rpm.espn.com: Kyle Petty

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Friday, January 24
Updated: January 27, 3:08 PM ET

Kyle Petty
By Rupen Fofaria
ESPN.com

Team: Petty Enterprises
Car/sponsor/make: No. 45 Dodge

Kyle Petty
Petty

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Best finish

2002 22 0 0 1 10th, Talladega

Career 8 21 168 First, 8 times

2002 recap
The good: After failing to qualify for 12 races in 2001, Petty qualified for every race in 2002 -- posting an average starting position of about 25th and using only four provisionals. That was a huge step up to the middle of the pack for Petty Enterprises -- a necessary step if the organization is ever to return to the prominence it once enjoyed.

Season highlight: Petty qualified 12th and finished 10th in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway -- his only top-10 finish of the season. That was Petty's first top-10 in 56 races, a draught which went back to a race at Talladega in 2000.

The bad: Petty still hasn't posted a top-five finish, something he has failed to do in 150 races. Last season, he didn't come close to a top-five, but Petty said he's being realistic about things. He expects to run consistently in the top 15 this upcoming season, and then the top-10 two years from now.

Season lowlight: Mid-July through Mid-August. Petty started the season off with a 41st-place finish in the Daytona 500, putting himself in a bit of a hole in the points standings. He fought his way back up to 18th, though, before a string of poor finishes in July and August relegated him to the position in which he would end up.

Kyle Petty

Key stat: 7. That's how many winless seasons Petty has had in a row.

2003 outlook
What needs to be done: The entire Petty organization has to continue to improve its qualifying efforts and, much more importantly, find a way to squeeze more power out of their cars. They were consistently in the 20s last season, but the gap between the middle of the pack and the front is not all that large.

Prediction: Petty will continue to improve, but he won't find Victory Lane this year. In fact, he probably won't score a top-five, either. But if he can climb into the teens in more than half the races, that would be a huge step.

Your take
Will Petty be able to improve upon his 2002 stats? Here are your thoughts on Petty's prospects for the 2003 season.

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