LEVEL CROSS, N.C. -- NASCAR competition has made Kyle Petty somewhat of a sculptor: he keeps chipping away in hopes of someday creating a masterpiece.

Even in the face of adversity, including poor performances, engine development problems, loss of key personnel and sponsorship issues, Petty continues to work at shaping what he firmly believes will again become a championship-caliber team, in much the way his grandfather Lee and father Richard carried the Petty name to championships.

The third-generation racer "has so many things on his plate," as teammate John Andretti often says, that it's like Petty is partaking of a smorgasbord of sorts. Not only is he one of the team's two drivers, but he's also the chief bill payer and decision maker.

"This is a competitive business," Petty said. "You're only as good as what you did last Sunday. And I think that Monday mornings this year, when they roll around, we're going to look in the papers and see our names on the board a lot higher up than we've seen in the past. That's the goal we've set for ourselves."

The 42-year-old Petty doesn't necessarily have to wear all the hats he does, or try to be everything to everybody, but he does so because loyalty and tradition dictate such.

"There's a lot of history in this place," Petty said while surveying the sprawling collection of shops that cover his family's homestead. "But most of the history here is my grandfather's and my father's history. I haven't really made a lot of history here.

"When you look at this place, my grandfather and my father were both owner-drivers. When I came along, it was natural that I'd become an owner-driver at some point in time. I'm 42 years old, not 32 or 22, just starting my career, so I'm on the backside of where I am. When you look at it, I have to look at what I need to be doing when I'm 52 or 62.

	Kyle Petty, background behind father Richard, would like to make his own mark on Petty Enterprises.

"So, we've got to build things back to a place where we can be competitive and win races. When it boils down to it, I still feel a need to be a lot more hands-on in a lot of places."

Petty supposedly stepped away from the role as the team's Mr. Everything before last season when he hired veteran crew chief Robin Pemberton to become team manager, overseeing Petty's No. 45 and Andretti's No. 43 Dodges.

Unfortunately, Petty had a hard time giving up some of the control, eventually leading to Pemberton's decision to resign at the end of last season. Petty admits his unwillingness to keep his hands off, as well as clashing philosophies on the direction of where the operation was going, led to Pemberton's departure.

"Last year with Robin, I was fortunate to be able to give up some of it (team responsibilities), but in the end, a lot of the reason why Robin and I went in separate directions was because I couldn't give up all of it," Petty said. "Because it's Petty Enterprises, I've got my name on it and a lot more skin in the game, so I was a little bit in his way as much as anything. That's a nice way to put it."

But now that he's retaken control of the reins, Petty feels confident that, while Pemberton is no longer with the company, the groundwork he laid last season will wind up major dividends this season and in the future.

"I've said it before that 2001 was a horrendous year for us, to look back at the races we missed, the things we did, it was really, really bad on the race track," said Petty, who finished a career-low 43rd in the standings in 2001, with Andretti slightly better (31st), and since-fired Buckshot Jones in 41st.

"If we look at last year, we made huge strides. We took three teams that we had between 31st and 42nd in the points (in 2001), and pulled two of the teams up from within 20th and 30th in points, so that was a huge gain for us."

Indeed, in 2002, Petty was perhaps one of the sport's biggest surprises, finishing 22nd, up 19 places from the previous season. Andretti, likewise, improved to 28th.

"We've stepped back, regrouped and reorganized," Petty said. "I know it seems like you hear that from us every year, but this sport has changed dramatically over the last three or four years.

"We've been around 50-some years, about as long as NASCAR has been. Obviously, we continue to grow and we continue to get better, we think.

"We struggled to make races in 2001. We made all the races this past year. That's huge for us."

For the 2003 season, Petty's goals for both his and Andretti's teams have been taken to the next level.

"I'm not going to sugar coat it or blow smoke at you in any way, shape or form: we've been down, but we're on our way back," Petty said. "I'm more excited going into this season. You hear people say that all the time, that they're excited about this or that. A lot of times, you just give lip service, because that's what our sponsors want us to say and that's what we're supposed to say.

"But, I'll tell you, we're on our way back. We made a turn somewhere in the middle of last year, in the summer, and we're beginning to climb back.

"It's exciting for me to see what we're doing to build Petty Enterprises back to where we can be competitive and win races, and I think that's important to us.

"We've fallen off at times, and it's been tough to build it back. I look at this year as just another step in that progression. We feel like we can put two cars in contention this year. On a weekly basis? No, that's not ready for us. We're not a championship-contending team, we're not there knocking on that door every week, but we are capable of putting the 43 and 45 team in Victory Lane at some point."

	“	We've stepped back, regrouped and reorganized. I know it seems like you hear that from us every year, but this sport has changed dramatically over the last three or four years. We've been around 50-some years, about as long as NASCAR has been. Obviously, we continue to grow and we continue to get better, we think. ”
		— Kyle Petty

Petty added yet another item to his "plate" this off-season when he brought former CART star Christian Fittipaldi into the Petty fold. The original gameplan was to give Fittipaldi, who has previously participated in a handful of Busch and Cup events the last two years, as much seat time as possible to make him more comfortable in a stock car.

Unfortunately, economic realities -- namely the inability to find adequate sponsorship for Fittipaldi's ride -- have forced Petty to somewhat put his young driver's career in limbo. Rather than a full plate of ARCA and Busch events and a few Cup starts in 2003, Petty is still trying to work out the logistics and will likely pare down the number of races Fittipaldi will run.

"We've had to take a few steps back in our plan for Christian and regroup, but we're not giving up," Petty said, adding that Fittipaldi has already said he is with the team for the long haul and will not head back to open wheel racing due to the recent turn of events.

One likely possibility will be for Fittipaldi to be loaned out to fellow team owner Andy Petree for several races across ARCA, Busch and Winston Cup this season. Unfortunately, however, Petree is in the same financial boat as Petty, continuing to search for a sponsor.

But when it comes to the team's two Cup entries, Petty is like a stockbroker salivating with a meaty insider tip. He says he knows a secret, that the 43 and 45 cars are going to make some significant noise this season for the first time in many years.

But it's not going to stop there, either, Petty said adamantly.

"Our goal is for some day for (the media) and other race teams to look up and say, 'Where did those guys come from? We hadn't paid any attention to them for years,'" he said.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.