Inside the Halls of Petty: Maintaining consistency

Billy Wilburn, Special to NASCAR.COM -- Hey Petty fans. This is Billy Wilburn, crew chief of the No. 45 Dodge. It is my turn to share my thoughts about working at Petty Enterprises, a team that I am happy to say is on the way back to the top. This week I want to talk about our performances from Charlotte. I think our team really opened some eyes during that time. We have a lot of momentum on our side right now and we are going to carry that over to the rest of the season.

Billy Wilburn

I am sure you all know by now that Kyle (Petty) finished third in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday. I could not be more proud of my driver or my team. Kyle is a fiercely dedicated racecar driver. He is still capable of finishing races up front. We are beginning to give him the equipment he needs to do that and it is showing in our performances. Our car was great all night long. We were running lap times right there with the leaders for most of the race so it is not like we fell into our finish. We definitely had a top-10 car and we happened to get a top-five out of it. Our finish also picked us up a bunch of positions in the points standings. We are knocking on the door of the top 25. My goal is to get inside the top 20 and I don't see any reason why we can't get there.

The pit crew for our team is really starting to pick it up too. They are a big reason why we finished third on Sunday. I am proud of my guys because we all knew we had a great car, we just needed good, solid pit stops. They didn't need to do too much. They came through in a big way and kept Kyle in contention all night long. That kind of teamwork is what has to happen to beat some of the bigger, multi-car teams.

Now we have to make sure we keep this level of performance up. Any team can jump up and grab a top-five every once in a while -- the key is consistency. With us traveling to Dover (Del.) this weekend, I don't see any reason why we won't continue to do that. Kyle loves Dover and he has always run well there. Before Sunday night, his last top-five was at Dover. If he can make it back-to-back we will be in good shape. This will also be a Car of Tomorrow race, which should be beneficial to us as well. Kyle has been really competitive in the COT this year. It reminds him of the cars he drove early in his career.

Dover will also be Kyle's last race before he steps into the broadcast booth for TNT for five races. He really wants to leave the team in the best possible position when he does so I expect him to be up on the wheel all weekend long. Look for Chad McCumbee and John Andretti to pick up right where Kyle leaves off. Chad is a young gun who can really get it done. John is a veteran racer who is really smooth with the car. I look forward to working with each of them. Hopefully I can learn a little from both.

And I don't mean to brag, but Kyle wasn't the only member of the No. 45 team to get a third-place finish at Charlotte. I am not sure how they scored me that high in the crew chief race we ran before the Nextel All-Star Challenge last week, but I will take it.

See you in Victory Lane,

Billy Wilburn