By Lee Montgomery, NASCAR.COM
February 12, 2005
08:02 PM EST


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Petty name used to be magical at Daytona
International Speedway.

Lee Petty, the patriarch of racing's first family, won the first
Daytona 500 in a photo finish back in 1959. Son Richard Petty earned
his royal nickname, "The King," in part by winning seven Daytona
500s -- a record that could stand for a long, long time.



History Lesson
Kyle Petty's career record
in the Daytona 500
Year Start Finish
1981 11 32
1982 12 23
1983 7 33
1984 15 40
1985 6 37
1986 7 16
1987 20 35
1988 21 18
1990 22 24
1991 6 16
1992 33 6
1993 1 31
1994 26 39
1995 13 12
1996 29 18
1997 30 14
1998 39 11
1999 24 7
2000 42 25
2001 28 16
2002 34 41
*2003 30 13
2004 33 21
Avg. 21 23

* -- Rain-shortened race

Kyle Petty started his career at Daytona in an ARCA race in 1979,
and, of course, he won it.

But since Kyle was good at Daytona in the early 1990s, not much has
gone right for Petty Enterprises. The lowest blow to the Petty pride
came in the Pepsi 400 in July 2003.

Two of the team's three cars, including the No. 43 Richard made
famous, failed to qualify. And Kyle's No. 45 barely snuck in,
getting the sixth of seven provisionals.

A year-and-a-half later, things seem to be turning around. Powered
by new Evernham Motorsports engines, Kyle Petty cranked out the
third-fastest speed in the final practice before Daytona 500
qualifying.

Jeff Gordon was quickest at 189.849 mph but that was with a draft
off another car, Gordon said. Elliott Sadler, who was fastest in
Saturday's first practice, was second at 188.675.

Petty was a tick behind Sadler at 188.312. Jimmie Johnson was
fourth, with Jason Leffler fifth.

Jeff Green, driving the Pettys' No. 43, was 17th-fastest.

Petty, too, said he got a little help on the fast lap.

"Morgan Shepherd had left and was on his first lap and he was
running not fast enough," Petty said. "I won't say he was slow
because he's faster than a lot of people. Obviously when you've got
a car running 50-second flats and you've got another car running a
48, you catch it at a faster rate, so I caught him on both laps.

"We should have been somewhere around (13th-place) Travis Kvapil and
Jeff (Green). I felt like our lap was close to Jeff's. ... That's a
fast lap. It made that 47.40 that Jeff (Gordon) ran look magical
almost. Jeff (Green) and I both should shake out tomorrow somewhere
in the top 10 or 15."

That's still a lot better than struggling to simply make races. It's
nowhere near where Petty wants his team to be, but all the pieces
appear to be in place.

"We've struggled for two or three years down here," Petty said. "Our
guys at the fab shop have worked their tails off and our guys in the
wind tunnel have worked their rear ends off to build really good
cars.

"We've always felt like we had really good cars when we come down
here. We felt like if we hadn't had the cars we had on numerous
occasions we wouldn't have made the race just from an aero
standpoint. We feel like our aero numbers are pretty good."

But the Pettys' old engine program, Mike Ege Racing Engines, wasn't
producing enough horsepower, perhaps as much as 50 horsepower down
from the top teams.

With Evernham engines, however, Petty and Green are on par with the
best cars.

"None of this counts until you go out tomorrow, but our cars are
pretty good," Petty said. "They're running good, and the reason
they're running good right now is because we've got Ray's engines.
This is basically the same chassis and stuff we raced here in July
and ran 25th or 30th with. We've just got more motor now."

Green would certainly agree.

"I think we've got a good package this year," Green said. "You can't
have a good motor without a good body and vice versa. I think the
guys at Petty (Enterprises) have done their homework on the bodies,
and we've definitely got some good motors."

Petty has a new crew chief in veteran Paul Andrews, and the
combination of Petty/Andrews and Green/Greg Steadman appears to be
working

"For four years we brought in car chiefs from other teams and tried
to train them as crew chiefs," Petty said. "We're past that point.
We needed a crew chief, and Paul was a crew chief who could come in
and get the job done.

"The more we looked at it the reason we'd gone through so many crew
chiefs the last two or three years was not so much the crew chief
couldn't work with Jeff Green or John Andretti or Kyle Petty. It's
we had multiple crew chiefs that wouldn't work with each other."

That's changed. Petty said he wasn't even involved in Andrews'
hiring, preferring to let Steadman, the 43 and 45 teams decide who
would be best with which to work.

"If they can work together, that makes it a stronger team," Petty
said. "That's the way we did it this time. It's kind of abnormal
probably, but that's the way we did it. The other ways weren't
working."

So far, it's working, and it's made Green cautiously optimistic at a
chance for second Daytona 500 pole.

"I think we're pretty good, but everybody holds back a little bit,"
Green said. "I think we've got enough held back where hopefully we
can get pretty close to the top five. I don't know if we've got
anything for those top two or three, but you never know what
everybody else is holding back."

Still, winning the Daytona 500 pole in the famous No. 43 would
be "pretty awesome," Green said.

"It would be huge," Green said. "Anytime you can win a pole anywhere
is huge, and I think we've got more opportunities down the road. To
come to Daytona with the 43 and be on the pole would be awesome. It
would be good for Jeff Green."

Both Green and Petty pointed to Gordon, Sadler and Kurt Busch as the
favorites, and Petty said Johnson has a good shot, too. Petty,
though, would be satisfied with qualifying somewhere in the top 20.

Qualifying is less important in 2005 than past years, as the top 35
in owners' points from 2004 are locked into the Daytona 500.

But Petty, too, is optimistic about qualifying, about the Daytona
500 and about the rest of the season.

"We have to learn how to win," Petty said. "It's been a long time,
and when you've been with teams that get out of the habit of winning
you have to learn how to win. We're getting back to a point where we
can be competitive.

"First you've got to be competitive. Then you've got to take
advantage of a few mistakes, and then you've got to learn when it's
time to kill and when it's not time to kill and not go too quick.

"I'm not saying we won't win this year. I'm saying it will be a huge
surprise if we do. We were 32nd and 35th in points last year. You
don't come from 32nd and 35th to win, but we can get to a point this
year where we could win."


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