Petty sells majority interest in team, Labonte signs 4 year extension
Quote selected text Published June 10th, 2008 in NASCAR News
On Wednesday, Petty Enterprises will announce that Boston Ventures, a private equity firm, has acquired controlling interest in the 60-year-old racing operation which has produced 10 NASCAR champions but struggled to remain competitive the last two decades. Richard Petty will remain involved at a high level, but David Zucker, 45, will assume the role of CEO according to David Hovis, a spokesman for Petty Enterprises.
Hovis also said it will also be announced that veteran driver Bobby Labonte has agreed to a four-year extension. Labonte will continue to drive for what is expected to remain a two-car Cup team for 2009.
Until March, Zucker had been CEO of Midway Games, a Chicago-based producer of video games. In 2002, Zucker was named president and CEO of Playboy Enterprises. From 1988-1999 he was with the Walt Disney Corp., becoming executive vice president at ESPN. He also served as director of ESPN International, overseeing international operations.
Petty said the initial deal is to run two cars but indicated he’d like to have a third Cup team running full time by 2010. Sponsorship, however, remains an issue. The team is losing its primary sponsor of the Labonte’s #43 car. General Mills, to Richard Childress Racing next year. Hovis said a fourth component of the deal will be announced at a Wednesday press conference.
Bookmark to:
- Bobby Labonte signs extension with Petty Enterprises-UPDATE
- Bobby Labonte signs contract extension with Petty
- Petty near deal to sell majority of team
- Bobby Labonte undecided about 2009 plans
- Bobby Labonte to stay at Petty Enterprises
A sad day in nascar history indeed. Based on the past history of Zucker though I believe he will be more of a financial backer than a hands on backer. Lets hope he can bring the pettys some glory before Richard joins Earnhardt
I can’t believe the day has come
when NASCAR teams have ‘CEOs’
The King is going to hate reporting to someone else. Its been a long time since Lee turned the keys to PE over to Richard, and let’s not forget how bad Richard’s two years of working for Mike Curb were. Of course, Zucker now inherits the task of telling Kyle that it’s time to get out of the car, and I really like and admire Kyle a lot.
It’s one more step taking NASCAR away from it’s roots and towards Wall Street. It has been coming slowly but the NASCAR that We all Know and Love is on it’s way out.
NASCAR is dead. Seeing teams that have been key players since the start having to take on outside investors in the last years has been ridiculous. But the good news is that Bobby will be back to get the #43 closer to Victory Lane in 2009 and beyond
Poor Kyle. That’ll make me sad. My first memory of Richard Petty was in 1st grade. He came to our school for a “field day” thing. Him (pondering…) and Jr Johnson I believe. I can’t remember really because I was captivated by RP and his cool cowboy hat with the feathers. Seriously.
(Thanks to Central Elementary in Statesville, NC. Big Holla Class of ‘I-ain’t-tellin’).
The ice caps are melting.
We’re going to have a Black Prez.
Theres three times as many tornadoes these days.
Crime has risen.
The dollar has fallen.
Richard Petty sold out.
What is this world coming to?
It’s a sad sad day people!
60% of nothing is still nothing i think. sorry for the confused thought.
sorry to here you are confussed jim. do you need a ride home for the bar.
49.99% = Good
50% = Ok
50.000000000001% or more = Bad
Sad to say but by Next season PE will have a new name, a completely new driver lineup, and will be a Toyota team.
I think sad as it is it might be a really good thing, the Pettys spent a year looking for the right investor and as big a name as Petty is they have had to operate on a shoestring budget for years, the one thing they lack that teams like Gibbs and Hendrick and Rousch don’t is money. Kyle will probably only drive another year or so but I do believe he will still be in the car he has always said he’d probly retire by 50 and join the Srs tour since golf is another passion of his.
Any Petty fan wants them to be competitive and if they don’t do this they may have eventually ended up on the Auction block like alot of teams have and that would be even sadder than not having controlling interest in there company. This may turn out to be the smartest move the Pettys have made and I have read this company comes in gets businesses back to where they need to be and then the company sells it back and moves on so its just wait and see what happens.
Like I said this is sad, but the eventual idea of no Petty Enterprise and the auction block would be a much sadder event.
i’m sick and tired ok the kyle petty bashing!!!! ya he has not done anything in the past few years, but (and this is a big big but) it is so very clear that he is racing a car that is not even close to competitive. When chad jumped in the car two weeks ago he was one of two that did not qualify, and he was not even close. Then last week Texas Terry did not even make a qualifying run. Look at the past few years with Bobby he has done very lil also, and this year he is making some top ten runs ( last week was a good pit stop call but still a good run) i just have a funny feeling that kyle still has a few top 10 in him, and even a win or two. ( how funny would it be after this big deal that this weekend one of the texas boys would bring home a win)
I have been a PE fan for years but this is probrably the best news for the organization in 10-15 years. This will give petty enterprises more money to become more competitive. I have a feeling Kyle will retire within the next couple of years and I really wish there was a Petty driving for PE. I miss the good old days of richard whooping ass.
That Zucker Guy is a Joke, he has been a CEO of 5 different companies in 20 years and all 5 of them have reported annual losses each year that he was the CEO.
When he was at Midway games they lost 97.4 Million dollars a year, and the only reason he left Midway was because he was given a date that he had to stop the cash from bleeding out by, and he did nothing but make it bleed further.
Ok Kyle Petty is a joke!! If anyone is watching this press conference and here that moron call NASCAR Sports Entertainment??? That is a HUGE insult to every race fan!! So he pretty much called NASCAR “Pro Wrestling!” This is NASCAR damn it!! Nothing is fixed in racing believe it or not!! Again, Kyle Petty is crap!! I feel bad for Richard because he has to watch his son bring his storied team through the mud and has to rely on outside money to attempt to bring it back to glory!!!
I look at Sports Entertainment (the way he meant it) as being any sport that is not just “Show up at venue, watch event, leave venue”, but a sport that is “Show up at venue, Do ride/drive along stuff & all the other entertainment junk that you can do at the track, watch the event, Do ride/drive along stuff & all the other entertainment junk that you can do at the track, then leave venue to go home”
this is a better deal than everyone thinks , Petty had no sponsors for next year, they have not won since 1999 with John Andretti and they were on the brink of closing the doors. Petty Enterprises have 64 million dollars in earnings since its conception some zillion years ago. JJ Yeley has only been racing since 2004 and already has passed that up. so this is good, it will keep the Pettys in the hunt and maybe bring some wins to Bobby in the next 4 years. and they will be goin to 3 cars in the future. if this is what it takes to compete in NASCAR then so be it, anything is better than seein them fade away.