Pepsi 400 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Daytona 400
Key practice Friday, spotter’s contributions

A name synonymous with Daytona success, Kyle Petty and the Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway this week for Saturday night’s 400-mile NASCAR Winston Cup race.

Petty, 43, will be making his 661st 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 $16 million.

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into Daytona:

“Air is everything at these restrictor plate races. How well you move that air determines what kind of night you have.

“At Talladega, it’s all about moving air around. At Daytona, it’s almost all about moving air around - you have to be handling great too. A good handling car that is aerodynamic is going to be the car up front.

“Now, notice I didn’t say a perfectly handling car with a perfect aerodynamic package is going to pull away and win the thing. He might win but he isn’t going to pull away. Nobody is going to pull away from anyone.

“It still boils down to who you are running with and being in the right line. Being in the right place at the right time at Daytona used to mean being first or second on the last lap of the race. Now it means where you are every single lap of the race.

“A decision you make at Daytona on the first lap can affect where you are 50 laps later, and that can affect where you finish. Every drivers’ meeting (NASCAR Race Director) David Hoots tells us, ‘You can’t win the race on the first lap,’ and generally that’s the truth. The fact of the matter at Daytona is you can cost yourself a lot on the first lap . . . or 50th.

“What really makes that weird is you can move so far in one or two laps, depending on what the line of cars you are in does. You can go from the top five to 30th in one lap, and you can go from 30th to the top 10 in one lap. A lot of times you can be 20th at the start-finish line, 10th on the backstretch, and 20th by the time you get back around again.

“How well you work with your spotter, and how well your spotter works with you, can play a huge, huge role in all of this. All you know is you are sitting in the car, your nose is on the bumper in front of you and there is a bumper on your rear end. You can sense which line is moving but the lines are so long you can’t always tell. Sometimes it’s like walking into a bank and thinking you can tell which is the best line . . . but you never get that right.

“Your spotter has to help you there. My guy (Marty Gaunt) has a lot of experience, and he spends a lot of time during practices watching what the other cars are doing, who is capable of what, who runs well with who, those sorts of things. That’s the kind of information he is going to need on Saturday night.

“As far as the race is concerned, throw away Thursday’s practice. That’s all for qualifying. The Friday practices are crucial. That’s where you figure out not only what your car is capable of doing but what your car is capable of doing with other cars. You draft better with some cars than others. You draft better in front of some cars and draft better behind other cars. You use those Friday practices to figure all of that out.

“There is going to be an added twist because there is no night practice at all - just night racing. The Friday practices are pretty much under a lot of sunshine and heat, different conditions entirely from what we will see Saturday night. Looking at the schedule, the latest we are on the track for practice will be a little before 7 o’clock Friday evening. The race starts at 7:30, so conditions are going to be different. That is going to lead to some guesswork for everyone.

“We’re looking for a good weekend. Daytona has always been special to the Petty family, and we have a lot of fun there. We’re going to have three cars (Petty’s Georgia-Pacific Dodge; Christian Fittipaldi’s #44 Bugles Dodge; and Shane Hmiel’s #43 Berry Burst Cheerios Dodge), and that will be pretty special. We’re looking for some great things.”

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