Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500
‘Takes a complete package at Atlanta’

Heading to the hometown of sponsors Georgia-Pacific and Coca-Cola, Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team move to the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway this week for Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

Petty, 43, will be making his 676th career start this weekend. He is 10th on the all-time list in NASCAR Winston Cup career starts, and fourth among active drivers. His eight career victories place him 45th on NASCAR’s all-time list in Winston Cup wins. One of the most recognizable names in international motorsports, as is his sponsor, Georgia-Pacific, Petty’s driving career began with a five-race season in 1979. The native of Level Cross, N.C., has won over $17 million.

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into Atlanta:

“Atlanta is about the fastest track we run these days. With the restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega, Atlanta has redesigned in the past few years and has gotten faster and faster. Atlanta and Texas are two really fast race tracks.

“For a race car driver, speed in itself isn’t that big of a deal. We like to go fast. That’s one of the reasons we are in the business we are in. The goal for every team every week is to go as fast as you can go and still hold onto the race car. It doesn’t do any good to have a car that can go 200 miles per hour at, say, Martinsville because you wouldn’t be able to get through the turns. You wouldn’t be able to get through one turn.

“A 200 mile-per-hour car at Martinsville does you no more good than a 90 mile-per-hour car at Atlanta. You have to go fast at Atlanta. You have to have a lot of horsepower but you need to handle too, and be able to get through the turns just right.

“Speed is a relative thing. One-hundred is fast at Martinsville and it’s slow at Atlanta.

“There are only two negatives about speed at a race track. The first negative is when you don’t have enough of it. When everybody else is faster than you, that’s a bad thing. While the fastest car doesn’t always win the race, you need a fast car to be in a position to win the race. There’s an old saying, “Money doesn’t buy happiness, but neither does poverty.” Well, speed doesn’t always win the race but running slow doesn’t either.

“The other negative is the fact things happen so fast on a fast race track like Atlanta. When you are moving around the track, that may or may not be such a big deal. It becomes a big deal when something bad happens in front of you. If somebody has trouble in front of you, you get to them a whole lot quicker at 200 miles per hour than you do at 100 miles per hour. There isn’t a whole lot of dodging – a lot of times it’s just aim the car and hope you made a good decision. If you did, you are on the other side of the smoke pretty quick. If not, you are on the back of the wrecker pretty quick.

“Horsepower is so crucial at Atlanta. You just have to have that big push down the straightaways. You are carrying a lot of speed through the turns too but horsepower is the thing. How many times have you seen a guy holding steady with another car through the turns at Atlanta and then get left behind on the straightaways.

“You have to handle. Don’t get me wrong on that. If you are not getting through the turns at Atlanta, then you are leaving way too much on the table. A ton of horsepower with a car that isn’t handling isn’t good either. You have to have the complete package at Atlanta. Anything less leads to nothing but a long, long day.

“Atlanta may be one of the busiest tracks we go to because of that. The engine people are constantly looking for just a little bit more horsepower. The chassis guys are looking for just a little bit better handling. The engineers are looking for just a little bit better aero package. And everybody is looking to make things fit together just a little bit better.

“This is a big race for us, obviously. With Georgia-Pacific and Coca-Cola right there in the neighborhood, we want to show off for them a little bit. A lot of their employees come to the races at Atlanta, and we’d love to give them some ‘bragging rights’ come Monday.

“It’s going to take a complete package from this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team to do that.”

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win