{"id":1147,"date":"2011-08-03T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2011-08-03T16:35:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T20:35:16","slug":"a-conversation-with-nascar-analyst-and-former-driver-kyle-petty-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-nascar-analyst-and-former-driver-kyle-petty-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with NASCAR analyst and former driver Kyle Petty (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kyle Petty (Photo by Steve Green\/Getty Images of NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kyle Petty has been away from full-time racing since 2008, but during the time since he\u2019s found a comfortable role as an analyst for SPEED, NASCAR.com and TNT\u2019s summer race coverage.<\/p>\n

As a driver and now a member of the media, Petty has always been one of the most popular figures in the NASCAR garage due largely to his charitable works. Inspired by his late son Adam (who died tragically in 2000 during a race practice in New Hampshire), Petty spearheaded the building of Victory Junction Gang Camp, which caters exclusively to children with chronic diseases.<\/p>\n

Inspiring Athletes recently caught up with Petty and the result is this two-part conversation. In part one, Petty talks about his father Richard Petty\u2019s induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, what current drivers are Hall of Fame material, and what\u2019s happening with the development of a brand new Victory Junction Gang Camp in Kansas City:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: Do you feel comfortable now that you\u2019ve fully transitioned into broadcasting?<\/p>\n

Kyle Petty: Yeah, if this is going to be my job, I\u2019d better feel comfortable with it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What do you enjoy most about working at SPEED and calling races for TNT?<\/p>\n

Petty: Really, it\u2019s just hanging out at the race track. That\u2019s the main thing. That\u2019s the big part. Obviously you drive a race car for so many years and then when you go do something else, you don\u2019t get to be around the people you always grew up with and the people that you\u2019ve always been around. Doing the TV stuff lets me be around those people, so that\u2019s the best part of it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: I suppose being around the track is also a benefit to your charitable work and keeps you in the forefront of people\u2019s minds, right?<\/p>\n

Petty: Yeah, it keeps you engaged. Obviously it keeps you at the race track and that\u2019s where a lot of the donor basis is. The NASCAR fans are your donor base. If you can stay engaged with those people, the better off you are.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Do you miss anything about driving?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patty Petty congratulates husband Kyle after his 1995 win in Dover (Photo by RacingOne\/Getty Images; Courtesy of NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petty: The only part I miss about driving is driving. That\u2019s it. I don\u2019t miss all the other stuff that goes along with it\u2014all the other PR stuff. Anybody, when they quit driving, they miss the driving part. It\u2019s the physical getting in the car for the race.<\/p>\n

Bonham: So do you miss driving against the other guys and trading paint?<\/p>\n

Petty: I just loved the driving part. Look, if I didn\u2019t race anybody, it didn\u2019t make any difference as long as I could drive. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to say. It\u2019s just the physical part of getting in the car and being able to go run fast and being able to drive. That was the fun part.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Is there any scenario that would find you back behind the wheel of a car?<\/p>\n

Petty: No. Out of the question.<\/p>\n

Bonham: I enjoyed watching you soak up the NASCAR Hall of Fame moment with your dad. How special was that time for your family?<\/p>\n

Petty: Obviously it was cool for my family and it was cool for my father. My father\u2019s in it, my grandfather\u2019s in it, and now (my dad’s crew chief Dale) Inman\u2019s in it. So when you look back on growing up, those are the guys that you watched and the guys you paid attention to and then you realize that all those guys are in the Hall of Fame. That\u2019s a big deal. Obviously for my father to be in the first class, that was a huge deal for our family. You can look at that in so many different ways. With our grandfather getting in this year and Dale getting in next year, we\u2019re going to be a part of the Hall of Fame induction thing for a while.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What current drivers in the Sprint Cup Series do you think are a lock to make it into the Hall of Fame someday?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kyle Petty introduces his father "The King" Richard Petty at the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony on May 23, 2010 (Photo courtesy of NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petty: Jeff (Gordon) and Jimmie (Johnson). Jeff and Jimmie, for sure. How do you know? With Mark (Martin)\u2019s body of work, I would put him in there in a heartbeat. Then you\u2019re going to have to drop back and look. Tony (Stewart) is a great guy. A lot of those guys have won some things, but does 10 or 12 races get you in the Hall of Fame? Does 20 races get you in the Hall of Fame? What else have you done? I mean, what Kyle Busch does in all three divisions is huge but he\u2019s only 26. If he keeps up that pace, he may be the one that moves to the top of the heap. It\u2019s really hard to say.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How are things going at Victory Junction Gang Camp?<\/p>\n

Petty: The camp is going really good. When you look at stuff with the economy the way it is, obviously everything\u2019s slowing down a little bit. It\u2019s slowed down for us too. But at the same time, you look at where we\u2019re at and what\u2019s going on now and we\u2019re still able to continue to grow. It just continues to get better.<\/p>\n

Bonham: When you get to hang out at the camp with the kids today, do you still get the same feeling you did when you first opened it up back in 2004?<\/p>\n

