32 replies to this topic

[Mr. Salty]

Interesting, if unfortunate, comments by Petty. He will probably be crucified for this.


Disclaimer: I meant to say "not a standout" instead of "not that special", my mistake. Feel free to change the topic, Admins.


Wednesday, June 6
Petty: 'He was not a standout'
ESPN.com news services

NASCAR needs to get on with life after Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty told the Chicago Sun-Times, but the media won't let the story go.

"The press is keeping something alive that we just need to go ahead and bury," Petty, NASCAR's all-time winningest and most popular driver, said in a release by the Dodge public-relations office. "I hate to say it in a hard-hearted way, but the sun keeps coming up and the sun keeps going down. Out of respect for yourself and fellow men, you're going to think about it and mourn a little bit. But you've got to leave it alone and go on."

NASCAR has not been diminished by Earnhardt's absence, said Petty, who has lost his father, Lee, and grandson Adam in the last two years while continuing on as a Winston Cup team owner.

"I don't see any difference," said the man known as the King. "I don't see any enthusiasm gone from my side of the fence. There's nobody important enough to stop everything. You might think about it, but you just go right on and do your thing."

In comments sure to ruffle feathers, Petty also questioned Earnhardt's driving ability and the motivation behind Jeff Gordon's fan appeal.

Earnhardt "was an exciting driver to watch, but he really didn't win that many races," said Petty, whose 200 victories are nearly twice that of No. 2 David Pearson (105). Earnhardt is sixth all-time with 76.

"He wasn't that dominant of a driver," Petty said. "He was not a standout, but he met the criteria the fans wanted in excitement.

"There's not a charismatic person like Earnhardt out here now. Gordon is not that kind of person. The people that didn't like Earnhardt could go with Gordon because Gordon is the smooth part of everything that was the rough part about Earnhardt. Gordon is more of a middle-of-the-road guy. He doesn't cause a lot of trouble."

[Real Estate Queen]

Don't follow NASCAR, but I don't really see anything wrong with these coments. In fact, I appreciate more the guy for saying things the way he sees them and not the way many people would like to hear.
Having said all that:

Go JPM Go!!!!!!!!

[Tedminator]

Seems like valid opinions to me. Be kinda silly to crucify RichardPetty for being honest.


T

[Lantern]

Hmmm......oh well....yes....the not so talented Dale Earnhardt that everyone in Winston Cup tries to copy and the ever so wonderful Richard Petty that has been forgotten. Maybe its because its hard to copy counting bogus wins against grossly overmatched competition at DIRT tracks in your "200" wins tally.

David Pearson is the only man that should be mentioned in the same breath as Dale earnhardt when it comes to Winston Cup.

(Note: back in the day you could count just about anything as a win in Nascar, so long as it was a "sanctioned race")


Oh....and if ya want to talk about honesty then by all means take it from a man that rammed someone on the road because he was irritated by their slow driving AND THEN MOTORED AWAY!! I believe this is called HIT AND RUN....and shouldn't be considered an admirable act.

[Tedminator]

Lantern, you are coming off as a fanatic. Instead of attacking RPetty, you should try discounting and disproving what he said.

RP has done plenty for the sport and his opinions are valid.

I too was a fan of DaleEarnhardtSnr and I appreciated him for what he was, but people making him out to be the heroic messiah of nascar wcr is not healthy.



T

[Lantern]

Heroic mesiah of Nascar......hmmm.


If I was trying to do that I would have said so.



Also, it is true that I have NEVER been even close to a fan of RP. So his comments come with an extra irritation than from someone else saying that a man who has more or less made Nascar the money it has today is something less than spectacular.


And as far as my proving anything when it comes to my opinion. I am the only person in this thread to have posted ANY facts at all.

[Lantern]

Originally posted by Tedminator
Lantern, you are coming off as a fanatic. T

Actually, I just usually come off as sarcastic;)

And I am a fan......


So does that mean I'm fantastic??



