Petty Enterprises gets new life -- but something special has died

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On a hot summer Wednesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the past, present, and future of NASCAR came together in one defining moment. King Richard Petty's operation was on the verge of sinking, but seated beside him stood his two anointed saviors responsible for righting the ship -- new CEO David Zucker and a man named Andrew C. Davis.

Those names ring a bell? I wouldn't think so; after all, these business-clad representatives wouldn't have come within 50 miles of a race as little as one decade ago. Zucker used to run Playboy Enterprises -- the furthest thing from Petty's family-friendly image -- and Davis is managing director of a company whose claim to fame, in part, is owning the National Enquirer.

But here they were, an awkward threesome, rising together as one -- and in doing so, becoming the only hope for the famed No. 43 car to rise from the outhouse to the penthouse in this sport's ever-increasing price tag to challenge top competition.

If there was any doubt this isn't your father's NASCAR, this partnership might erase it once and for all.

"More than anything else, it's emotional," Petty explained in revealing the partnership with investor Boston Ventures, a deal that will keep the legendary program afloat for the foreseeable future. "It really got away from us from a family standpoint. I've been here -- went to the very first race that they had over here in Charlotte, with my dad, and we operated just exactly like the France family. Big Bill went out and did the work [back then], and his wife went and looked after things. That's the same way it was with us; Dad [Lee Petty, a three-time NASCAR champion] did the work, and Mom kept up with the money.

"But everything has changed so much from when we first started."

In other words, those mom-and-pop operations have all since been directed towards that giant junkyard in the sky -- and without a financial partner, Petty's two-car team would have joined them in short order. But there was irony in his statements Wednesday, because most of this announcement reassured us that everything within his organization is expected to stay the same -- or so they think.

Despite Boston Ventures becoming a financial partner, King Richard will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the program, and primary driver Bobby Labonte will continue to drive the famed No. 43 -- he announced a four-year contract extension that runs through 2012. More important, the team will open a pipeline to their investor's vast array of financial resources, giving them the money they need to realign and compete with NASCAR's top-tier programs; the two-car organization is already thinking of expansion to a third team by 2010.

"Boston Ventures brings more expertise, more capital," said NASCAR CEO Brian France, head cheerleader for the Petty revival parade. "These are things in high demand to make sure you can field a competitive race team in today's environment."

Yet, you could sense the nostalgia throughout this day, a desire in King Richard's voice for a return to days where family-owned operations could show up and be competitive each Sunday. But those days have long since passed by. While the Pettys haven't visited Victory Lane since John Andretti won at Martinsville in 1999, multi-car operations with millions in financial backing have taken hold on top of the sport. One by one, the Roush Fenway Racings and Hendrick Motorsports of the world have started replacing the NASCAR legends that made their growth possible. Bud Moore, Junior Johnson and June Donlavey are just some of the legends who've seen their time come and go within a business world in which they can no longer compete. And with Petty's primary sponsor, General Mills, leaving the No. 43 at the end of the season -- they have yet to find a replacement -- this team wasn't far from being in the same boat.

"We have so many other investors or other people coming in making NASCAR grow from the outside in, all the years that we've done it," Petty said. "But Junior Johnson, the Wood Brothers, Bud Moore, we did it from the inside out. And we got behind."

"We finally [figured out] that if we're going to play this game, we've got to get in the game. And the only way we could see getting in the game was getting new money coming in."

If the numbers quoted by Davis are true, Petty will no longer have any problem with that; Boston Ventures has spent some $2.5 billion in capital over 70 companies in the past quarter-century. But what's unique about the Petty investment for Boston Ventures is something that could be key to getting future teams to find investors: economic branding across multiple platforms, off the race track as well as on. While the Petty name is synonymous with NASCAR, it's allowed them to branch out in plenty of other ways. Kyle Petty's charitable Victory Junction Gang Camps and the family's Richard Petty Driving Experience are just some of the other businesses to prop up through the years. And now, all of them will be put under one umbrella, with the Boston Ventures name front and center.

"It's a brand that really stands for something. You talk about family, integrity, charity, dedication, hard work," said Zucker, the first non-family member named to head Petty Enterprises in its 60-year history. "So we're going to be looking for ways to expand and leverage the brand in areas that make sense. And we're going to be doing that very proactively, working with Richard and Kyle and the family."

That could mean one of any number of things: Six Flags theme parks (which Ventures owns) complete with a full Richard Petty Driving Experience section, or perhaps a TV show built around the Petty name. It's a saving grace the likes of which put them one step above legendary teams such as the Wood Brothers or Morgan McClure Motorsports. And while those programs are likely headed to the sidelines for good, sooner rather than later, the Pettys had just enough left to be able to fight on.

"It's a long, hard road and we're going to do this one week at a time," said Labonte of the team's future growth. "It's not going to happen overnight, but I do feel like we're going to be putting the right people in the right places to do these things."

But for the first time ever at Petty Enterprises, doing that includes a sizable corporate investment, one that forces them to give up at least some control. And with that in mind, it was hard not to feel that a little piece of NASCAR died Wednesday. After all, selling your soul in order to survive was probably little more than Richard Petty's last resort.