FORT WORTH, Texas -- It has never been easy to replace a Petty in a Petty Enterprises racecar.

Apparently, it's not very easy to explain how it happens, either. But after much discussion -- first amongst themselves back at their own shiny new race shop in Mooresville, N.C., and then in repeated rounds with the media at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday -- all parties at Petty appear in agreement on at least one front.

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Kyle Petty is out of the driver's seat in the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge for this Sunday's Samsung 500 Sprint Cup Series race because the goal is to make that car better and more competitive for the long run.

Robbie Loomis, general manager of the organization, said the decision to replace Petty with driver Chad McCumbee for this Sunday's race was more difficult for him to absorb than the news that came two days later when longtime Petty supporter General Mills announced it was taking its sponsorship dollars to Richard Childress Racing at the end of this season.

"This was harder on me Monday than getting the news about the sponsor," Loomis said. "And it's because I knew the sponsor thing, well, we've been trying to save them guys and work on that for two years. So to me, that was something I guess that I was more prepared for. This is a part of where I feel a sense of failure myself of getting this 45 car where we need it."

Kyle Petty did not argue that the No. 45 car he has been driving is nowhere near where it needs to be. He battled various mechanical problems while opening the season with a 34th-place finish in the Daytona 500, 38th at Fontana, 32nd at Las Vegas and 41st at Atlanta. He entered the all-important fifth race of the season at Bristol ranked 40th in the owner standings, 81 out of 35th.

Needing then to make a last stand at Bristol to get the car back into the all-important top 35, where he would have been guaranteed a starting spot the following Sunday at Martinsville, the best Petty could pull off was 28th. The left him needing to qualify on speed to even get the car in the race at Martinsville, and he failed.

"It wasn't as bad, of course, but it almost had the same feel as a death in the family when he didn't make that race," team consultant and longtime former crew chief Dale Inman said.

Waving the flag
Kyle met for two lengthy sessions with the media Friday. The second was necessary because during the first he stated that it wasn't his idea to get out of the driver's seat, which conflicted directly with what Loomis was saying.

"I'll let you throw the B.S. flag on this a little bit. I'm not going to tell you the truth," Petty said. "And here's the reason why: It will hurt too many different people in too many different ways from too many different angles. I'm just not going to tell you the truth. Take what I say and write it. I'm just not going to tell you where everything's at. I just can't."

Later Loomis met for another round with the media to further clarify his position. He reiterated that in his mind, it was Kyle's decision to get out of the car and let McCumbee climb in.

"We were all sitting there, in my office, and we're all together, just talking and trying to evaluate what we've got to do to get the car better," Loomis said. "However it's wrote or looked at, it's all about the improving of the 45 car. We're evaluating that thing from top to bottom.

"Kyle said, 'You know, when I'm in that car, I can't tell what you're doing or what's going on with everything. I want to be out and see the whole thing.'

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"So I think you've gotta realize, it's a really, really tough decision. I think the guy has been doing this a long, long time. There's not anybody in America that doesn't want to see Kyle Petty return to success or win. And I think for myself, I remember I was sitting there and I got a numb feeling when they said, you know, we're going to try something different. Part of the big reason I came back here [after leaving and working for Hendrick Motorsports for several years] was to help get the 43 [Bobby Labonte] and help get the 45, and especially Kyle, because I've been so close to that family for a long time, back to Victory Lane. I'm looking at it as a step of evaluating kind of where we're at, no different, probably, than what they did over here with [A.J.] Allmendinger."

As he made that last remark, Loomis gestured to the nearby hauler of the No. 84 Toyota fielded by Red Bull Racing, which recently replaced A.J. Allmendinger as the driver with veteran Mike Skinner, supposedly on a temporary basis.

Here's the rub: Kyle Petty isn't A.J. Allmendinger, and Red Bull Racing isn't Petty Enterprises.

Kyle and Loomis kept saying that they couldn't figure out why the decision to pull Petty from the No. 45 car was such big news to everyone. Well, that's why. The Petty name still carries weight in NASCAR, and folks are wondering what the future holds for this storied but obviously struggling organization.

And now they are beginning to wonder if everyone is on the same page there.

The King and the kid
In time, even The King -- Kyle's legendary father Richard, who doubles as owner at Petty Enterprises -- weighed in on the matter. He admitted that it was difficult to agree to replace his own son in the driver's seat.

"It's kind of tough. But we had a meeting of the minds -- I'll put it that way -- and that's what happened," Richard Petty said.

Told that Kyle didn't seem to be too thrilled about it, Richard rubbed his chin in thought before replying: "Well, I don't guess I would be, either. I wasn't either when I retired [as a driver in 1992]. But I was the one who made the decision. I didn't want to do it, but I knew I had to do it. So that's sort of what we're doing now."

All parties concerned stressed that it is a one-week deal. Kyle said his name already is on the entry list to drive the No. 45 for next week's Cup race in Phoenix, although later in the year he already had been scheduled to sit out a total of seven more races (six to fulfill broadcasting duties on TNT, and one to attend his daughter's wedding).

All parties involved also denied suggestions that Friday's sometimes mysterious and conflicting comments point to a team in turmoil. Among the earlier ones by Kyle that raised a few eyebrows was his open admission that he never was behind the organization's decision to move from its 60-year home in Level Cross, N.C., to Mooresville, on the outskirts of Charlotte some 90 miles away.

"I think there was a time when we needed to move to Mooresville, or we needed to move to the Charlotte area. I think that time had passed," Kyle said. "So I was not 100 percent behind moving to Mooresville. I just thought that the workforce that we had in Level Cross, the people that we had to work for us in Level Cross -- the people that we had who lived in that area and were loyal to Petty Enterprises and were good workers -- they were just as good head-to-head as with any people in the industry.

"I felt like we had some issues that we should fix and could fix, whether we were in Level Cross or whether we were in Mooresville. We've not fixed those issues yet. We're not running any better in Mooresville than we ran in Level Cross."

If those comments did not make Kyle Petty's main point clear, another that Kyle made certainly did.

"I don't think I'm the problem, but I'm pretty arrogant on that side," he said. "I will say that. I don't think I'm a problem with anything. ... I think we have problems, but I don't think Kyle Petty's the problem."

When the best McCumbee could do in qualifying Friday was to reach a top speed of 183.736 mph, 42nd on the speed chart -- and Skinner, going immediately after him, posted a time of 188.390 mph, ninth on the grid -- it seemed Kyle was right.

The problems at Petty Enterprises run deep. And changing drivers for one race, or in this case in one failed attempt to make one race, is nothing more than a one-inch Band-Aid on a wound whose gaping size has not even yet been fully determined.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.