“When Jimmie comes in, his crowd doesn’t take over the racing part, they take over the front office with sponsorships, appearances and all that stuff. Jimmie’s crowd is controlling that.
“That is something I never had to put up with. I still do my own thing, and I do a lot for the new team.
“I’ve done things my way, which haven’t been too good lately,” Petty continued. “As I’ve progressed and time progresses and things change for the world, it was probably time for a change.
“Jimmie is looking not just at this year; he is trying to lay a foundation for the next four or five years. He is still young enough he is going to be around for a long, long time.”
With NASCAR celebrating 75 years, the Petty name is the most important in the history of the sport, yet time continues to march on.
“It’s been strange to me because most of the time I run the majority of the show,” Petty said. “Jimmie brought all his people in. His way of running things and my way of running things are a little different. We probably agree on 50 percent of what comes out of it.
“Jimmie is really looking to the future from the standpoint of getting involved a little bit. He’ll wind up running the show in four or five years completely. He’ll be the majority owner of our operation in four or five years.
“They are looking at things completely different. They have been in the Indy deal and see how things have worked there. Jimmie is very observant and checks on everything. There is not a lot done in the management part – Jimmie controls everything. He has to approve everything.
“He’s a pretty busy man right now.”
GETTING TO THE END
NTT IndyCar Series driver Conor Daly made his Daytona 500 debut when he put the slowest car in the field into the starting lineup during the Bluegreen Vacations Duels. In that race, he had a Chevrolet that was evil at best.
But all Daly had to do to get into the Daytona 500 starting lineup was finish ahead of Travis Pastrana and Austin Hill. Pastrana was already locked into the starting lineup based on his time trial speed.
Toward the end of the qualifying race, both Pastrana and Hill were involved in a crash, allowing Daly to finish ahead of them.
Daly once again had a slow Chevrolet during the Daytona 500, finishing six laps behind winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. But with major crashes late in the race, he ended up 29th.
FAMILIAR STORY
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, the two best active drivers who have never won the Daytona 500, each contended to win the biggest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but left Daytona disappointed.
Both drivers were caught up in the massive crash in turn two that ended the longest Daytona 500 in history. Nine cars were involved, including Busch and Keselowski.
Different year, same story.
“I just tried to keep it straight as much as I can and wait for when it’s going to happen and eventually it does, and it did again today,” Busch said, referring to yet another big crash in the Daytona 500. “I tried, and I don’t know what else to do. Came up short.
“I led lap 200 and wish it was still 1998 rules.”
It was Busch’s 18th Daytona 500 and the 18th time he came up empty.
Keselowski, meanwhile, led 42 laps in his 14th Daytona 500, but had nothing to show for it after the late-race crash.