Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kyle Petty refutes rumor that he’s set to retire

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

NASCAR Nextel Cup star Kyle Petty isn't quite ready to hang up his driving suit.

Petty on Monday denied a published report that he would step out of the No. 45 Georgia-Pacific Dodge and into retirement at some point this season.

"I don't know where that (rumor) came from; I don't have a clue," Petty said during a break in testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"If I was going to retire, I wouldn't have come out here and run in the half-marathon and then got up this morning at 6 o'clock to come to the track."

Petty on Sunday competed in the half-marathon portion of the 38th Las Vegas Marathon and spent Monday and today testing on the LVMS 1.5-mile oval.

Petty said that "there is no plan at all" for him to turn over the driving duties of the Petty Enterprises car to Shane Hmiel, as was rumored. Hmiel currently is serving an indefinite suspension by NASCAR for violating its substance-abuse policy.

Petty, 43, has eight victories in NASCAR's premier series in a career that began in 1979. His last victory came in 1995 while driving for team owner Felix Sabates.

Last season, Petty posted only three top-20 finishes in 33 races and finished 37th in points.

Although both Petty Enterprise's cars struggled last season, Petty said the addition of veteran driver Jeff Green in the No. 43 car already is paying dividends. Both Green and Petty finished in the top 20 during testing earlier this month at Daytona International Speedway.

"Realistically, Jeff brings a lot to the table," Petty said. "He drove for DEI and he drove for Childress, so he came in and looked at our stuff and he said, 'look, you guys are not a 40th-place team; we've got to get this thing straight.'

"Jeff has done a lot to get us turned in the right direction."

Gordon will drive for the Spirit of Daytona Racing team in the 24-hour race. He will co-drive with team owner/driver Doug Goad and veteran open-wheel racer Stephan Gregoire.

Gordon has four class wins in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and in 2002 he finished second overall in the prototype class. Gordon wraps up his Nextel Cup test at LVMS today.

Schrader also finished seventh in Sunday's Southwest Series race at PIR before coming to Las Vegas to test the BAM Racing No. 49 Dodge at LVMS.

The first 200 fans in attendance will receive a Coca-Cola collectible mini-racer and a drawing will be held for other prizes.