Dark days for Petty Enterprises

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At Speedweeks last year while passing through the garage, Petty Enterprises vice president Robbie Loomis joked with me about how cold it can get in Florida in February, despite the protests of those from the North who claim it never really gets cold in the Sunshine State, at least not enough to cause any complaints.Loomis, who grew up outside Orlando in Altamonte Springs and spent just about every Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway, said the coldest nights of his life were spent at the half-mile track, but nothing he sat through at NSS could compare to the icy mood that's chilling the most famous name in NASCAR.Once the most feared organization in stock car racing, PE made an announcement earlier this week that 30 years ago would have sent the racing world abuzz. But on Tuesday it was just another story on a slow news day, barely making a motorsports headline, as Stewart Cooper replaced Billy Wilburn as Kyle Petty's crew chief.If it were 1967 and crew chief Dale Inman, whom Loomis replaced at PE in 1990, was retiring from Richard Petty's No. 43 -- after the 27th win of the season -- that would be major news. Tuesday's was simply something -- anything, really -- to distract from all the bad that happened last week at Texas, where the No. 45 failed to make the race for the second straight weekend.It was the off-track back-and-forth that was so uncharacteristic and un-Petty-like, as Kyle and Loomis challenged each other's version of the truth through the media, with Loomis claiming Kyle wanted out of the Dodge Charger last weekend, while Kyle countered that he didn't want out. To compound the problem, replacement Chad McCumbee failed in qualifying.The last 10 years at PE have been terrible: just one win, losing its legendary primary sponsor in STP, losing the replacement primary sponsor of nine years last week in General Mills, and the ultimate loss, losing a family member when Adam Petty died in 2000.There's also the strong possibility that Bobby Labonte, an attractive catch because of his past champion status, could be moving to Richard Childress Racing's fourth team next year.As far as Kyle goes, it's hard to recall the good times. Yet when the third-generation driver piloted Felix Sabates's No. 42 Pontiac in the early 1990s, Petty was the driver to beat at Rockingham, where he posted three of his eight wins, and he finished fifth in points on two occasions. But Kyle's last victory came midway through Bill Clinton's first term as president.Perhaps it's time for him to step out of the car for good and turn the wheel over to a hot shot like McCumbee, who won his first ARCA start for PE. Let's face it, no one's fantasy race team is going to tumble down the standings if the 47-year-old moved up to the broadcast booth permanently, which is where he really excels, much like Dale Jarrett.It's just hard to fathom the Pettys being without a sponsor entering Speedweeks in 2009. No sponsor on the hood or the quarter panels of a Petty Dodge at Daytona, rolling through the garage like a blank billboard? If I had made that prediction 20 years ago, maybe even 10, I'd have been ridiculed right out of any racing discussion.I never thought the situation at Petty Enterprises would be as cold as one of those long nights at New Smyrna Speedway that Loomis described -- or this bitter and desperate.(Bill Whitehead covers NASCAR for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. E-mail him at wwhitehe@ircc.net.)