Tropicana 400 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Tropicana 400
The guy in the grandstands

Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., this week for Sunday’s Tropicana 400.

Petty, 44, will be making his 696th 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 $19 million.

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into the Tropicana 400:

“We went through a period a few years ago where we started adding tracks. That was about the same time as a pretty good growth spurt for NASCAR racing. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

“We need to run near cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, just like we need to take a hard look at what we’re going to do to run closer to Seattle and Denver and New York City. These are major markets with a lot of fans, and there is potential for even more new fans. But we have to actually be there – or be pretty close to there – to get their attention and create some excitement.

“Is Chicago another mile-and-a-half track? Yes. Do we have enough mile-and-a-half tracks? Probably. Is it a ‘cookie cutter’ deal? Somewhat but it offers some differences too. It’s more different than you might think from Charlotte to Chicago to Kansas but, yeah, those tracks are closer together in styling than Chicago and, say, Martinsville. That’s pretty obvious.

“But for the race fan who lives in downtown Chicago and gets to go to one NASCAR Nextel Cup race a year, do you think he cares whether Chicagoland is a mile-and-a-half or not? The main thing that is important to him is he gets the chance to go to a race, to actually be there, to actually experience it. Chicagoland this week versus New Hampshire in a couple of weeks versus Pocono after that means something to the drivers and the people who race week to week to week . . . but to that guy in Chicago who just wants to go to a Cup race, who maybe wants to take his kid and experience it, man, that is one happy guy.

“Chicago is different because every race is different. The track might look a lot like other tracks out there but the race is going to be different. If Jimmie Johnson runs away with this one like he did at Charlotte, well, then the guy in second and the guy in third are going to have to run different races. If cars racing inches apart at 180 miles per hour can’t keep your attention, I’m not sure what can.

“You hear, ‘Yeah, but they should have built a Bristol up there,’ or ‘They should have built a Rockingham up there.’ That’s kind of the track du jour, I know, but they are selling all their seats with a mile-and-a-half track now, and the television ratings have been pretty good. What would they have gained with building a Bristol? Rockingham had some great races but there were some races there, too, that were snoozers. Those kinds of races are going to happen from time to time, whether it’s Chicago or Sonoma or Daytona or wherever. Rockingham built a Rockingham, and they couldn’t sell all of the tickets. Why would Chicagoland be better off with a Rockingham than with what they have?

“There have always been ‘You shoulda builts . . .’ out there. At one time, Daytona was the epitome of the great race track. If you were going to build something, you would want to build at Daytona. OK, restrictor plates . . . you wouldn’t build a Daytona now. Then Dover was the track everyone wanted to model. They had problems with asphalt there and had to go to concrete. Then Michigan was the track everyone should build. But you don’t have enough cautions sometimes at Michigan so the field doesn’t get bunched up enough, so you end up with some fuel-mileage races. So then it has become ‘Build a Bristol.’ Bristol’s fine, but in 10 years, it will be another place.

“Nobody wants ‘cookie cutter’ but there isn’t as much appreciation for innovativeness either, not as much as you might think. Try building a road course – now that’s different – and see what people think. Look at the criticism Texas got, and Las Vegas got. They were different and were criticized. Chicago and Kansas are like a lot of other tracks, and they get criticized. What do you do?

“As far as me and these Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge guys, we’re more than fine with running Chicagoland this weekend, and we’re looking forward to it. That guy who lives in downtown Chicago, the one you’ll see up there in the grandstands with his kid, that guy is looking forward to it too. When it all comes down to it, let’s face it. That guy and his kid are the ones we have to please anyway.”