Survey says!!!! YES!!

[Todd]

Petty deserves whatever he gets for this. He never liked Earnhardt. Earnhardt tied his record that was supposed to stand forever, and he did it against a field that was much deeper in talent. Petty won most of his races when he was with what amounted to the one professional team against an ever changing field of amateurs. There were a number of great drivers in stock cars in the '60s and '70s, but they didn't have the factory support that Petty ALWAYS had in the years he succeeded. What was his record against Dale Earnhardt in the years they raced against each other? Exactly.

[John B]

I agree there, I think he's probably had it up to here with the backlash from Dale's death, especially in their home state. Don't forget this is a guy who deliberately ran into a car going 70 miles an hour on an interstate highway, sped off for 40 miles, then after being pulled over came out in the paper and said "If we were racing I'd put him in the ditch" or something like that. This in the middle of running for secretary of state in North Carolina....The pure number of victories is meaningless, equivalent to comparing any recent F1 driver's win total to Fangio, because the sport was restructured in the early 1970s and the races dropped to as few as 26 in a season. Earnhardt beat Petty for the title when Petty was still a contender in 1980. He probably would have contended for this year's title given his lost 3rd at Daytona and Harvick's performance since Rockingham. In 1991, 1993, and 1994 he really didn't have a great car advantage yet still took the titles by being consistently competitive and winning a few races that others probably wouldn't have.


Remember this too...there's some recent history between Petty and Earnhardt. At Rockingham in 1996, DE bumped Petty driver Hamilton out of the lead on a day he had the strongest car. Hamilton fell out of contention and his crew chief, Petty cousin Dale Inman was livid as they lost a bunch of bonus money. After staring down Earnhardt for weeks in the garage, DE asked "How long are you going to be mad at me?" Reply: "As long as you're alive."

[Pacific]

I would imagine a lot of what Richard said was out of frustration at the whole thing since Daytona.

As far as Dale Earnhardt not being a stand-out...Dale was definitely exciting. I thing one reason Richard says this is because Dale was never among the top drivers at the road courses, like Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin, and of course now Jeff Gordon. As far as pure driving ability are concerned, Rudd, Wallace, Martin, and Gordon are excellent. Dale learned how to work the draft really well with the restrictor plates, he was always good at the bullrings...but, it does seem that Jeff Gordon is the superior driver. Dale was not bad at the road courses, don't get me wrong, but I don't think anybody put him up among the big contenders at road courses.

As far as Richard's 200 wins are concerned...I am a huge Richard Petty fan, but I will agree with you in that a lot of Richard's win were in a time when fewer cars could win the race. But still, Richard was having to beat David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, etc for years and years. And there were lots of others like Fred Lorenzen who raced a while...Richard went up against a lot of good drivers in his time. The whole field wasn't as close, certainly, but the battles up front were still great battles. Before you go on saying Petty Enterprises was the ONLY professional team, certainly the Wood Brothers were very professional. There were some other teams that took NASCAR pretty seriously. NASCAR has changed, and I do certainly wonder if Dale was a superior driver to Richard.

Regardless of what Richard did on the highway and such, he is entitled to his opinion and also did a lot for the sport too. You also have to remember that this is a man who had his grandson, the heir to Petty Enterprises killed. I imagine things are rough at PE now...the recently fired a bunch of people. Kyle got gyped this past weekend and NASCAR's insistence to have so many provisionals has really hurt Kyle with his new team this year. John and Buckshot have both missed a race too though, which is disappointing. It must be all the more frustrating since they did pretty good with Bobby Hamilton and also in the beginning with John Andretti.

It's too bad Adam died, he was only 19 and wanted to learn all he could about racing. Adam wasn't as talented as Casey Atwood, but he still could have been a good Winston Cup driver since he wanted it so much. The other thing you have to remember is, Richard has seen a lot of his fellow drivers get killed, some of the VERY good like Fireball Roberts, and the media attention then...

