Sirius at The Glen - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Watkins Glen

‘Lot of history, lot of tradition . . . lot of turns’

One of the few drivers who know the feeling of Victory Lane at a road course, Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International this week for Sunday’s second of two NASCAR Winston Cup road course events.

Petty is one of NASCAR’s top road course racers, consistently a front-running threat at the twisting tracks the series visits twice a year - once at Watkins Glen and in June at Sonoma, Calif. He has won a NASCAR Winston Cup race at Watkins Glen, and is a regular front-runner in the stock cars in road courses.

Petty, 43, will be making his 666th 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/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into Watkins Glen:

“We ran at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week, and we heard all about the history of the place, all the great names and all of the great races. We go to Darlington in a few weeks, and we’ll hear more about history and tradition. And all of that is great.

“But when you’re going down the list of historic tracks in this country, it’s tough to leave Watkins Glen off the list. Some of the greatest names in auto racing have driven there. It was the American site for Formula One racing for a long time, and some of the stuff I’ve heard about in parts of the infield there years ago is downright legendary.

“Watkins Glen’s history makes it Darlington with a few extra turns.

“I’m glad we run there. I’m not just glad because it is a road course and I tend to like driving road courses. I’m glad because Watkins Glen is a track with a lot of heritage and history, and the place just deserves to have a major auto race on it. And I’m glad it’s a major league stock car race because we need to run places with the history and tradition of Watkins Glen.

“The road course aspect shouldn’t be that big of a deal, I don’t think. When you think about it, this is really our third road course race in a row. We just came from Indy, and you kind of drive it something like a road course because of the flat, sharp corners. It’s an oval, of course, but in a lot of ways you drive it like a road course. The week before that was Pocono. You sure can’t call that an oval. Three different turns, three different straightaways. Pocono is like a short road course, I guess. Maybe you would call it a ‘three-turn road course.’

“Stock car racing on a road course is a lot like any other kind of racing on a road course, but it’s different too. It is the same in that you are trying to hit your marks every corner, and trying to be as precise as you can. But it’s different in the fact that your main goal a lot of times is to keep the car on the asphalt . . . well, keep your car on the asphalt most of the time, since there are a few places, like coming out of that final turn to the start-finish line, where you come off of it just a little bit.

“You can’t really take a ‘wheels down, roof up’ approach to the thing but you have to be aggressive. The key to it all is seeing how aggressive you can be without, one, sliding all over the track and, two, still improving your lap times. With that many turns, there are a lot of places you can improve your laps times. The problem is, with that many turns, there are a lot of places where you can mess up your lap times too.

“Every track, your speed is an average speed and comes off that time from starting line to finish line. You can lose time really easy but it’s really hard to make up time once you start that lap. When you are hitting your marks and running the course pretty well, you might be able to pick up just a little bit here and just a little bit there - but a little bit is usually all it takes. The thing is you can lose all of that, and a whole lot more, just with one mistake at one spot on the track. It doesn’t even take a big mistake. Just a small one can destroy a good lap.

“The nice thing about a road course is you don’t have to be perfect. In fact, I don’t think you can be perfect. No matter how quick a lap you run, you can always look back and think, ‘Man, if I had hit this mark a little better,’ or ‘If I had gotten through this turn a little tighter.’ There are always ways you can go back in your mind and make the lap just a little bit better than it was.

“That’s what we’re looking for this weekend - as close to perfect as we can get. This Georgia-Pacific Dodge team is ready for a road course. Of course, we’ve practically just come off of two road courses to get here.”

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