: SINCE THE NEW OWNERSHIP GROUP HAS COME IN, WHAT HAS SPECIFICALLY CHANGED AT PETTY ENTERPRISES?
RL: “From the office door out to the shop, they really haven't felt a lot of the change. Probably the biggest place that has seen the change has been in the front office. They've really buttoned us up and are looking at things from a business standpoint and professional level. We're trying to keep the same culture we've always had at Petty Enterprises. There's no secret what great people the Pettys are. It really starts with the business side and trying to take that to another level. They're holding a lot of accountability from me to the drivers and all the way through (the organization). They definitely want to take this thing to new heights. We're putting the pieces in place to do that. Right now, we're on a hard plan over the next 30 days to lay out an action plan for the 2009 season.”
: AS FAR AS NEW EQUIPMENT - IS THERE MORE INFRASTUCTURE?
RL: “When we closed this deal (with Boston Ventures), we had a big wish list. We're working off that (list) one at a time. We're trying to be smarter and prioritize it. I've expressed to everybody that this sport is so competitive. The Hendricks of the world have been at it so hard - so long - if you brought all the money in the world and set it on a table - you just can't get there overnight. It takes a while to put the right people in the right places to be able to develop the engineers, the technology and the pit crews. It's a piece-by piece-effort. If we could get the 20 guys ahead of us in points on vacation for the next 10 races, we could close the gap pretty good, but they're peddling and working just as hard as we are right now.”
: HOW HAS THE PHYSICAL MOVE TO THE CHARLOTTE AREA GONE FOR PETTY ENTERPRISES?
RL: “The physical move - the hardest part was probably the first part of the season with the adjustment into the new shop. It's been hard on everyone because we went through some transition with employees as we moved down to this area. We're pretty fortunate. We still have a lot of employees that were part of Petty Enterprises up there. That's been the biggest transition. Probably just the mix of cultures as we came down to the Charlotte area - we hired some other people from other race teams and for so long, we had so many people that had only been there and worked on the cars one way - with one approach. All of a sudden being in the Charlotte area, we mixed a lot of different approaches working on the cars while still trying to keep the ‘Petty Feeling’ throughout it all. That's been our biggest challenge. Around July, things really started to settle in and we started hitting our stride. I think it will start to show in our performance the last eight or 10 races in terms of having a little calmness with having the move behind us now.”
: HAS THE MIXING OF OTHER CULTURES BEEN A PLUS TOO?
RL: “Yeah. We talked about it a lot. While it's harder to manage in the beginning, it's definitely a plus because everybody brings a little bit different mindset to it - so it definitely helps.”
So like the true racers they are, the teams that didn’t make the Chase have already changed gears and started working on next year. As for all those mergers, acquisitions and changes in the business of NASCAR, they will continue. 09/17/08