Inside the Halls of Petty: Get back to work, boys

Well guys, the Easter break has come and gone. This past weekend was a great time to recharge the batteries because our 36-race schedule can really wear on you if you don't take some time for yourself. All of us here at Petty Enterprises enjoyed some family time and got caught up on some things that tend to get neglected when on the road.

That being said I am sure most of you reading this column are like me. You are ready for the No. 43 Dodge and the No. 45 Dodge to get back to the track. I bet you guys were sitting around the family living room, after eating a hearty Easter lunch, wondering what you were going to watch on television. Sometimes we take for granted that a race will be on every Sunday afternoon.

Inside Petty

Each week on NASCAR.COM, Robbie Loomis will take fans "Inside the Halls of Petty Enterprises." A championship-winning crew chief, Loomis has 26 victories atop the pit box and as Vice President of Operations oversees both Petty cars.

This weekend we head to the Lone Star state and the ultra-fast Texas Motor Speedway. Petty Enterprises has had some very solid runs on the intermediate tracks this year and with all the hard work our guys have been doing in the shop we believe another good run is on the horizon in Texas. No team's shop is working harder than ours. I am really proud of my guys.

Many of us have been asked, 'Will it be strange to go from the Car of Tomorrow at the short Martinsville Speedway to the standard car at a fast place like Texas?'

My answer is 'no.' If we had just been to, say, Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., then it would make a difference. But we really didn't learn anything about downforce on the COT from Martinsville, or Bristol for that matter. We have the best of the best working on our Dodge Chargers and they will make this transition seamlessly.

And our drivers know how to get around the Texas Motor Speedway as well as anyone.

Kyle finished 11th in the 2006 fall race at the track. The Billy Wilburn-led No. 45 team has really been improving over the course of the year. You can see it every week as they continue to move north in points.

Bobby has been oh so close many times in Fort Worth. He has two poles and three third-place finishes at Texas. Everyone knows that Bobby is a threat to win anytime you go to a mile-and-a-half track. Plus he is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, so we would love to get the No. 43 into Victory Lane for one of his homecoming trips.

Our teams are rested, focused and ready to go. Texas Motor Speedway could definitely be the place that Petty Enterprises makes its triumphant return to the top of the sport.

On another note, even though the Nos. 43 and 45 Dodges were not racing this past weekend, another member of the Petty Enterprises family did. Tim Andrews, who is the son of Bobby's crew chief Paul Andrews and the spotter for Kyle, made his first ARCA RE/MAX Series start at Nashville Superspeedway. He brought a clean racecar home in the sixth position. Congratulations to Tim and the No. 4 Dodge Motorsports team on a fine race.

Back to Texas, while Petty Enterprises has not won at Texas Motor Speedway yet, the organization does own the most wins at another Lone Star track that has played host to the Nextel Cup Series. It's true. The King Richard Petty picked up three wins at Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas. The track hosted Nextel Cup racing from 1969-1973 and then again from 1979-1981.

See you in Victory Lane,
Robbie Loomis