Photo: Pettyenterprises.com
Even Formula 1 fans will see the shame in this recent development. Maybe. Foxsports.com is reporting that a deal has been struck to merge Petty Enterprises, one of the most famous and longest running teams in NASCAR, with Gillett Evernham Motorsports. And by merger we mean swallowed up completely.
On the surface this might seem like yet another consequence of the flailing economy and its impact on sponsorship money in professional motorsports. But as Terry Blount from ESPN.com points out, the end of the road for Petty Enterprises has been a long time coming.
Blount notes that aside from the marketability of the Petty name, there wasn't much to Petty Enterprises over the past two decades. It won no championships and had few wins. It was a family-run team that was based across the street from the Petty's house in rural North Carolina trying to compete against multicar teams run out of state-of-the-art shops in suburban Charlotte.
It's an unfortunate exit for one of the sport's most famous families, but it goes to show that the only way to assure you'll have a ride next year in NASCAR is to win, even if you're a Petty.
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