If you're a fan mourning the end of Petty Enterprises now that the merger with Gillett Evernham Motorsports is complete I have some news for you: The Petty era officially ended last year when "The King" sold majority interest to investment group Boston Ventures.
Since that deal, the demise of the team continued to the point where the only way the guy with the hat and sunglasses and his iconic No. 43 could stay in the sport was for the deal with GEM to be finalized.
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| By merging, Richard Petty's old No. 43 gets to stay in the sport. (Getty Images) |
But there is still a long way to go to recapture the glory days one of NASCAR's pioneer teams used to enjoy.
It wasn't the economy or the tight financial squeeze the entire NASCAR world is experiencing that ultimately ended the more than 60-year history of Petty Enterprises as we knew it.
The bottom line was that for more than a decade the team just wasn't competitive.
The last time a Petty entry rolled into Victory Lane was in 1999, when John Andretti notched win number 268 for the team.
You have to go back to 1996 and 1997 for Bobby Hamilton's two prior victories and then set the way-back machine for 1983 before that, when Richard himself last went to Victory Lane.
For whatever reasons PE did not keep up with the sport, and while the likes of Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress grew into powerhouse owners, the Petty name was reduced to providing us with memories of days gone by rather than making new ones.
It wasn't from lack of effort, but perhaps remaining stationed at the family home in Level Cross, N.C. Not having a presence in the hub of the sport near Mooresville cost the team a chance at luring some of the more talented people and minds. Most aren't willing to tack a two-hour commute to their already loaded work days.
As hard as it is to swallow, teams that built the sport like Petty, the Wood Brothers, Bud Moore, Junior Johnson and others are gone, either throwing in the towel on their own accord or looking for a lifeline like the one GEM threw PE.
NASCAR isn't immune to these kinds of changes any more than the NFL could stop the Browns and Colts from relocating or the baseball Dodgers and Giants bolting for the greener pastures of the West Coast.
Fans grow emotional attachment to their teams and there is no doubt thousands feel sad today knowing the first family of NASCAR is truly in business in name only.