I'd say Richard is somewhat right in that he wasn't a stand-out in driver skill so much as being exciting, since he did have to use certain tactics to win a lot of races and since he was never a really good qualifier. Still...Dale got the job done...I suspect Richard is just frustrated with a lot of things right now. But was Dale a truly better driver than say Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, or Mark Martin (not to mention Jeff Gordon)...yeah, I don't know.

If I must add one man to the "only David Pearson" remark...I think Darrell Waltrip's 83 wins should count for something. I mean, lets look at the era Waltrip got all of his wins in. Pearson did plenty of racing in NASCAR before the modern era, but not Darrell, so...And now we have Jeff Gordon. Rusty Wallace's win total is pretty impressive too. I mean, if Rusty can string together some good seasons he COULD catch Dale Earnhardt in wins. I doubt it, but he COULD. Jeff Gordon hopefully has a lot of time left to perhaps crack the 100 win mark. Had Tim Richmond not had AIDS I imagine a lot of things in NASCAR history would be different. I also think Davey Allison had a huge future...he was VERY good. And certainly AK would have won some more races, but alas...

[Nasty McBastard]

probably an ok comment comming from petty.... if it were a "jimmy spencer" type (EG, someone whos done sod all in NASCAR) then it wouldnt be valid.

Probably like a fangio saying something similar of a mansell or a hill. Most guys in f1 couldnt say it, after all theres not many WC's around, but a 5X world champ could say it of a 1 or 2X WC.

[Todd]

Nasty,

This was a 7 time champion talking about a 7 time champion from a far more competitive era.

Pacific,

You've really missed it. Dale is revered as much for his car control, which has included saves as dramatic as anything ever seen in F1 or CART, as he is for his often exagerated use of tactics. Have you ever heard of the pass in the gras? Did you read about how long it took him to set competitive times in the Corvette C5R during testing this year? Do you know that he set the fastest laptimes in the wet of any of the Corvette team drivers during this year's Rolex 24hrs of Daytona? Considering that he was new to sportscars and racing in the rain, that is not the accomplishment of a driver that was 2nd best in skill. Of the drivers you've mentioned, only Jeff Gordon might have as much talent as Dale Earnhardt had.

Speaking of road races, there is the example of Watkins Glen in 1998. Dale was having one of his worst seasons, and he had just broken his sternum and collar bone. His team tried to convince him that he wasn't healthy enough to race. When that failed, they tried convincing him that he would let down the team with his performance. It was mental strength and courage that saw him start the race, but his road racing skills were on display in the way that he led the race for more than the first half with unset broken nbones shifting around in his chest and shoulder.

Don't let bitter revisionists destroy tthe man's legacy.

[Math Soucy]

In reference to an earlier post, it is interesting to remember that the Woods Brothers were the pit crew for Jim Clark victory at Indianapolis. As far as car control, DE was a unique talent, but it is a very different animal controlling a Grand Prix thoroughbred at full noise than a Winston Cup car.

[Mr. Salty]

Math Soucy,

This is about NASCAR drivers talking about other NASCAR drivers. Please don't drag F1 car driving skills into this, that's an entirely different matter.;)

I just don't understand why Richard would make those comments, it serves no purpose and will damage him in the big scheme. I can look at his remarks somewhat objectively, as I was never a Dale Earnhardt fan, but as Todd said, DE DID have great driving skills. Petty has created (imho) an enormous group of anti-fans by speaking on this subject so soon after DE's death. He didn't really say anything "bad" per se, but sometimes it's better to just say nothing at all.

[Tedminator]

"Deny yourself if you like: But I'll be a drivin'"



"there I was, there I was.... IN the Congo."




But anyway.. Some people just have a hard time dealing with the truth.

[Lantern]

Originally posted by Pacific
If I must add one man to the "only David Pearson" remark...I think Darrell Waltrip's 83 wins should count for something.

