Pettys make first step on way back to prominence (cont'd)

Eventually, though, the goal is to get back on par with the likes of Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing and the rest of the top-tier Sprint Cup operations.

"It takes a long way to get to where those teams are. They all have money -- but most of all what they have are the layers of great people in their organizations," Loomis said. "That's what you've got to build toward. Equipment is one thing; but it's getting the people to look at what equipment you need before you actually need it that's more important.

"I always use the analogy of the gold-medal winner and the silver-medal winner. Usually the silver-medal winner will follow the act of someone who won the gold four years back. The gold-medal winner has kind of developed their own act as they go forward. Racing is a lot the same way. A lot of people get caught up in chasing what the other people are doing; you've got to stay ahead of the curve by kind of developing your own system and your own pieces so you have a better product on Sunday."

And you've got to have big money to do it. Now Petty Enterprises finally believes it has that.

It reminded Richard of dealing with Granatelli and STP in the early 1970s. But what it reminded him of most was how much different those times were.

"We talked to Andy Granatelli of STP in the latter part of 1971 and worked out some stuff, but didn't really sign a deal until 1972 on our way to [the season-opening race] at Riverside," Petty said. "It was a completely different type of negotiations, basically. At that particular time, we were looking for monies to come in -- but we were still running everything and we had all the control. That was a sponsorship.

"This is not a sponsorship deal. This is a partnership deal. We just thought after talking to a lot of other investment companies, this was the best fit for us in the long term and the short term."

They had to do it. They still need sponsors for their cars next season, and Loomis said the money people at Boston Ventures are in agreement that a third car cannot be added until "we make sure we have two [cars] up healthy and running." (He added that the tentative goal is to run a third car seven to 12 races next season, perhaps with Chad McCumbee as the driver, and hopefully go full-time with a third car by 2010).

But sponsorships suddenly just got a whole lot easier for Petty Enterprises to sell. Heck, Boston Ventures surely can sell something to some of its other clients. The pressure has been relieved from the Petty family on the business end.

Now it's time for them to finally get back to what they really know: competitive racing, where they challenge for victories and, ultimately, more championships. They have been away from it for far too long.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.