Sharpie 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Sharpie 500

‘Our own reality show - Bristol is matter of survival’

Known for his tenacity on what many consider NASCAR’s most demanding track, Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the .533-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this week for Saturday night’ Sharpie 500.

Petty, 43, will be making his 668th career start this weekend. He is 11th 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 #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into Bristol:

“You run Bristol the way people play golf. In golf, the lowest score wins. At Bristol, everybody gets dents and gets fenders beaten in some, that sort of thing. But it always seems like the car with the least amount of those things is the one with the best chance to win the race.

“Or the one sitting in the garage two laps into the race.

“In a lot of ways, Bristol is a battle of survival. You spend the first 450 laps trying not to let your car get torn up so that you can tear it up if you need to at the end. Part of it is obvious - you don’t want your car totally torn up, or to have to spend a bunch of laps in the pits trying to get it fixed.

“But you are trying to keep the sheet metal protecting your car too. The second to the last thing you want is a tire with no sheet metal on it. The first time you rub another car, it’s going to cut into it. The last thing you want is your own sheet metal cutting into your tire because it got knocked down into it.

“You know how demolition derby works. You give up everything but try to protect your radiator and try to keep the sheet metal off the tires. Well, that’s the way things are at Bristol. You have to protect the ‘vitals’ of the car, and keep enough car there to finish the race.

“The guys who get into trouble at Bristol, or a Martinsville, for that matter, are the ones who go into the first turn of the first lap as hard as they can go. If they make it to the second turn, they usually are mad at somebody by the third turn. So they retaliate - or try to - and have usually spun once or twice in the first 50 laps. By the 100th lap, they are sitting in the car in the pits, fuming and plotting revenge. But they are 30 laps down by then, and it hardly makes any difference.

“It’s survival. I’m telling you. And surviving doesn’t mean just being around at the end of the race. It means being around at the end of the race, and being in a position to take advantage of it. A lot of times that means holding onto your temper and, if somebody has done something to make you mad, trying to let it go for awhile. Beating on him doesn’t help your car. And him getting madder at you and starting to beat on you doesn’t help anyone.

“You expect a certain amount of leaning on each other and bumping and banging. That’s what Bristol is all about. You can usually tell what’s intentional and what’s not. The best thing to do is, if it is not intentional, laugh it off and go on. If it is intentional, well, put it in your memory bank and figure it will come in handy sometime down the road.

“Survival is everything. Bristol is our own reality show, and everybody gets voted off the island at the end of the race. The key is being there at the end so you have a shot at doing something.

“That’s what we’re looking for with this Georgia-Pacific Dodge.”

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