I'll give ya that. Although I wasn't really speaking of wins alone. Consistancy is what counts in Winton Cup as Dale Jarrett's championship shows. He wins one race and the title while Gordon wins 10.

[tifoso]

Guess with an avatar like mine, I have to weigh in...

I'm disappointed in Petty, though he has every right to say whatever he wants. Personally, I think he's wrong about Earnhardt for a couple of reasons: 1) Earnhardt competed against a much deeper, more professional field and 2) he was competitive for much longer in his career than was Petty, who spent some of his later years just tooling around the track.

When figuring out a driver's ability, I give great weight to other drivers -- their peers, if you will. Dale Jarrett said at the IROC race (at Daytona, I think), that Earnhardt had put on an amazing display of car control and he was an incredible driver. (This was after Cheever punted Earnhardt into the grass infield at full speed.) I'm giving this comment greater credence than Petty's because it was made by a current driver. Just as I give more weigh to comments made by current F1 drivers vs. past drivers.

Another reason I'm disappointed in Petty is that his family also suffered a tragic loss when Adam Petty was killed. I would think he would be more understanding of how his comments might hurt the Earnhardts after having gone through a similar loss.

[Pacific]

Todd: John Andretti has won LeMans, does that make him a great driver? John Andretti is a good driver and all, but racing a Winston Cup car around a road course is far more difficult that racing a Corvette: at least if you want to win it is.

Then the question comes, then why can Ron Fellows and crew do so well in their one-offs in Winston Cup? Because they have the rythym's down pat for shifting, steering, etc. They've got the footwork down and they adapt to the Winston Cup cars, which have a lot more horsepower than any Chevrolet Corvette has.

The Winston Cup drivers who are not so great at road courses will have substitutes at Sears Point: Brian Simo in the 90 and in the Boris Said in the 77. Scott Pruett will replace the injured Joe Nemechek, but Joe is just fine at the road courses. The 77 car has run okay this year, Boris could easily get them a top 10 finish. Simo will look to just qualify the 90 car.

Good point on Dale saving the car on a lot of occassions. I agree with you on that one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put Dale down (I think I hinted that I thought Dale was a better driver than Richard Petty, my favorite driver) but even with that...as far as pure driving is concerned, and fair driving, I guess my respect for Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd, and Rusty Wallace is pretty high.

Maybe what Richard meant was in the whole scope of racing in the world. (I doubt it) Even Dale himself thought Ayrton Senna was awesome. Dale really loved his F1. He did love driving and he was very good at it, no doubt, especially at the NASCAR level/style. You can't take Dale's results from him. His style was suspect at times though. I know Bobby Labonte makes it a point to race fair. His brother Terry is like that too. Both Labonte brothers are very good drivers too.

I guess for me, I have a lot of respect for a lot of the Winston Cup drivers who have demonstrated to me that they have good all-around abilities on the superspeedways, intermediate tracks, short tracks, and the road courses; I don't have Dale in a category of his own on any of those types of tracks except in his ability to use the draft. But again, Junior Johnson and Richard Petty were the first one's to recognize the properties of drafting in NASCAR.

I think what Richard should have probably done was restate his argument. I imagine his beef is that there are a lot of Winston Cup drivers who are very good, that don't get the proper credit, and that people need to move on a bit. I miss Dale, and especially Adam. But, like when Senna died, this will serve as a way for some other drivers to make something of themselves like Damon Hill did even more of and DC did. Harvick and whoever drives the 30 car full-time next year and of course Buckshot Jones at PE. Buckshot has a decent track-record at Michigan, so...

I do believe that Dale would have gotten to 85 wins and become the 3rd winningest driver in Winston Cup. In the article Richard points out how when he raced against Cale, Bobby, and the crew he didn't do quite so well, but he wasn't as experienced and his team wasn't as good yet either.

