By JENNA FRYER
AP Sports Writer
October 8, 2002



RANDLEMAN, N.C. (AP) -- Two years after Adam Petty's death, the
NASCAR community honored the late racer in a celebration to mark the
start of construction on a children's camp being built in his honor.

Winston Cup champions Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte, car owners
Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Felix Sabates and NASCAR president Mike
Helton headlined dozens of NASCAR celebrities who joined actors Paul
Newman, Andie MacDowell and close to 1,000 other supporters in
celebrating the Victory Junction Gang Camp on Tuesday.

``When we topped the hill, I was humbled and in awe at the people
who are here,'' Kyle Petty said as he choked back tears. ``You will
never know how much this means for me to see you guys here.''

Petty's 19-year-old son was killed in an accident while practicing
for a Busch series race at New Hampshire International Speedway in
May, 2000.

He had made his Winston Cup debut just a few weeks before his death,
and his participation in that race made the Pettys the only four-
generation family of racers in NASCAR.

Before the wreck, his parents had been active in trying to start a
camp for children with life-threatening illnesses modeled after
Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camps. Those efforts were sidelined
in the months following Adam's death, but his mother, Pattie,
eventually rekindled them as a way to honor her oldest son.

The Pettys then went to work raising money for the camp and have
collected $10 million of the needed $24 million to complete the
efforts.

Many of the funds have come from the NASCAR community as drivers
have either made donations, participated in the Pettys' annual
charity motorcycle ride or held their own fund-raisers.

Ken Schrader recently held a celebrity night of racing at a track he
owns in Missouri that raised $100,000 for the camp. And when Tony
Stewart competed in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on
the same day last year, he teamed with sponsor Home Depot and Gibbs
to donate a combined $300 for every lap he completed during the
double-duty.

``This was never supposed to be a Petty thing,'' said seven-time
Winston Cup champion Richard Petty. ``This was supposed to be a
NASCAR thing and it's just so incredible to see our community help
out the way it has.

``We've got 10 to 12 drivers here, car owners, crew chiefs, all
people who have their own things to do and instead, they came out to
celebrate this day with us.''

The 65-acre camp will be located on land donated by Richard and
Lynda Petty and will be the seventh member of Newman's camps, which
were founded in 1988.

The camp will provide children with chronic or terminal diseases a
weeklong haven to ride horses, swim, paddle canoes or perform on a
stage. Medical staff stand by at all times to provide everything
from insulin to chemotherapy. Goodys Headache Powder presented the
Pettys with a $1 million check at the celebration in support of the
medical center.

``This is about luck, the brutality of luck in some cases served as
the impetus to bring this camp to life,'' Newman said. ``The
brutality of luck, especially in a young kid who may not have a
lifetime ... and luck on the other end of the spectrum, especially
being born in this country with good health and the wherewithal to
be able to create something like this.''

The Pettys' camp, which is scheduled to open in 2004, will serve
children from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

``I think the one thing people will always remember about Adam was
his smile,'' Pattie Petty said. ``This camp is going to bring a lot
of smiles to a lot of children and that's what Adam would have
wanted.''

After the ceremony, the Pettys took a group of supporters, including
Newman and Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford to a local race track
for a day of racing. Others were invited to ride horses on the
family farm as the Pettys mingled with their extended family and
shared memories of Adam.

``On one hand it's hard because we want to move on and get past
this,'' Richard Petty said. ``But it makes you feel real good to see
how many people are here for us and how many people want to share
with us in Adam's memory.''