TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

By SHAV GLICK

April 28, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Richard Petty is 61 now, and the man even his son Kyle calls “King” says that stock car racing just isn’t the same today as it was a couple of decades ago when he was terrorizing NASCAR tracks.

Richer, yes, but not as much fun.

“We had what I call a family atmosphere. Now it’s showtime,” said Petty, now the overseer of Petty Enterprises in Level Cross, N.C. “Guys used to hang out in the garage and talk to each other, jawin’ over one thing and another. If there was any disagreements, they’d settle it right there.

“Now they don’t even talk to each other. Not because they don’t want to, because if they hung around today, they’d be mobbed by agents, fans, cats with notebook pads and mikes. They’ve got to hide in their big ol’ motorhomes where nobody can see them. Or else take off to work for sponsors.

“It’s the way society demands it. It’s a corporate world now at the track. It’s great for making money, but it sure takes a lot of the fun out of racing. I wonder if these young guys know what they’re missing.”

It may be a corporate world, but it’s a lucrative one.

For example, when Petty won his seventh and last Winston Cup championship in 1979, he collected $175,000. Last year, Jeff Gordon won $2 million, as will this year’s champion. Gordon’s overall 1998 earnings of $9.3 million are nearly $2 million more than Petty’s winnings during a 35-year career.

Even as short a time ago as 1994, the exposure value for Winston Cup telecasts was $448 million, according to figures compiled by Joyce Julius & Associates. Last year the figure reached $1.2 billion, an increase of 167.9% in five seasons.

The fun might not be as great, but all that money helps pay for private jets, yachts, estate homes and other playthings for today’s racers.

Drivers, and the way they drive, have changed too.

“Things just ain’t like they was when me and David [Pearson] was rubbin’ on each other every race,” Petty said. “Them cats we was racin’ against were bigger and stronger and fearless.

“Competition is much tougher today, partly because of power steering, and partly because of all that computer stuff they have. When I was driving, only three or four guys had a real chance to win. Today, there are a dozen or more.

“I doubt if cats like Jeff Gordon or Mike Martin or a lot of the fellows today could have won back when I started. Before power steering [introduced to NASCAR in 1981 by Geoff Bodine], drivers were tough physically, big, strong guys who could handle an ill-handling car by brute strength.

“Dale Earnhardt could have done it, and probably Rusty [Wallace] and Dale Jarrett, but Gordon is more a finesse driver. That’s what it takes today. Power steering changed driving from physical to mental, from muscle to finesse.

“I’m not saying guys 20 or 30 years ago were better, they were just different. Gordon is a natural talent and he’s been racing since he was 6, but he doesn’t fit the image of Junior Johnson or Curtis Turner. They’re more Earnhardt-type of drivers, big, strong and mean.”

Martin disputes that characterization.

“We didn’t grow up in that era, but I’m sure if we did, we could have handled it,” he said. “In 1981, when I started racing Winston Cup, I had a car with no power steering and got a third in my fourth race.

“The thing about power steering is, if one guy had it and no one else did, he would win for sure. But with everyone the same, even today it still gets back to the guys who are in the best shape. In the ‘80s no one worked out with weights or in the gym, so I doubt if they were as physical as today’s drivers.”

Among the things Petty--whose record of 200 Winston Cup victories is probably out of even Gordon’s reach--misses are the great rivalries of his era.

“For pure rivalry, there’s been nothing like me and David,” he said. “We had two dominant cars and both had great years in the same season. We raced each other hard--we probably run 1-2 30 times or so--but never wrecked each other except for that 1976 Daytona 500.”

That was the year Petty and Pearson came down to the last turn and crashed together about 100 yards short of the finish line. When Petty, who almost crossed it sliding, couldn’t get his car restarted, Pearson limped his Mercury across the finish line, at about 10 mph, to win.

“Racing could use a good rivalry, like that baseball thing last year when both them cats [Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa] was hitting home runs,” Petty said.

Reminded that Gordon-Martin and Gordon-Jeff Burton seemed to be for-real rivalries, Petty said neither was the same as his with Pearson, his with Bobby Allison, or Cale Yarborough versus Darrell Waltrip.

“There’s too many good drivers for two guys to run 1-2 all the time,” he said. “Martin and Gordon won 20 races [between them] last year, but how many times did they run 1-2?”

Six, it turns out, among them three in a row at Pocono, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen.

