Richard Petty speaks on the state of NASCAR

By Jeff Gluck

Monday, November 12, 2007

JASON SMITH / GETTY IMAGES

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AVONDALE, Ariz. - Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard Petty says the battle for the 2007 title that has boiled down to a fight between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon isn't ultimately good for the sport.

That's just one of the opinions about the state of the sport that he offered reporters as he sat on a picnic table outside his motorhome at Phoenix International Raceway Saturday. In addition to the title race commentary, he offered his views on what he sees as the abuse of the past champions provisional and NASCAR Chairman Brian France.

On Johnson and Gordon, Petty said having two teammates race each other for the championship "is not good for the sport."

"If one of these drivers happened to have been [Dale Earnhardt Jr.], it might be a little different," he said. "But when you get Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, they're the same - they've just got different names."

Petty said any battle would have been better for fan interest - between rival teams, between manufacturers or just between drivers with different personalities.

Or, he said, if Clint Bowyer had remained in the hunt, fans might be more excited about the Chase.

"I think the fans, even if they weren't a Clint Bowyer fan, they'd probably pull for him to beat the Hendrick deal," he said. "Now, you've got nobody to beat the Hendrick deal, so everybody is down on that."

On the past champions provisional, which was initially created to protect people such as himself, Petty said, "It's probably outlived its usefulness."

Petty says that the rule is now used for different purposes than what was originally intended. Several teams in recent years have hired former champions just to use the champions provisional to get into races.

"They made a rule and they made it for a reason, and over a period of time, people learned to use what the rules are," he said.

Still, he stopped short of calling for its removal.

"As far as I know, it works," he said. "It just gives you 36 [teams locked into the field] instead of 35."

On France and what some see as his lack of presence in the garage area, Petty said times have changed since France's father, Bill France Jr., basically ran the sport by himself.

"It's too big for one person to operate, just like Petty Enterprises got too big for Richard Petty," he said. "There's so many facets to racing now that weren't even thought about 10 years ago.

"Bill France Sr. looked at it as racing because that's all he ever knew. [France Jr.] came in, and they started looking at it as entertainment. Brian, he looks at it more for the business standpoint than he does the racing standpoint."

Is that a good thing?

"It must be, it's still growing," Petty said. "As long as they've got somebody like [NASCAR President Mike] Helton [that knows the racing side], they'll be OK."