Richard probably shouldn't have said, "Dale wasn't a stand-out driver." He should have said, "There are many other drivers in NASCAR that I feel are as good as Dale was, but just weren't as exciting and thus didn't get the media attention." Sure, people would compare Dale's win totals to Mark Martin and say "Come on!" But of course, Mark Martin helped build Roush's Winston Cup team. And unlike Childress, Roush diversified to a multicar effort very soon with Wally Dallenbach in 1991 in the 16 Keystone car.

[Pacific]

Lantern- DW's 1985 WC wasn't exactly a win brigade. Not to put Pearson down...he was very good.

[merlyn6]

A bit off topic, but I heard the other day from a good friend of the maker of Willans seat belts, that Earnhardt's car had a one hour chassis dyno run the day before the race. Speculation is that the belt had been laying on the floor, and gotten too hot.

[Pirelli]

I am totally new here, so I just want to say that I am completely surprised that this is actually being discussed here escpeccially as a die-hard NASCAR and F-1 fan.

First off, I have been an Earnhardt fan since as long as I can recall being a racefan. That being said, I thought The King was right about having everyone move on after Earnhardt's passing. Earnhardt will never be truly replaced, but if he were here to tell all of us fans and NASCAR that is was time to move on he would have told us that in Rockingham.

Petty was dead wrong about saying Earnhardt was not a standout driver. The only reason this has not and probably will not blow up in his face publically is because of who he is. I am not going to list off a bunch of reasons why Petty is dead wrong because Earnhardt's record I think speaks for itself. What completely blows my mind is that Petty is no stranger to tragedy himself. For him to say something like this about someone who was no doubt the greatest Winston Cup driver so far in the modern era is pretty low rent.

Pirelli

[Lantern]

Originally posted by Pacific
Lantern- DW's 1985 WC wasn't exactly a win brigade. Not to put Pearson down...he was very good.

HAHAHA!!! To be honest the whole thing I said about Pearson "being the only one to be spoken in the same breath" was in haste due to the irritation from the Petty comment.

Dee Dubya is and always will be considered(by me at least) as one of the greatest drivers I have ever seen. And at the same time one of the best "people" in racing.


Also, I never thought your comments were derogatory to Pearson at any time. Passionate about sport I may be...but not completely blind to a thoughtful comment here and there.

[Lantern]

Originally posted by Pirelli
I am totally new here, so I just want to say that I am completely surprised that this is actually being discussed here escpeccially as a die-hard NASCAR and F-1 fan.

Being from North Carolina and having a family that has raced stockcars since well before I was born, I'm sure you can appreciate how happy I am that there is a place on the net that I can interact with other F1 fans.......and fans of racing in general.

[Psychoman]

Interesting spin on the whole thing...

[Pacific]

Yeah, I just read Jack Arute's column before coming here. I think Jack might be right, Richard's taking one for the NASCAR team.

I personally do not think that the Earnhardt death should be dismissed yet because I feel that NASCAR is trying to shift blame to Simpson when there cars are inheritently dangerous with front impacts. I mean, more than they should be...I mean, you watch some of the old NASCAR races when the cars hit like that at 210 mph at Talladega (like Ken Ragan in 1987) and Ken was injured with a broken leg I believe, but he didn't die. That's because the cars used to bend a bit more back in the day. Having the roll cage around the driver real sturdy is one thing, and the area around the fuel cell folds up pretty good yet keep the fuel cell together, but the front...I think Dale, Kenny, and Adam would disagree. And the number concussions we've seen in NASCAR hasn't been too good either.

So...Richard's comments do seem weird to me, as a Richard fan. I think NASCAR is corrupting somewhat expediently now that so much money is involved. It was interesting how Arute said NASCAR isn't overly happy with Fox. Fox has done a pretty good job so far. I sometimes wonder if it's too entertainment oriented on Fox...part of me liked the seriousness of guys like Bob Jenkins, Larry Nuber (deceased), Ned Jarrett, etc. But, DW, Larry Mac, and Jeff Hammond all have very contemporary experience. DW is going to drive the 92 Dodge at Chicagoland, so...Rumor has it Larry McReynolds is going to work with Petty Enterprises the second half of the season. Not sure about Jeff Hammond, but I've heard he'll be going back to work as well, most likely.

