News-Record.com

The announcement came a long, long way from Level Cross, far from the streets of Randleman where four generations of racers sprang from the Randolph County soil and changed a sport forever.

The word that Petty Enterprises will give up control to a private equity company came months into the 60th season of the most successful racing team in history, 50 years after King Richard first took the wheel of a stock car and less than one year since the team moved from its historic shop.

The announcement came as no real surprise. The family had been leaking word for more than a year that a business venture was being considered. But still, it drove home a point that had become all too apparent in recent years: The old days of a family operation are over in NASCAR.

"There is no doubt this is an emotional decision for our family, for my dad, my mother, for me, for my sisters, for the grandkids, for all of us," Kyle Petty said. "We have labored over this decision for a long, long time, but it's absolutely the right decision. And not just for our family but for the 152 families that depend on Petty Enterprises. My grandfather founded Petty Enterprises in 1949, and over the years we've won a ton of races and 10 championships, but most importantly created livelihoods for many families."

The new company will still be called Petty Enterprises, but will cede financial control to Boston Ventures through a capital investment. That's money talk. It means, theoretically, that the Pettys can go racing again, the way we used to expect them to race when Lee gave control of the steering wheel to Richard, then Richard to Kyle and finally Kyle to his son Adam.

The death of Adam Petty in 2000 changed everything. Less than a decade after Richard's retirement and Kyle's challenge for the 1992 Winston Cup title, the family decided to put its future in the hands of Kyle's son, a young phenom already being compared to his grandfather.

Adam's death would be the end of the golden era of racing for Petty Enterprises, days that saw Papa Lee set a record with 55 stock car victories and an unprecedented three championships, days that saw Richard burst onto the scene in 1959, winning rookie of the year and going on to win seven titles, seven Daytona 500s and 200 races, days that saw young Kyle win the ARCA 200 at Daytona the first time he had raced there, days that saw Adam drive those same smooth lines of history as the heir apparent to it all.

The team moved its race shop during the winter, leaving Level Cross and the family homestead on Branson Mill Road for a modern race shop in Mooresville near the other modern race shops that house nearly every team in NASCAR. The family stubbornly held to its roots, probably too long, and fell dramatically behind those other teams after Adam's death.

The sport changed in recent years. The family's decision to invest heavily in testing and building NASCAR's new Car of Tomorrow actually bought time for the team. And when it became apparent that new business models such as the Roush Fenway and Gillett Evernham teams were working, the Pettys saw an opportunity they couldn't avoid. Richard saw it as he always has, as a racing deal.

"The time has come for Petty Enterprises to take the steps necessary to get back to victory lane," he said. "This is something I have taken a great deal of time to think about, and I'm comfortable with the decision I have made and to have Boston Ventures as my partner for Petty Enterprises."

There's a new CEO not named Petty or Inman or Owens or any of the names that formed the great clan of racing families from Randolph County. The new guy is a money man, not from a racing background, and that's probably a good thing in this new climate of stock car racing.

In the old days, the families would pile into station wagons and family sedans and caravan behind the old flatbed platform truck carrying the No. 43 Petty-blue Plymouth and drive to Martinsville or Rockingham or Bristol or North Wilkesboro. They might see others along the way, the Wood Brothers coming out of the hills of Virginia, the Allisons up from Hueytown, Ala., Junior Johnson and his boys coming up from Ingle Hollow.

Those days are gone forever. And so are the days when the Pettys could bide their time and wait for the sport to cycle back their way. They dominated racing for so long, they might've been the last to realize the sport had changed.

The change came quickly for those race teams with no history. It came too slowly for the greatest race team in stock car history.