Dodge makes it official: Petty, Davis on board
by Ron Buck, ESPN.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- What time is it? Time for Dodge to finally put the rumors -- at least most of them -- to rest Saturday morning and announce its 2001 Winston Cup team. Well, most of it.
Unveiling a No. 19 red 2001 Intrepid, an old friend of Winston Cup officially introduced Richard Petty Enterprises and Bill Davis Racing as the newest members of its team.
From left, Dave Blamey, Ward Burton, Bill Davis, Jim Julow, Richard Petty and Ray Evernham introduce their new car.
The lineup of drivers so far: John Andretti, Kyle Petty, Adam Petty, Ward Burton and Dave Blaney.
Petty and Davis join Ray Evernham on the three-team program. Evernham has yet to hire his
drivers, but says he expects to have one veteran and one youngster.
Evernham, who won three Winston Cup championships as the crew chief for Jeff Gordon, left Hendrick Motorsports last October to spearhead Dodge's return to Winston Cup. He still wouldn't divulge his next drivers, but was happy to have some of the attention taken away from him at least for a while.
"This is the day I've been waiting for," Evernham said. "Now I can stop answering all the questions by myself. It's great to be part of a team like this. Bill Davis and I were teammates in 1992 and had a lot of success."
Richard Petty said his two Cup drivers -- Kyle Petty and Andretti -- would be joined by 19-year-old Adam Petty, who will begin his second Busch Series on Saturday in the NAPA Auto Parts 300. But "The King" was happy Dodge was finally getting back into the stock car business. Petty has fielded a Dodge truck in the Craftsman Truck Series the past five years.
"They ran me off about 30 years ago, but we finally decided to get back together," said Richard Petty, who drove for Dodge until the manufacturer left Winston Cup in the '70s. "Every time we'd start talking about the truck, I'd ask 'em, 'When are we gettin' a car?' It took five years, but as Petty Enterprises starts its second 50 years, a big, big part of our first 50 years was the Chrysler Corporation and mainly Dodge. So, from that standpoint, it's great to get us back together again."
Petty's son Kyle and grandson Adam, along with Andretti, currently drive Pontiacs. Burton and Blaney will also switch from Pontiac to Dodge. Burton finished ninth in Winston Cup points last season, while Blaney is beginning his rookie campaign after two seasons of racing Busch for Davis' team.
While Richard Petty had openly discussed his intentions to return to Dodge, Davis' switch was rumored, but not confirmed until Saturday's unveiling of the team.
"Surprise! It's me," joked Davis, as he was introduced to the media. "I have every confidence in the world that this Dodge program will take us to a new level -- the next level. Not only is Dodge' return to Winston Cup a great thin for those of us with the good fortune of being the ground floor, but it's going to turn up the heat for the entire series. The stakes just got higher."
Evernham has been working on the Intrepid in Petty's shop and said the first official testing of the car would come in early April.
"Everyone has been asking me where we've been working? How's the car going? Well, this man right here (Petty) opened up his shop," Evernham said. "I didn't have a shop, didn't have equipment, didn't have people. We've been doing a lot of the real development at Petty Enterprises. I want to thank those guys."