[Pirelli]

PE could use some Larry Mac, they need to get into the 21st century. And if DW wants to race at Chicagoland then he better have a provisional......

[Pacific]

DW is just going to test and help him get updated to the new cars. Kind of like how Buddy Baker has tested over the years for Rusty Wallace some. DW will not be in the race. Sorry to mislead on that if I did.

[Williams]

From Arute's column

"Leave it alone" was the trigger. The smoking gun. Petty was not so much chastising fans for their homage to their fallen hero. Instead, he was echoing NASCAR's hope that prying media will drop their questions concerning the details surrounding Earnhardt's fatal crash in the Daytona 500.

Interesting spin indeed.

Pacific

It was interesting how Arute said NASCAR isn't overly happy with Fox. Fox has done a pretty good job so far. I sometimes wonder if it's too entertainment oriented on Fox

From Arute's article it seems more like NASCAR didn't like Fox being too serious.

NASCAR needs to answer many questions regarding the death of one of their stars. It is no coincidence that they have decided to finish their investigation in August. When the Cup cars return to Daytona International Speedway on July 7, a new TV partner takes the baton from Fox. NBC starts its coverage. And NASCAR expects more positive coverage.

Mike Joy, Fox's lead announcer, has never been a NASCAR favorite. His NBC replacement is Alan Bestwick, who has been part of International Speedway Corp.'s Motor Racing Network, which some consider pro-NASCAR. As much as I love Benny Parsons, he stays away from controversy.
.
.
.
One thing is certain. NASCAR had hoped to better control FOX.

[Nasty McBastard]

OK... so im not as up to speed with nascar stats... didnt realise DE and RP were on the same level in that way (c-ship wise, 7x each).

But would people wonder if stewart or brabham or emmo said the same about schumacher?

Same deal.

You often have 1X f1WC's or less sayinig current f1 champs "aint what they used to be" etc etc... and all sorts of people come out and back em up....

How is this different? Appart from the fact DE was recently killed.

Much like with senna.. you cant say a bad word against the guy because he was killed.

Before you start hanging **** on me, Im not saying i agree or disagree, just making an observation.

[Don Capps]

A comment from Jonathan Ingram at On Track on the current situation at NASCAR:

http://www.ontrackon...6_06_Ingram.xml

Generally, I don't drop by here much, but someone mentioned this thread to me. The first race I ever attended was a stock car race in Atlanta at the Lakewood Speedway in 1949. Since my return to the US in 1961 from Europe, I have followed the NASCAR series with varying degrees of interest and intensity.

NASCAR has managed to make autocracy seem as American as Apple Pie, something of an amazing feat when you consider it. The current difficulties it finds itself in are a direct result of its own inabilities to grasp certain aspects of Change. One question that I have had for years was the rather chaotic and inconsistent method of medical support that NASCAR uses. Kyle Petty and I had the same therapist for awhile so I got to chat with him a time or two about some things. When Kyle suffered serious leg injuries some years ago in a crash, he said it was amazing to be sitting in the car, and have one of the 'rescue' crew videotaping the scene rather assisting the others! Turns out it was the wife of one of the crew who usually just rode in the cab of the truck. She was not an EMT, just a hanger-on. Kyle was not amused.

NASCAR restructured and re-thought itself in the late-1970s and the early 1980s and realized that TV was the key, but for about two decades never coordinated its efforts or made an effort to interfere very much with the local track promoters -- partly due to the economic gospel of laissez faire it tauts with a vengence. Only when it became blindingly obvious that it was have to shift its viewpoint -- and that was driven by visions of large sacks of money dancing in front of their eyes -- that NASCAR commandeered the TV rights.

