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BACK ON TRACK
Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards raced their Busch Series cars in Saturday's race at Gateway International Raceway. Others ran at various short tracks across the country - Denny Hamlin raced at Gateway and Oxford, Maine. Kyle Petty used the week to hold his annual charity motorcycle ride to benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp for ill children that was built in memory of his late son, Adam. This year's ride left Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and wound its way across the country through Montana,Wyoming, Kansas, Illinois, Ohio and on to the camp near Randleman, N.C. Other racing personalities, including Petty's father, Richard Petty, retired driver Harry Gant and current stars Bobby Labonte and Matt Kenseth, joined the ride, while others who had participated in the past either had to make short segments or none at all. "With the schedule the way it is now, it's tough for those guys to give their time like they used to," Kyle Petty said during a teleconference last week. "If they can come in and ride one day, that's what they are all going to try to do." Even though the ride has been a big success during the years, the same can't be said for Petty's race teams. They've struggled in recent seasons. Last year, Jeff Green, driving the No. 43 Dodge, finished 30th in points; Kyle Petty, in the No. 45 Dodge, was 27th. This year, Petty Enterprises has shown remarkable improvement, especially since former Cup champion Labonte joined the team to drive the No. 43 Dodge. Entering this week's race at Indianapolis, Labonte is 24th in points, with one top-five and four top-10 finishes. Petty hasn't done so well. He's 33rd with a single top-10. Petty said the rebuilding process is taking time and still has much work remaining, but he's not discouraged by the seemingly slow turnaround. "I'm not frustrated at all about anything," Petty said. "The battles we've had over the last few years are part of the rebuilding and part of the growing process. "I tell people there's a lot of guys who can jump in race cars and run good times, but to get really, really fast, it takes a lot of work and a lot of patience, and you've got to look after the small things." He said that even though the results might not always indicate improvement, positive things happen for the team every day. "We might not be getting it done on the race track, but a lot of the stuff we're doing at the shop is right," he said.
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY |
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