Lambeau Field
The big news out of Randolph County is that Petty Enterprises, the folks that put Level Cross and Randleman on the map, is thinking about leaving town. (For my out-of-town readers: Level Cross is just south of Greensboro and just across the county line. In other words, it's in our back yard, if Greensboro had such a thing.)
The move isn't imminent - the Pettys don't have a place (yet) in Charlotte, and the moving trucks aren't idling around back. The idea is to be more competitive. Racin' folks (meaning potential employees) don't want to drive from Salisbury and Huntersville and northern Mecklenburg County to work at the Petty shop, which Robbie Loomis compares to Lambeau Field.
The problem with Petty goes way beyond location. Level Cross isn't Lambeau Field, and Bobby Labonte ain't Brett Favre. I'll explain after the jump.
Let me torture the Lambeau Field analogy for a bit. I think what Loomis means to say is that Petty Enterprises, like Lambeau, is a piece of history. And it is.
But Lambeau also means other things. Small. Cold. In the middle of nowhere. Nothing going on. Dead. Those things about killed that franchise. Remember that Green Bay barely hits the 100K population mark, which makes it the smallest pro sports city anywhere in this country. It's also very white (80 percent plus), which makes it not very appealing to the black athletes you're hoping to get to play for your team. And who wouldn't rather live in Miami or Tampa or San Diego or Houston - big cities that are big and warm and happening (these are guys in their mid-20s) and you can play golf year-round?
What everyone forgets (me too - I had to look it up) is that between Lombardi and Favre were a lot of bad years. From 1968 to 1991, the Packers won more games than they lost only five years out of 24 and made the playoffs just twice. Nowheresville, indeed.
Favre played a large part in reviving the Packers. Folks wanted to play with him, and he was able to convince prospective teammates that Green Bay wasn't so bad after all. Let's face it: Winning helps.
Now let's look at the Pettys. They haven't won since 1999. Bobby Labonte is winding down his career. Kyle Petty, who hasn't seen victory lane in 11 years, is thinking about taking six races off in the middle of the 2007 season to do some TV work.
Worse, they're cheap. One of the Pettys (Richard or Kyle, I don't remember who) was telling some reporters yesterday during the media tour that they were looking at renting some time this year on a seven-post shaker rig. That's the thing teams use to test their car chassis. I would assume that Hendrick, Roush, Childress, Penske and the other big players either have their own or borrow the heck out of someone else's. Jeff Green (Jeff Green!) apparently has his own.
Look, I'd be on my feet screaming and scaring the wife and kids if Kyle or B-Lab came hauling across the finish line underneath a checkered flag. But so many other teams are so much farther ahead, and picking up and moving isn't going to change much. That's not an argument for staying in the place you could call Lambeau Cross - even the Wood Brothers realized Stuart, Va. was a losing proposition - but it's only the first (and tiny) step of a very long journey toward winning races again.
Comments (1)
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They would be well-served to make the move. Taking a step from the Wood Brothers and keeping a few offices along with a museum would work as well.
Posted on January 24, 2007 4:52 PM