However, one part of the equation that it failed to re-examine was that its new and expanded window on the world could also expose it to some unpleasant surprises. Three driver deaths in 2000 -- including Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin at the same corner at the same track several months apart, failed to serve as a wake-up call to NASCAR. When Earnhardt died, the organization was poorly prepared to deal with the situation.

The lack of a full-time medical advisor on the Daytona Beach staff, the lack of a comprehensive and coordinated medical system for the entire circuit, and the failure to adequately address obvious safety issues did not suddenly become public knowledge after the death of Earnhardt. They have been obvious and in full view for years. NASCAR could easily afford to have a travelling medical staff which could be accompanied by a fleet of mobile medical vans. These could be equipped to deal with the types of trauma expected in racing situations. The continued use of local facilities could be better coordinated with the on-site NASCAR trauma team to handle the follow-on medical care.

NASCAR has spoken for ages about both in-car and on-track safety systems and technologies. Many questions need to be asked as to exactly what has the research conducted -- if any in recent years, determined to be the factors that need to be addressed and how.

NASCAR has painted itself into a corner. The mindset of the organization (and its teams) is heavily slanted towards a philosphy of what can only be called 'enlightened autocracy.' Dissent is tolerated in only the smallest of doses. Lips are kept buttoned. The Press is viewed as a (willing) conduit for the NASCAR Philosophy and generally parrots that philosophy. Those not 'team players' are denied access and viewed as a threat to the Good Order of Society.

However, even many of the NASCAR Faithful are having uneasy feelings about what is going on at Daytona Beach. The obvious fumbling with its 'facts' and the ad hominum counter-attacks are wearing thin.

There is a distinct possibility that NASCAR could face a crossroads where it might meet a fate much like many of the late and generally unlamented Dot Coms. NASCAR will survive, but it will be different. It will take time to see where NASCAR winds up after this. Oh, for those on the F1 side of the house gloating a bit at the problems which have befallen NASCAR, a word of caution. The same basic problems are at the heart of F1. Both of the series have problems that are remarkably similar and yet different only in detail. Neither are in danger of collapsing overnight, but both are in a position where what was once seen as a license to steal might not be so golden after all.

Just my thoughts for what they are worth.

[Mat]

Good post Don, nice to see back on this side of the BB

Always good to see you drop in. Agree with you on the topic as well. It summed it up pretty well. Let's hope NASCAR get their act together (unlikely) before someone else gets hurt.

Mat

[Hard Driver]

I don't hold anything against Petty for saying "move on". Earnhart was not the first and won't be the last racing death. Richard Petty has been around long enough to have lost several people he knew (including his grandson). He has resolved his issues with death a long time ago.

What I do hold against him is talking bad about someone after their death. I was taught, "if you don't have something good to say, don't say anything at all". Sounds to me like he is jealous that Dale Earnhart is now a bigger star than him and his "the king" status is now basically a footnote in history.

[GasPed]

Have to agree a bit with Nasty on this one and disagree with the Arute article. I personally don't think King Richard (who happens to be my favorite NASCAR driver of all time) is anyone's lackey, and there's no way he would "take one" for corporate NASCAR - he's just not that kind of guy, IMHO.

What he would do (and has done, many times) is speak his mind. The fact is, he's pretty tired of all the repeated questions and coverage about DE over the past few months (e.g. the coverup scandals, the loss charisma lamented, the safety issues, the photos, etc., etc.). He just wants to go racing.

Add to this the fact that DE was in some ways the anti-successor to King Richard - the bad ol' boy to his good ol' boy, the up-and-comer to his fading star - and I would venture to say that Richard Petty feels a little short changed by all the publicity that Dale Earnhardt received in his life, and now in his death, that King Richard never got, despite his many more wins. Not only this, but he's watched a promising racer in his own family die, with, by comparison, hardly a whimper, from the press.

Yes, his comments sound a little bitter, and yes, they may not be accurate, but they are from the heart - they're not a product of some corporate PR-speak as Arute suggests.

That's my two cents,

Gas