Kyle Petty settling into role of NASCAR analyst and not driver

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty competed in the sport for 30 years.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

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Kyle Petty will appear on a Turner television show Sunday night, which might not be all that unusual, considering that he has been an analyst on Turner’s TNT network for NASCAR races since 2007.

But what is unusual is this isn’t a NASCAR show. It is a show on Turner’s HLN network with Petty, former basketball player Charles Barkley and former baseball player Dennis Eckersley (all TNT analysts) commenting on a variety of topics in sports and the world in general.

Barkley and Eckersley are long retired from their sports. And in doing this show – titled “With All Due Respect” – Petty, who had 828 career Cup starts over a 30-year period but did not step in a race car in 2009, admits it establishes him as primarily an analyst and not an active race-car driver.

“[This show] draws that line in the sand where you say, ‘This is what I do,’” Petty said in a phone interview. “When you get to Cup racing, it’s the end all, end all. You don’t just show up for two races and run and expect to compete with these guys.

“When you’re out of it for six months or a year, you get so far behind these guys, you’re never going to get caught up. If I was 22, I’d be screaming about it. But at 49, I’m not screaming about it. I’m at a different place in my life.”

That place is one where his racing career, for all intents and purposes, is over, although he won’t rule out getting in a car for fun.

“If I had started [a race] this year, I would still look at it as I was keeping my foot in the door,” Petty said. “I don’t think keeping my foot in the door is something I want to do anymore. I just want to do stuff for fun. … I’ve moved on to something else – I’ve got to plan on for the next part of my life.

“I don’t have time to play for the rest of my life. I played for 49 years. It’s time to do something else now.”

That something else includes trying to expand his brand as a commentator. Petty admits he was a little intimidated about being on the show, whose guests included famous filmmaker Spike Lee and actors Anthony Anderson (“Law & Order”) and Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”). Petty was chosen to be on the show after he, Barkley and Eckersley were at dinner with network executives, who liked the banter among them. HLN anchor Robin Meade is the host for the show.

“I’m sitting there with Charles Barkley and you’re sitting there with Eckersley, probably one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and then Spike Lee comes out, and then you’ve got goofball Kyle Petty sitting on stage?” Petty said. “Let’s be honest, you’ve got to be intimidated in some way shape or form.

“They’ve got game, man, all those guys do in everything they do. But I’ve done some stuff with Eckersley earlier in the year and with Barkley in recent weeks, and you have a relationship and you’re not [as] intimidated.”

Shot in front of a live audience Monday, Petty said he got a few boos when he said the one story he was sick of hearing this year was Michael Jackson.

“I’m sitting on set with Spike Lee and Charles Barkley and with a live audience that loved Michael Jackson,” Petty said.

Petty then had to explain himself: “I told them I was a huge Michael Jackson fan. I just don’t like to see people run in the ground day after day after day, and that’s the part of the Michael Jackson story that I got sick of.”

The show has Petty addressing topics ranging from President Barack Obama – “There is a group in this country that expects him to fail, wants him to fail and wishes him to fail because he is as black man, and that’s how simple that is and we have to live with that,” he says on the show – to convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Petty does talk about four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson during the show, when he was asked what his best sports moment of the year.

“People can’t fathom how hard it is to win a championship, much less win four in a row against the [competition today],” Petty said in the phone interview. “I was around when Cale [Yarborough] won his three, and I was working with my father on the team at that point in time, and I was around when [my father] won seven and Dale [Earnhardt] won seven [titles], but when you look at the caliber of competition now compared to those numbers, the caliber of the competition is a lot deeper.”

The show should increase Petty’s exposure. It will be replayed seven times from Dec. 25-Jan. 1.

As for 2010, Petty said he hopes to do more with the radio Performance Racing Network in 2010 but so far only has his six races as an analyst on TNT and a commitment to Speed. He said his main focuses are with his Victory Junction Gang Camps, keeping the North Carolina camp financially sound and raising funds to get the camp in Kansas built.

“It has taken a full year for me to work out not driving a race car in my head,” Petty said. “That’s all I’ve ever done. When you go straight in, and you’ve been doing this since you were 18 years old, getting up every week and headed to a race track and driving a car, it was absolutely different getting up every week, to go to a race track and not drive a car.

“It was a different place to go. I didn’t view it as the same race track. The first part of the year, I’d come in on my Fridays, do my stuff and leave. … By the end of the year, I came to terms with it.”