Auto Club 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Auto Club 500
‘Not Rockingham but everything will be fine’

Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the two-mile California Speedway this week for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

Petty, 44, will be making his 714th 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 $21 million.

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

“It’s going to be a little bit different this week since we’re going to California instead of Rockingham but it’s the kind of different that tends to go away as the week goes along. By Saturday, it will start to seem natural that we’re not at Rockingham. I don’t know if that’s the way things should be but it’s just the way people are. You adapt to whatever the situation is.

“Used to be we’d go from Daytona to Richmond. Then they decided Richmond was too cold in February, so we went to Rockingham for the second race – even though Rockingham in February isn’t exactly a trip to the Bahamas. We adjusted to that and we’ll adjust to California too.

“Qualifying on Saturday will be something of an adjustment but that might be more like Rockingham than you would think. It seemed like half of the time we’d have to qualify Saturday at Rockingham because it rained all day Friday.

“This will be the first real test of the qualifying system. The deal at Daytona was kind of hard to figure but it all worked out. This will be the first real test of the new system, new format and new scheduling. I tend to think it will work pretty well but we’ll have to see.

“Qualifying is still important. Where you start is still going to be pretty important to how things work out, and you still want to start as near the front as possible. Of course, with the new deal you have to think primarily about the race. You can’t go out there in qualifying trim because you have to race the setup you qualify with. So you have to be right where you want to be with the car when it comes time to qualify.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how things shake out in the race, especially with the new racing and qualifying rules. A lot of people have tested and have tried a lot of different things, but you’re going to have to make some pretty big decisions by Saturday morning off what you did in a couple of hours of practice Friday afternoon. You are going to have to couple that information with what is still applicable from the testing information, and come up just right. A lot of people are going to be guessing in some areas, and the ones who guess the best will come out the best in the race.

“It’s a big race in a lot of ways for a lot of teams. Southern California is a pretty giant market but it’s the first time we’ve tried running in January there in 20 years. We used to open the season at Riverside (International Raceway, the now-defunct road course), then go to Daytona, but the attention paid to the sport back then was nothing compared to what is being paid these days. The bigger the market, the bigger the race it seems. As we become more and more of a marketing-driven sport, that is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

“I’m looking forward to it. Sure, it’s not Rockingham but it’s the next race and we’re looking forward to it for this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team.”