.

“But the competition drives us to go different. For us to grow as a sport against other sources of entertainment, we have to make changes. What you’re trying to do is keep up with the ‘Now’ generation. Each generation is different, so you have to change your way of doing things to reach that generation.

“To me, the Chase isn’t the way it’s supposed to be done,” Petty added. “But from a PR [public relations] standpoint and for the excitement it brought to the new fans by making something new in the sport, it was a great thing. Every time you lose an old fan, you’ve got to gain two new fans to go forward. People look at their world differently than they did 20 years ago. NASCAR is not only creating a trend, it’s trying to keep up with the trends.”

Petty said he raced during a unique time and his generation of racers created the foundation for the sport’s growth.

He said although it was originally considered a “southern sport,” he pointed out they had “Canadian fans and California fans and stuff” back then.

He said news of the sport “leaked out” to fans all over the country.

“We pre-advertised. The newspapers did some of that, but our sponsors were primarily responsible for it. We didn’t have much TV back then,” he said.

Nowadays, Petty is trying to get his Petty Enterprise cars to Victory Lane.

His son, Kyle, and teammate Bobby Labonte failed to qualify for the Chase. A Petty Enterprises car has never made the Chase.

Labonte is currently running 27th in points and Petty is 33rd.

“Hopefully, we’re laying a good foundation to go ahead and move forward. I stayed in the old school too long because that’s all I knew. We didn’t have engineers back then. Now that I realize I don’t know everything, I’ve gone out and hired people from this generation who are doing some different stuff trying to make us better,” said Petty.

He said the change in philosophy in Nextel Cup will make it difficult for veteran drivers like Newburgh native Ricky Craven to return to the sport. Craven hasn’t driven full time for a Nextel Cup team since 2004.

“In the past, drivers could go from team to team to team until they really hit on a good combination,” he said. “Now the sponsors and team owners aren’t willing to take a chance on somebody who tried a couple of times and didn’t make it. They’d rather go into the grandstands and get somebody to try it.

“Today, you get one chance and, if you’re lucky, a second chance,” said Petty.