Petree seeking sponsorship, performance

Keith Parsons

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 2:43 a.m.

Sitting in the lounge of his hauler, team owner Andy Petree answered the question emphatically, without hesitation.

Will he run his No. 33 car next season without a sponsor?

"No," Petree said. "I'll do everything I can between now and then to get a sponsor, but I won't run a single lap without one."

Oakwood Homes won't be coming back for 2002 with Petree and driver Joe Nemechek, leaving the car owner searching for several million dollars in sponsorship for the first time since buying the team six years ago from Leo Jackson.

"This is the first time we've been through this, and I'll tell you it's no fun," said Petree, who also owns the No. 55 of Bobby Hamilton. "But we're talking to a lot of people right now, and I think we'll find somebody."

Will it be too late to keep Nemechek?

"We're definitely close to the point where something needs to happen," Petree said. "At some point, Joe's got to look out for him and his family."

Nemechek, the 1992 Busch Series champ, has been in Winston Cup since 1994 and has one career win. He's talked to other owners about plans for next year, and says he and Petree have about 30 days to make something happen before he looks elsewhere.

"It's tough. Andy's been very good to me and I don't want to hang him out to dry," Nemechek said. "But at the same time, other teams are starting to get things ready for next year."

Petree has been in racing for nearly 20 years, winning two series titles as crew chief for the late Dale Earnhardt and also leading Harry Gant to a record-tying four straight victories in 1991.

The car owner is surprised to be in this situation, particularly when he thinks about what could have been.

Hamilton won the Talladega 500 in April, with Nemechek helping his teammate draft to the front and ultimately finishing sixth.

It was the culmination of a great first two months for both drivers. Hamilton was fourth in points after that win, and although Nemechek was 25th, Petree felt both teams would get stronger by continuing to work together.

It didn't happen that way.

Nemechek was injured in May while testing his Busch car in Dover, Del., causing him to miss five races. Hamilton quickly began dropping through the standings, and after last Sunday's Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway is tied for 19th.

What happened?

"I really think the 55 team had a letdown after that win," Petree said. "Before Talladega, they were running up front every week, really starting to jell, and you could just tell they were close to winning.

"After that, it's almost like they relaxed a little. I can't figure it out."

Petree mostly blames himself for his team's troubles, bemoaning not being a master motivator like Joe Gibbs or other owners.

"It's almost like I need to hire somebody to motivate these teams, but I'm the owner and I need to be the one to do it," Petree said.

Hamilton said one of the things that should help the team get back to the front is all the in-house work it does. Petree builds most of his own chassis and chassis parts, and considers himself an innovator when it comes to designing new pieces.

"It takes time to stumble across something, but when you do, it's something nobody else has because you build your own stuff," Hamilton said. "Andy's getting close to that point."

Part of Petree's reason for building so many things is that his teams are housed in Arden, N.C., near Asheville, about a two-hour ride from Charlotte, home base to most of NASCAR's teams.

That's one of the reasons Hamilton chose to drive for Petree.

"With the way most of these teams are so close together, these crew guys have motorized tool boxes," Hamilton said. "If they find out somebody down the street is paying 50 cents more an hour or whatever, they can just pack up and try to get a job there.

"Most of the guys that work for Andy live in that area and they don't want to leave."

Petree's confidence that both teams will turn their seasons around is based partly on the scheduled return to tracks where they were so competitive earlier this season. Hamilton finished eighth in March in Bristol, Tenn., where they race Saturday night.

"We're so close to getting this thing headed back in the right direction," Petree said. "I think we'll get there when we go back to these tracks."