Coca-Cola 600 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Coca-Cola 600
"It's not the distance - it's what you have to do to get there'

One of just seven active drivers to have won NASCAR's longest race, Kyle Petty and the #45 Dixie Krazy Kritters Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway this week for Sunday evening's Coca-Cola Racing Family 600.

Petty, in fact, is tied for third in career Coca-Cola 600 victories among active drivers - ironic that a single race victory could be so rare. The race has been one of the most difficult for any driver to win twice, and new winners typically emerge each year.

Petty, 43, will be making his 690th 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 Dixie Krazy Kritters Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into the Coke 600:

"Experience or youth? Which is better to have at Charlotte? That's not very easy to say. There are definite advantages to either one.

"There must be advantages - look at what's going on there. Two years ago, Mark Martin wins the Coke 600, but then Jimmie Johnson wins it last year. Of course, Jimmie was pretty well along in the experience department; maybe not in years, but in experience. Tony Stewart won the fall race at Charlotte last year, and he is very experienced, but two years ago it was a raw rookie, Jamie McMurray in the fall race.

"The experience factor, I believe, comes mainly in being able to handle the way the track changes. And it does change - drastically. If Sunday is a hot day, the changes are going to be even more drastic than usual. You start with a hot track because of the sunshine - but the strange thing at Charlotte is a hot track can be loose, or it can be tight. A lot of times that's tough to figure out. Then the night rolls in, and temperatures start falling off. So the track changes again. Most of the times it tightens up, but sometimes it loosens. You just have to be ready for anything, and you have to be ready to adjust.

"Somebody going down this road for the first time is probably going to have it rough. I think that's why experience usually does better at Charlotte, especially in the Coke race, because the changes are more drastic, and can go either way.

"Experience means a lot at Charlotte because of the things the track can do but youth serves its purpose too. It takes a lot physically to go 600 miles. It takes a lot mentally to go 600 miles.

"The extra 100 miles doesn't mean as much as the way the track changes. If you look at it like a drive from Charlotte, where you stop off a couple of times for gas and a Coke, it doesn't matter that much if you stop in Daytona Beach or stop in Orlando. It's a long drive but the extra 100 miles doesn't do that much. But let's say there are thunderstorms part of the way, and traffic is extra bad part of the way, and there is construction here and there. All of the sudden, it's a much tougher deal - 500 miles or 600 miles. It's not how far you go as much as what you have to do to get there.

"It's not like you're fine for 500 miles and then, as soon as that last 100 starts, you're slumping. If they didn't tell you or you didn't look over at the scoreboard, you probably wouldn't even know. If you're running good, you could hit the 500-mile mark and want to run another 500 miles. If you're having troubles with your handling, you're worn out long before you get to 500 miles. You're stomping on it for 400 laps around a pretty tough piece of asphalt that can change if a star twinkles wrong and going up against 42 other guys who would rather do anything on earth than back off.

"Charlotte is a compromise-type track, especially for the Coke 600 where you start late in the day and finish up in the dark. Darlington and Pocono are tracks where you compromise your setups in one corner so you can get through another corner pretty well. Charlotte is where you compromise your setups for the time of day so that you can run halfway decent in the first third of the race, and really go to town the second half of the race.

"You work harder at the start because you're not set up for the start. Nobody is. Well, let me put it this way, if you're set up just right at the start of the race, you're going to run into some pretty serious problems in the last two-thirds of it.

"Making those adjustments and using the experience we have with this Dixie Krazy Kritters Dodge team should work in our favor. We're looking forward to a pretty good weekend in the Coca-Coal 600."