Petty Enterprises is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year in Level Cross. And as Richard said, things have changed since Lee Petty began working on his cars in 1949 in a 200-square foot garage out behind the family home.

The Petty compound, where Winston Cup cars for Kyle Petty and John Andretti, a Craftsman Truck for Jimmy Hensley and a Busch Grand National car for fourth-generation driver Adam Petty, now occupies about 60,000 square feet.

Two weeks ago in Martinsville, Va., Petty’s team became the first to win major events in Winston Cup and Craftsman Trucks at the same speedway the same weekend with different drivers. Hensley drove the No. 43 STP Dodge pickup to victory Saturday and Andretti came back Sunday to win the Cup race in the No. 43 STP Pontiac Grand Prix.

“John’s win showed us at Petty Enterprises that we are on the right track for what we need to do over the next three- to five-year period,” said Kyle Petty. “In the overall scheme of things, it was an important win for us now and for the next 50 years.

“There was a time when Petty Enterprises was the yardstick for Winston Cup racing. We were the Hendricks and the Roushes of the day. To be honest, we fell off in the ‘80s. Now we’re trying to catch up. The way the two teams ran shows that we are well on our way to building what it takes to be competitive in the long run.”

Winning at Martinsville had special meaning for the Petty clan.

King Richard won 15 times at the .526-mile oval, the oldest and shortest of Winston Cup tracks, and Lee won three times in the 1950s.

Andretti’s win was the team’s first since Richard had won there in 1979, however.

“I’ll never forget that day,” said Lynda Petty, Richard’s wife. “Richard was signing autographs while we waited in the infield with the children. Electric windows in cars were new then. Kyle and his sisters had the windows in our car going up and down, up and down during the whole time we were waiting.

“Finally, Richard finished meeting fans and came over to drive home. He was hot and tired. The car wouldn’t start. The kids had run the battery down.

“It’s funny now, but at that time Richard wasn’t happy at all.”

Could incidents like that be what Richard says the young guys are missing?

Kyle remembers the fun he had playing on Martinsville’s old scoreboard after his dad’s races.

“I’d take the numbers and put 43 up on the board for all five positions,” he said. “Then the kids of other drivers would replace 43 with their dads’ number. I usually got the last turn because we stayed the longest. When we left, 43 usually was all over the board.”

Andretti’s win raised Petty Enterprises’ overall record of Winston Cup victories to 271, almost double the total of runner-up Junior Johnson, whose drivers won 140 times. Third, and second among active teams, is the Wood Brothers’ team with 97.

Andretti passed Gordon for second with 11 laps remaining and got leader Jeff Burton with three to go, earning himself the ultimate compliment from King Richard: “It looked like Richard Petty in the car.”

Andretti averaged only 75.653 mph at Martinsville and now must drive California Speedway this weekend, where Gordon averaged 155.012 mph in winning in 1997.

“Speeds are relative,” said Andretti, who once ran 298 mph in a top-fuel dragster. “It’s a little bit like driving your car at 70 mph. If you’re on the interstate, it’s not that much of a deal. If you’re driving that fast down a mountain road, it’s way too fast.

“California Speedway is built for close to 200-mph speed, but it’s all relative because everybody around you is going the same speed and it’s speeds you expect. You lose the sensation pretty quickly, mainly because you’re busy in the car. There’s a lot going on, a lot of concentration, communication with the spotter and the pits, and a lot of figuring out what everybody around you is doing.”

It doesn’t seem so many years ago that Kyle was the young Petty trying to make a name for himself in the family business, and now it’s Adam in the same position, racing for his dad’s team.

“I like hanging out with Adam and that crowd because they’ve got a fresh look on things,” Kyle said. “People like talking to Tony Stewart because this is all new to him. Any time you talk to someone new, you get a brand new outlook, a new opinion, a fresh look.

“You go hang out with Adam and his crowd and they’ve got that different outlook. That part has been pretty fun.”

Andretti will be in No. 43 and Kyle in the No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac when Winston Cup cars qualify Friday, with Adam Petty, 18, in the No. 45 Pontiac Busch car.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Career Victories

Winningest drivers in NASCAR Winston Cup history through April 25 (*indicates active drivers):

1. Richard Petty: 200

2. David Pearson: 105

3. Darrell Waltrip*: 84

3. Bobby Allison: 84

5. Cale Yarborough: 83

6. Dale Earnhardt*: 72

7. Lee Petty: 55

8. Ned Jarrett: 50

8. Junior Johnson: 50