Petty Enterprises Vice President of Racing Operations Robbie Loomis said the team is making progress on its goal to move from its long-time home but likely won’t leave it’s Randleman, N.C., base until 2009.

“We’re definitely making a lot of progress,” Loomis said. “We’ve looked at more land and sites and things. The scope and the size of the project has kind of changed a little bit. We were originally looking for 50-75 acres, and now we’re looking for a lot more land than that.”

Loomis said the team would eventually like to expand to four cars, and there needs to be enough land to add shop space to accommodate the increased number of teams. The two-car team is now housed in a sprawling campus in Randleman, about 90 miles from Charlotte, N.C., the home of most NASCAR teams.

“We’re still trying to identify exactly where the best place to be for the land for all the employees that we have now and for the ones [who would join later],” Loomis said. That appears to be Salisbury, N.C., about halfway between Randleman and Charlotte. “Our main targeted area has been Salisbury,” Loomis said.

“We feel that’s a good location to grow. But right now, there’s a lot of things involved in making that next step and making the commitment to get the land.” Loomis did say the team would “for sure” be in a new facility for the 2009 season but didn’t speculate on exactly when a move would be made.

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