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PETTY: Tradin’ Paint at Texas with Richard Durrett
Tradin' Paint with Richard Durrett from the Dallas Morning News at Texas Motor Speedway...
Kyle Petty  |  Posted November 03, 2008   Fort Worth, Texas
“That’s just flagrant. That’s flagrant. They throw people out of basketball games for that. It’s called a ‘T.’ ‘Go to the locker room.’” - Kyle Petty (Image: SPEED)

SPEED's John Roberts and Kyle Petty with special guest Richard Durrett from the Dallas Morning News at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas

John Roberts: "Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year and a half, you know there are tough economic times in America and NASCAR being an American sport that relies on the business world is suffering tough times as well. Many teams are looking towards next year and already starting to layoff some employees. As a matter of fact, Felix Sabates has recently predicted that there will be eight fewer cars in Sprint Cup next year and more layoffs because of the economy. Richard, I’m sure from your position at the "Dallas Morning News" you have been watching this, what’s your opinion?"

Richard Durrett (Dallas Morning News): "Well, it’s the economy, it’s the way it is everywhere, it’s at my newspaper, it’s at the good folks out here at their jobs and it is in NASCAR. It is just that the economy is costing some folks some jobs right now. Remember also, this is the time too that we see layoffs in the sport, and I wonder too if part of the layoffs might be adding personnel to get the "Car Of Tomorrow," the car of today going and if that’s going to have an effect on more layoffs. But there are no doubt mergers and then manufacturer’s mergers will affect all of this. It’s a question of how it is going to affect it, what does it mean for branding, what does it mean for the future in 2009 and beyond and I don’t think we have those answers right now."

Kyle Petty: "Now, I’m going to go back to a political speech, it is the economy, stupid. That’s the way it is. Where we’re at and Felix is a good barometer of where we’re at, obviously, some of his business deals and some of the things he does away from racing, he brings another perspective to the sport other than just inside that garage area. Sometimes we get lost inside that garage area and we think the whole world revolves around us. Guess what, watch the stock market, and it doesn't revolve around us, but we revolve around the stock market, and I think when you look at it, that’s an issue right now. And you know, we did a thing last week, the economy is affecting this sport in so many different ways. We can talk about teams and layoffs all we want to. What we need to talk about is that guy sitting in the third row, him getting laid off, not being able to come and be a fan - not being able to watch the sport or not being able to participate as a fan at the event. That’s what the fuel prices do, that is what the economy does. It affects this sport straight across the board and, yes, we’re going to have layoffs, that’s just a fact of life. I agree with what Richard says, sometimes this time of year, the teams always have layoffs. But I think there will be more that will carry on into next year and hopefully as the economy comes back, these guys will have an opportunity."

John Roberts: "Richard, you make a very good point about the "Car of Tomorrow" these guys did beef up these staffs to bring this new car online. Now that they have control of it and they are not building two types of cars anymore, maybe some of those guys become expendable and that’s not even really having that much to do with the economy, it’s with the sport."


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