Petty: Oh yeah. Yeah. That part of it never changes. Being around the kids, talking to the kids, that part’s never going to change. I don\u2019t care if you get to be a hundred years old. That part\u2019s never going to change.<\/p>\n

Bonham: For those who have never been there, how can you describe why that place is so special?<\/p>\n

Petty: The special part about camp is the kids. It\u2019s like asking, \u201cWhat\u2019s the special part about Disney?\u201d You can stand back and look at Disney and think the coolest part is all the cool rides and all the cool buildings and everything everybody does. And then, the kids get there and you see the look on a five-year old’s face, you see the look on a 10-year old’s face and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh my God. It\u2019s really not about all the stuff we do. It\u2019s about the kids.\u201d That\u2019s really what camp is. The camp is just a regular camp. If you\u2019ve been to Boy Scouts camp, Girls Scouts camp or any kind of camp, when you experienced that environment and what camp meant to you, then that\u2019s all camp really is. (Victory Junction Gang Camp) is just for children that happen to have chronic and life-threatening illnesses. That\u2019s the only variation on the whole thing. It\u2019s what the kids that come to camp feel. They\u2019re not able to go to other camps. So it\u2019s just all about the kids.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Where are things at with the Kansas City camp and how has the slowed progress tested you?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patty Petty, Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Richard Petty, among others, celebrate the opening of the Dale Jr. Corral & Amphitheatre at Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina (Photo courtesy of NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petty: It\u2019s going good. You know it\u2019s funny. We all talk about that camp. We all look at it and we know we\u2019re going to do it. That\u2019s as simple as it is. You run into a roadblock every now and then and you just keep plugging along. That\u2019s kind of the same way it went in North Carolina. We had a piece of property, it didn\u2019t work out for us and we moved to another piece of property and it looks like it\u2019s going to work out for us, and along with all that stuff the economy changed. So there\u2019s some hiccups that you run into when those things happen. But the funny thing is, from the outside, people see them as issues, but from the inside, we don\u2019t see them as anything. We just see them as part of the process. We ran into the same stuff in North Carolina. Everything\u2019s not smooth. Everything\u2019s not a bed of roses. You\u2019re going to have issues no matter what you do. We\u2019ll get that a lot from people. They\u2019ll say, \u201cOh, you guys are behind in Kansas.\u201d But not really. It just doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s been a big deal for us. We just keep plugging away.<\/p>\n

Bonham: When you know it\u2019s something you\u2019re supposed to be doing and it\u2019s almost like a calling, doesn\u2019t it make it easier to deal with those challenges?<\/p>\n

Petty: Oh yeah. If you love it, it doesn\u2019t matter what you do, if you love what you do, then you don\u2019t sweat the little things. You just don\u2019t pay attention to them. Then when the big things come along, they\u2019re never as big as what they seem to somebody who doesn\u2019t have a passion for it and doesn\u2019t really love it. I think that\u2019s the way we look at it. When stuff comes along, it\u2019s just another issue we have to deal with. It\u2019s not a roadblock. It\u2019s not a stumbling block. It\u2019s not a time to throw in the towel. It\u2019s, \u201cHey. We\u2019ll just work around this.\u201d That\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been. That\u2019s the way it was at Victory Junction and that\u2019s the way it is with a race car. People that fold up their tent and go away probably didn\u2019t believe in what they were doing in the first place.<\/p>\n

For more information about Victory Junction Gang Camp, check out the official website HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can follow Petty\u2019s NASCAR.com online video broadcasts including archives of SPEED\u2019s \u201cTrackside\u201d and \u201c30 Minutes You\u2019ll Never Get Back\u201d by clicking HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click HERE<\/a> to check out part two of the Inspiring Athletes interview with Kyle Petty.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Petty has been away from full-time racing since 2008, but during the time since he\u2019s found a comfortable role as an analyst for SPEED, NASCAR.com and TNT\u2019s summer race coverage. As a driver and now a member of the media, Petty has always been one of the most popular figures in the NASCAR garage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[372,3,382,5],"tags":[491,328,564,426,508,563,220,562,217,10,208,561,204,566,567,565,535,221],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charitable-organizations","category-christian-athletes","category-qa","category-sports-features","tag-adam-petty","tag-dale-inman","tag-disney","tag-jeff-gordon","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-kyle-busch","tag-kyle-petty","tag-lee-petty","tag-mark-martin","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-hall-of-fame","tag-patty-petty","tag-richard-petty","tag-speed-network","tag-sprint-cup-series","tag-tnt","tag-tony-stewart","tag-victory-junction-gang-camp"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with NASCAR analyst and former driver Kyle Petty (Part 1) - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-nascar-analyst-and-former-driver-kyle-petty-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with NASCAR analyst and former driver Kyle Petty (Part 1) - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kyle Petty has been away from full-time racing since 2008, but during the time since he\u2019s found a comfortable role as an analyst for SPEED, NASCAR.com and TNT\u2019s summer race coverage. 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