Meendering's blueprint for Petty success a proven one (cont'd)

"We see Jeff as another very important piece in our process of growing Petty Enterprises back into a championship-contending team," Loomis said. "I'm confident he will be a cornerstone of our organization for years to come."

Loomis told Meendering about the plans to move the Petty shop from Level Cross, N.C., where it had resided for nearly 50 years, to the old Robert Yates Racing shop in Mooresville, much closer to Charlotte. Loomis didn't have to do a hard sell on perhaps his employer's greatest asset -- the Petty tradition, which is even more steeped than that of Hendrick.

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"I had other opportunities that I wasn't really that wild about. But when Robbie approached me about Bobby and becoming part of Petty Enterprises, I thought that sounded like the perfect fit," Meendering said.

He said he still has to pinch himself sometimes when he's around the shop, sitting there shooting the bull with the likes of Richard Petty himself and Dale Inman, Petty's legendary crew chief.

"Richard and Dale Inman both hang out at the shop, and it's really neat to talk to them," Meendering said. "They tell me stuff that happened in the past. It's just neat hearing their stories. Richard Petty has always been kind of an idol to me, so it's just kind of hard to believe that now I'm working around him so much."

Meendering knows all about the Petty numbers: 268 career race wins but none since 1999 (when Loomis was crew chief for a John Andretti victory), and 10 championships (including the record seven by Richard and three by his father, Lee). And about Labonte's numbers: 21 career wins, a championship in 2000 when Labonte was driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, but no victories since he won two races in 2003 while also driving for JGR.

Meendering also realizes he has been brought on board to bring much of his Hendrick-honed expertise to the table, which, in turn, he and Labonte believe will finally pave the way back to Victory Lane.

"I think about that every day. That's going to be a really big deal when it happens, and I know it's going to happen," Meendering said. "We're improving the equipment of the racecars and stuff. They may have gotten a little behind on some things, but I worked with Hendrick for 13 years -- and that organization was just so on top of their game. I picked up a lot when I worked there.

"Now I'm trying to take a lot of what I learned at Hendrick and implement it at Petty Enterprises, things that I saw there that I know work. I think we can make them work now at the Petty organization, too."

So does Labonte, who said he has become a bigger fan of Meendering every day. The two just completed three days of testing during Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway.

"He's solid," Labonte said of Meendering. "And Robbie, I think, is a great judge of character. What he was saying about him, I can see it more every day. I can see his leadership getting stronger, and his goals are strong.

"He has a good playbook of how Hendrick has done things for years. So he doesn't want to veer away from that. He's going to go this way and work it so it's the best fit for us."

Meendering said he knows there are skeptics who doubt the ability of Labonte and Petty Enterprises to turn the corner in a highly competitive arena that last season was mostly dominated by the Hendrick teams of drivers Jimmie Johnson and Gordon. But he pointed out this is different. He knows what made Gordon go fast and intends to apply the same plan to Labonte's program.

"It's definitely a very exciting time. I'm excited about how confident Bobby is about doing well," said Meendering, a quiet man by nature who admitted he is uncomfortable in the spotlight and doesn't believe he will enjoy dealing with the media. "We have high expectations going into this year. I think there are really some good things going on. We've made some really good hires in the offseason that are going to strengthen our team.

"I'm not content with not performing well. If I didn't feel like we could improve, I probably wouldn't have made the move."

It will take some time, he admitted. But he added that he expects results this season, despite the season-opening Daytona 500 being only one month away.

"We're building a lot of new cars right now. We're revamping our whole fleet of cars. That's taking some time," Meendering said. "The guys at the shop are getting a lot of work done. I can see where a month from now, I think we're going to be sitting pretty good as far as our car count and everything goes. We're going to be looking pretty good.

"As far as working now for Petty, I've been with one great organization and now I'm with another. I feel like I can bring some of the stuff I learned from one to the other to help it get back to where we all want it to be."