FANTASY NASCAR Racin

LEE ARNOLD PETTY - 03-14-1914 - 04-05-2000
(formerly Lee Petty Engineering) was a NASCAR racing team based in Randleman, North Carolina, USA. It was founded by Lee Petty with his two sons Richard Petty, and Maurice Petty. The team was later owned by Richard Petty, his son Kyle Petty and Boston Ventures. At the time of its folding the team operated the #43 and #45 Dodge Chargers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Petty Enterprises ran from 1949 until 2008. The team closed shop in January 2009 and merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports after sponsorship could not be found for any of the cars in the Petty stable; the merged team took the name Richard Petty Motorsports, adopting a logo similar to that of Petty Enterprises' logo. Originally founded as Lee Petty Engineering, from 1954 to 1979, Petty Enterprises won ten championships in NASCAR's premier series. Three of those championships came with Lee Petty driving the #42, while accumulating 54 wins, and a record seven championships came with Richard Petty driving the #43, while accumulating 200 wins. The car pictured is a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Show Car prepared by Petty Enterprises to commemorate Richard's 1979 Championship. The car that Richard drove to his sixth Daytona 500 win

was similar but with no stripes or sponsor logos on the top half of the car. Richard Petty had the most successful season in history in 1967 with 27 wins, including 10 in a row, culminating with the championship. 1979 saw Richard's son, Kyle Petty, start his career winning the very first race he entered - the Arca 200 at Daytona International Speedway. From 1980 to 1983, Richard Petty won eight races, which brought his career total to 198 NASCAR wins. At the 1983 Miller High Life 500, Petty's 198th win, the car failed post-race inspection. The car was found to have illegal tires, and an over-sized engine. Petty was fined $35,000 but the victory was upheld. The incident increased friction in the team left and Richard left Petty Enterprises at year's end. He took the STP

sponsorship and the #43 to Mike Curb for 1984–1985, where he scored wins #199 and #200. For 1984-1985, Petty Enterprises concentrated on Kyle Petty's #7 7-Eleven-sponsored entry. Kyle earned eight top 5's, but no wins during that stretch. For 1986, Richard Petty returned to the family operation, and Kyle Petty left to drive for the Wood Brothers. The Petty Enterprise team continued to sag in performance, and hit rock bottom in 1989 when Richard failed to qualify for four races. Richard failed to win another race, and retired following the 1992 season. After Richard Petty's retirement, Rick Wilson took over the renumbered #44 car, but found little success. The car number was changed back to #43, and Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year Bobby Hamilton was hired in 1995. In 1996, Hamilton earned the team's first victory since 1983

at Phoenix International Raceway. Hamilton won again at Rockingham in 1997. He left the team at season's end to tend to his own race team in the newly formed Craftsman Truck Series, and to drive the #4 for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. In 1998, journeyman John Andretti was hired, and he gave the team another win at Martinsville (which would ultimately be the final win for Petty Enterprises). Andretti would drive for the team until 2003, with only a second place finish at Bristol. In addition, Kyle returned to the family organization, merging his own team, pe2, with Petty Enterprises. The team appeared to be on the rise again with fourth-generation driver Adam Petty joining the team. He made his first Cup start in April 2000, and many experts believed he would be the future of the team. Kyle Petty was planning to move

out of the cockpit soon after, and into the full-time ownership role of the team. About a month and a half after his first career Winston Cup start, Adam Petty was killed in a crash at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The tragedy deeply affected the team. Kyle Petty took over what was supposed to be Adam's #45 car, and drove it for several seasons in his honor. The team lost longtime sponsor STP in mid-2000, and changed to General Mills. The team began a noticeable downward slide, and would never win another race in Cup competition. In January 2009, Petty Enterprises merged with Gillette Evernham Motorsports and the #43 car was absorbed into the team. Labonte left the