Andretti Getting Dodge Close to First Win

It’s a little surprising, but the team leading Dodge toward the first victory of its new era in NASCAR is Petty Enterprises.

That once-elite team, founded by racing pioneer Lee Petty and carried to legendary status by stock car king Richard Petty, has fallen on hard times in recent year.

John Andretti, a member of another famous racing family, joined the Petty team in 1998 and has managed just one win in his three full seasons driving for the team operated by Richard Petty and son, Kyle.

Last season was particularly frustrating for Petty, with only two top 10 finishes in 34 races.

Now, however, with the Pettys being one of five teams joining DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge brand in its return to NASCAR following a 16-year absence, Petty has matched those two top 10s in the first six events of the season.

In fact, they have come in the last two races, with a sixth-place finish two weeks ago in Darlington and a runner-up finish last Sunday in Bristol. The latter was the best showing by a Dodge driver in the six races this season.

That makes Andretti and the rest of the Petty team excited heading to Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Harrah’s 500.

“Downforce is going to be a factor at Texas and Dodge is looking good,” the 38-year-old Andretti said. “Everyone here are Petty Enterprises has done their job in getting these cars ready each and every week.

“It’s making it easier to unload with a good car on Friday and working to make it the best way you want it for Sunday. This Sunday, we’re looking to have the best engine, the best handling car and the best finish of the year for this Dodge.”

*

RED HOT: Jeremy Mayfield is the hottest driver on the Winston Cup circuit right now, heading into Texas with consecutive third-place finishes in Darlington and Bristol.

“We’ve got some momentum going now,” Mayfield said. “We felt like we could have won Darlington and had a car capable of winning Bristol.

“It’s the little things that can reach up and bite you, and the little things are probably what kept us from winning the last two races.”

Mayfield had to overcome poor starting positions at both tracks. In Darlington, his Ford started 38th when qualifying was rained out and the lineup was set by car owner points. In Bristol, he simply had a poor qualifying effort and started 31st.

“Luck has been a pretty big factor for a lot of teams at Texas and, to tell you the truth, I don’t think that’s going to change much for this race either,” Mayfield said. “The place is so fast and you have so many cars running so close together that if anything does happen, you have really got to work hard to miss it. It’s easy to get caught up in other people’s mistakes at Texas--really easy.”

*

OLD RELIABLE: Ken Schrader hasn’t made many waves on the racetrack in recent years. The last of his four Winston Cup wins came in 1992.

But Schrader, in his 16th season, continues to work hard every time he gets in the race car.

The veteran racer will become only the 22nd Cup driver in history to make 500 starts when he takes the green flag Sunday in Fort Worth.

“When you are doing something you love, you don’t keep count,” Schrader said. “If I had spent the past 16 years doing something that wasn’t any fun, you better believe I’d be counting down the days until I was done.

“I’m not much of a record-keeper about things like that, but it is pretty neat when you look at the company I’m keeping. Richard Petty. Dale Earnhardt. Bobby Allison.”

Although Schrader started five races in 1984, his streak of consecutive starts began Feb. 17, 1985. The race June 3 at Dover will be Schrader’s 500th consecutive start.

Schrader is sixth on the all-time list for consecutive starts and third among active drivers, trailing just Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace.

*

GETTING ACQUAINTED: So far, so good for Kevin Lepage and the Morgan-McClure Motorsports team.

Lepage, taking over for fired Robby Gordon last week in Bristol, drove to a 15th-place finish--easily the best of the season for the team from Abingdon, Va.

Currently driving on a week-to-week basis, Lepage visited the race shop Monday for a seat fitting and to get to know crew chief David Ifft and the rest of the team a little better.

“I’m glad we’re going to Texas. We’ll continue to build on the relationship we started last weekend in Bristol,” said Lepage, who started second and finished fifth--matching his career best--at Texas Motor Speedway last spring while driving for Jack Roush. “We talked about how well things worked out on Sunday. That is a huge step in the right direction.”

“This is not a new situation for me. I have been here before. You just have to step in and learn what the owner wants and what the crew chief wants. In turn, they have to learn what a driver wants. This was an easy deal to step into. All of us communicated really well.”

*

STAT OF THE WEEK: Texas Motor Speedway has had two first-time winners in four NASCAR Winston Cup races: Jeff Burton in the inaugural event in 1997 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year.