Golden Corral 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Golden Corral 500
‘Atlanta’s important because we’re competitive’

Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway this week for Sunday’s Golden Corral 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

Petty, 43, will be making his 682nd career start this weekend. He is 10th on the all-time list in NASCAR Cup career starts, and fourth among active drivers. His eight career victories place him 45th on NASCAR’s all-time list in 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 $18 million.

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

“Going into the races at Atlanta, at least as far as this team is concerned, you figure Atlanta is important because Georgia-Pacific’s headquarters are just a few miles up the road in downtown Atlanta. Coca-Cola is a big part of what we do, and they aren’t far from Georgia-Pacific. And you have some various brands that are on our car, especially Brawny paper towels.

“A lot of that would be a reason the Atlanta races are so important to us. A lot of Georgia-Pacific’s people come to the race track for both races at Atlanta, we’re close to their headquarters and there is a certain amount of importance to that.

“But it’s that way for a number of Cup teams. When you look around, a lot of the corporations headquartered in Atlanta are on the quarterpanels of these cars, and a lot of teams are under just a little bit of extra pressure to do well. A lot of that pressure you put on yourself. Hey, if you are racing in your sponsor’s backyard, you want to do as well as you possibly can.

“But every race is important, whether it’s in Atlanta or Martinsville or California or Pocono. Week in and week out, every team out here puts a tremendous amount of pressure on itself to run as well as it can and to be as successful as possible. A lot of that is sponsorship – we want to run well for Georgia-Pacific and Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo Financial just like Jeff (Green) wants to run well for Cheerios and Betty Crocker.

“The reason we are out here, however, is for ourselves. You don’t get into a business like stock car racing if you aren’t competitive. Some teams are more successful than other teams. Let’s face it. One team is going to go home happy after the race Sunday and 42 others are going to go home mad. But we’re still racing because we want to run well and we want to win.

“In my book, ‘competitiveness’ is inside you when you are born. You can do things to enhance it and things that happen in your life can affect it, but you are either a competitive person or you are not. If you are not, you’re not out here (in NASCAR racing). Or if you are, you’re not out here long.

“I’m like a lot of guys driving these cars. I want to pass the guy in front of me. I want to finish in front of him. Whatever it takes to get around him, that’s what I want to do. That’s what we do every week – see what we can do to get around the guy in front of us. It goes further than just how fast you can make a car go. It’s how fast you can make a car go and for how long you can make it go that fast, and for how many people you can leave behind you in the process.

“Put me in the front seat of a passenger car and say, ‘OK, drive from Level Cross to Daytona Beach,’ and that’s not a tremendous feeling for me. On a motorcycle, yeah, it would be different, but in a passenger car, well, I’m just anxious to get there quickly – and safely. But put me behind the wheel of this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge Sunday at Atlanta and say, ‘OK, drive that same 500 miles but the sites never change, you have to go as fast as you can, and don’t plan on any bathroom breaks,’ and I’m as happy as I can be. Sure, I want to do it and I want to do it quicker than anybody else, and before anybody else can do it. The scenery never changes for a NASCAR driver except for who is behind you when you are done.

“So, yeah, we want to do really well for Georgia-Pacific and Coca-Cola and all of our sponsors at Atlanta. Doing really well at Atlanta might mean more for them there than just about anywhere else, and success there would be a great payback for all of the support they have give us. But we want to do it for ourselves the most, because we are a highly competitive bunch. And that’s what we want every week from this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny team.”