Petty ready to tell all
Petty will give live, in-car analysis during Sunday’s race as part of his role with TNT this summer. Petty’s love for road course racing put him back into the #45 Dodge for this weekend’s event. He will be giving viewers one of the most unique experiences as to what it’s like racing a Nextel Cup car in road course competition.
The countdown to 800 career starts picks back up this weekend. The road to Indianapolis, the location of Petty’s 800th career start, will roll through Sonoma for career start 799. Petty has 16 starts at Sonoma with two top-10 and one top-five finish.
Comments from Petty as he prepares for Sunday’s SaveMart 350:
“Why not, that was the way I felt about driving and analyzing the race in Sonoma. Why can’t you? I think we can take the viewer to the next level. We have all the technology to do it from a broadcast perspective. We can do it from the team perspective. I think it’s going to be pretty cool for TNT and all the fans. I don’t think we are out there reinventing the wheel, but hopefully we can break some new ground with what we are going to do.
“Sonoma is a probably the most unique track to do something like this. Sonoma is a pretty technical road course. You are on the gas, off the gas, on the brake, going up hills and going down hills. There is so much going on in one lap that fans know about, but maybe they never had an insider’s view. It’s a lot of work in these cars to get around Sonoma.
“That’s what I enjoy about it. I’ve always enjoyed running the road courses. Looking at the schedule this year, and what we were doing with TNT, this race was one that I wanted to run. I’m grateful to TNT for making this work.
“It’s a big race for Wells Fargo too. They do a lot of business in the west. The track, being in wine country and close to Oakland, San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, it’s a big deal for Wells Fargo to get in front of these customers. We want to put on a good race for them.
“Chad (McCumbee) and John (Andretti) did good jobs for us at Pocono and Michigan. Billy (Wilburn) and the guys have been working hard. The guys have been working with different drivers, but they are doing a great job. They are preparing good cars. This team is a pretty strong group of guys. Sonoma is a different challenge, being a road course, but I think we can get a good run on Sunday.
“A lot of this is about attitude. I have a liking for the road courses. That’s going to make for a big advantage. I’ll have millions of my closest friends along for the ride on Sunday too. We’re going to give them a good ride. Everyone will learn something on Sunday."