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Subject: Andretti out, Fittipaldi in for Petty
Posted by: Challenger
- [135231212] Tue, Jun 10, 2003, 16:22
Andretti out after five seasons at Petty
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- John Andretti was fired Tuesday by Petty Enterprises, where he has driven the famed No. 43 car since 1998.
Christian Fittipaldi will replace him beginning with this weekend's race at Michigan Speedway.
I surprised it didn't happen sooner. Now will Petty fire Petty? Afterall, Kyle performance this season lacks also.
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| 1 | Wahoo
ID: 21991117
Tue, Jun 10, 2003, 22:00
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I have to wonder what the thinking was in re-signing Andretti in the first place. Especially since they were trying to find sponsorship to field a car for Fittipaldi.
Petty won't fire Petty, part of the benefit of being an owner.;-)
PE seemed to have some promise towards the end of last season and the beginning of this season but haven't continued the trend. I just hope the change makes an improvement but I'm doubtful. Sad to see a team so rich in the history of NASCAR perform so badly. Although I was never a fan of the 'King' I always liked Kyle and had hoped Adam would be a contender.
How long until Andretti shows up in a truck race?
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| 2 | Challenger
ID: 135231212
Wed, Jun 11, 2003, 13:55
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I agree Wahoo. When PE resigned Andretti, what were they seeing in him then as opposed to now? Quite frankly, I was surprised when PE announced Andretti's resigning. Kyle showed an improved performance last year while Andretti remain about the same level.
At the beginning of the year, I thought I read funding was found in order for Fittipaldi to run a limited schedule on both Busch & Winston. By this I mean he would either run in a Busch race or a Winston race each week. This was to give him a feel of the stock bodied cars and how they handled at the different tracks.
With the lack of improvement, actually a fall off in PE performance this year. Wouldn't this indicate an R&D problem? Last year it appeared with the improved performance overall of PE, that they had turned the corner. When NASCAR changed the cars up to have basically the same common perimeters at most points/areas of the cars, this probably would hurt an improving team because they would have to go back to square one in alot of the area they recently overcame. IE - This is where R&D comes into play. IMHO
Petty replacing Petty - There comes a time when an owner/driver says to himself, can my familys racing business improve with another driver? I like Kyle too and I hope PE can have a better an improved performance over the rest of the season.
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| 3 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 513102216
Wed, Jun 11, 2003, 17:57
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Kyle needs to realize at some point that he'll better serve the sport as an owner than he will as a driver. His career average start is 26.08 and finish is 24.09. In the 14 races that have run this season, here's his performance: DAY: 30 start > 13 finish
ROC: 30 > 35
LAS: 19 > 31
ATL: 38 > 34
DAR: 40 > 26
BRI: 32 > 34
TEX: 28 > DNR (Fittipaldi)
TAL: 21 > 11
MAR: 33 > 34
CAL: 36 > 28
RIR: 8 > 27
CHA: 31 > 30
DOV: 27 > 43
POC: 40 > 27 Looking at the numbers, he's had only 2 finishes this year that are better than his overall career average. Both of those finishes came at restrictor plate races, so maybe Petty should bow out, bring in some young talent and let him race everything but DAY and TAL for the first year. When you look at the standings and see Andretti 5 positions and 132 points higher than Petty, I wonder if he fired the wrong person, or if he needs to fire himself as well. Andretti hasn't shown much, so I think it was a right decision to part ways with him. However, maybe he should grab someone like Tony Raines, give him some good sponsorship and cars and see what he can really do.
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| 4 | Challenger
ID: 135231212
Wed, Jun 11, 2003, 20:41
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KKB, The race Kyle missed, John garnered in 106 points, leaves only a 26 point diff. Ain't saying much as it appears we agree on the action taken on Andretti was justifiable, and I also believe Kyle needs to step it up as a driver or replace himself.
Another thing, according to NASCAR.com Andretti was running at the end in all but one race of 14, an accident. Kyle was knock out thru accident in 3 of his 13. In other words, you can't blame much of their finishes on "bad race luck". Now the standings do not indicate if they were involved in wrecks but able to finish.....soooooo maybe I just spouted out a bunch of jibberish. :)
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