Petty says Hendrick battle for title bad

Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard Petty says the battle for the 2007 title that has boiled down to a fight between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon isn't ultimately good for the sport. That's just one of the opinions about the state of the sport that he offered reporters as he sat on a picnic table outside his motorhome at Phoenix International Raceway Saturday. In addition to the title race commentary, he offered his views on what he sees as the abuse of the past champions provisional and NASCAR Chairman Brian France.

On Johnson and Gordon, Petty said having two teammates race each other for the championship "is not good for the sport."

"If one of these drivers happened to have been [Dale Earnhardt Jr.], it might be a little different," he said. "But when you get Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, they're the same – they've just got different names."

Petty said any battle would have been better for fan interest – between rival teams, between manufacturers or just between drivers with different personalities.

Or, he said, if Clint Bowyer had remained in the hunt, fans might be more excited about the Chase.

"I think the fans, even if they weren't a Clint Bowyer fan, they'd probably pull for him to beat the Hendrick deal," he said. "Now, you've got nobody to beat the Hendrick deal, so everybody is down on that." More at Scenedaily.com