Smack: Pettys make news and Pocono was a snooze

1. Petty Enterprises has sold a majority of its organization to Boston Ventures, a private equity firm. Will the move help turn the storied franchise around?

David Caraviello: The jury is still out on this one. Boston Ventures is an outfit without much experience in sports, much less auto racing. But they do evidently come with cash, though.

Mark Aumann: Yeah, I think everyone has gotten the feeling the last few years that the business aspect of the sport has passed the Petty Enterprises model by. This may be the only way for Richard and Kyle to survive, which is truly sad. It's telling in a way that the economics of the business are such that teams need an influx of outside cash to operate, even with multi-million dollar sponsors.

Raygan Swan: I have to think it will work as long as Richard Petty stays close to major decision making. An investor seemingly worked for Gillett Evernham. I agree with David in that they have little racing experience but few outside investors who have come on board do.

David Caraviello: But George Gillett was a sports guy. He had something of a track record in hockey and soccer. These Boston Ventures guys are unknowns. They're more like Rob Kauffman, the financier who bought part of Michael Waltrip's team. But I'm sure Petty can use the cash. The merger, hiring Bobby Labonte and Robbie Loomis, moving to Mooresville ... they're all pieces of a puzzle you'd expect to come together eventually.

Raygan Swan: Hockey and soccer are far from racing. And Mark, I think it was funny to hear Brian France say that investors aren't needed to compete in the sport. Then what does he expect struggling teams to do to pay for the rising costs?

Mark Aumann: All of these outside investors have obviously looked at the books and must see a potential revenue stream. So is it a situation where the team owners just aren't financially savvy?

A good move

On Wednesday, Petty Enterprises announced a partnership with Boston Ventures -- Joe Menzer says that's exactly what the organization needed to compete and return to its past glory.

• Complete story, click here
• H2H: Good move for Labonte?
• Labonte to re-sign with Petty
• NASCAR 24/7: Labonte returns
• NASCAR Today: Petty deal

Raygan Swan: I would agree, and hey, A.J. Foyt has turned it around after being stuck in the dark ages. If he can see the light and evolve, so can Petty. Petty is not the only past champion of racing who has fallen behind and is now having to dig himself out of a hole.

David Caraviello: Well, Petty is the only team on the circuit that can not win races yet still have its name everywhere. It's got that kind of cachet.

Mark Aumann: Well, it's always been a case where racing costs cubic dollars -- and you spend every dollar you raise. But we're heading down a different path now, where ownership groups are going to want to see a return on their investment.

Raygan Swan: And fast.

David Caraviello: Right Mark, and we're also getting a point where you're going to have non-racing guys making the decisions that racing guys have always made. That can cause friction sometime. The deal between Evernham and Gillett, it appeared, didn't go as smoothly as it seemed at the outset. But the results certainly are there now.

Mark Aumann: And what is the bottom line at the end of the day? Will it be winning on the track or coming out on the positive side of the ledger? Those can be mutually exclusive.

David Caraviello: Good point. If Petty gets two bang-up sponsors, if the name is everywhere, if Boston Ventures makes a ton of cash, then does it really matter if they win?

Raygan Swan: I can see where a lot of power struggles can occur in these deals. I guess that's why NASCAR is called an entertainment entity as much as a motorsports series.

Mark Aumann: Not that I want to bring stick-and-ball sports into this, but baseball and football teams -- for the most part -- were family ventures. Now, most teams are corporate-owned. And they still exist, and make a lot of money. Perhaps we're just seeing the inevitable evolution of the sport.

Raygan Swan: So with the news of the investors coming on board, is Kyle here to stay?

David Caraviello: He says he's still driving the car. There's no clear successor. I'm sure Petty wants a Petty in the seat as long as possible. For how much longer, we'll see.

2. The heat was on at Pocono -- and not just because of the temperature. The event took four hours to complete, leading some to call for race distances to be reduced. What's the fascination with 500 miles, anyway?

David Caraviello: Every race wants to be a 500-miler for the same reason every golf tournament wants to call itself a "classic." It lends a certain amount of credibility -- even if you have to fall asleep for an hour to get through it.

Raygan Swan: In my opinion, two-500 miles races at the same track is overkill. Now Daytona, that should always be 500 miles for historical reasons, but I think NASCAR needs to reevaluate the length at some tracks.

Mark Aumann: You know, I've looked at this from both sides of the argument. It used to be that fans had the patience to sit through a 500-mile race. But we've become a society of "instant gratification" and it's really hard to sit through a four-hour race now. I find my attention being diverted at times.

TNT Summer Series

Date	Race	Time
June 8	Pocono	12:30 p.m. ET
June 15	Michigan	12:30 p.m. ET
June 22	Infineon	3:30 p.m. ET
June 29	N. Hampshire	12:30 p.m. ET
July 5	Daytona	6:30 p.m. ET
July 12	Chicagoland	6:30 p.m. ET

• TNT Summer Series

Raygan Swan: Right Mark, they cut back Dover from 500 to 400 and that track is popular with the fans and drivers.

David Caraviello: I understand that NASCAR and its TV partners want a huge chunk of time in which to sell ads. I understand that these events are supposed to test the resilience of man and machine. But these races are too freaking long. An hour after a race starts, you can turn the channel and find another event that will be over before the NASCAR race ends. When every week is a marathon, it's numbing.

Raygan Swan: Jeff Burton said 500 miles at a track is somewhat of a status symbol but the quality of the racing should be considered first and foremost.

David Caraviello: And the quality of the racing suffers when every event takes four hours to complete. These races would be much more compelling if they were shorter, forcing people to get to the front and exercise strategy sooner.

Mark Aumann: Well, for instance, my wife and I were in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon -- and I tuned into the race just at the point when Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti crashed. That was with 60 laps remaining. We drove two hours and got home before the race ended.

Raygan Swan: To be honest, in the media center, long races let me get caught up on my writing, wink wink.

David Caraviello: Raygan! You're not supposed to tell people that!

Raygan Swan: I promise I won't do it in Daytona.

Mark Aumann: Raygan, you're usually busy looking for the vegetable tray by Lap 50.

Raygan Swan: Yeah well, my ADD flares up around Lap 100 anyway.

Mark Aumann: And complaining about the mess in the unisex bathroom by Lap 110.

Raygan Swan: Hey, it was brutal.

David Caraviello: At Daytona, 500 miles is fine. At Charlotte, 600 is fine. At a few others, 500 is acceptable. Everywhere else: 300s and 400s -- more of the former than the latter. F1 races take two hours, and they're not losing any fans or sponsors because of it.

Raygan Swan: I agree, and Pocono should consider a cut in at least at one of the events.

Mark Aumann: Richmond is almost perfect. So is Infineon. Package the race in a three-hour window. It keeps the excitement -- and the attention span -- focused.

Raygan Swan: The truck races in my opinion are perfect because the racing is intense for nearly the entire time. They can't afford to ride around and then go race with 30 laps to go.

Mark Aumann: It's funny, but I always found the Firecracker 400 to be the better race at Daytona, just because there's less "follow the leader" time. Still, if you're a fan and are paying big bucks to sit in the stands, you want all the racing you can get. Especially if the ticket costs the same for 100 fewer miles.

Raygan Swan: True, and the Pocono fans have to sit through miles and miles of gnarly traffic, so surely they want miles and miles of racing once they get in.

3. When we last saw Michigan, it was raining -- and raining, and raining, and raining. Kurt Busch won the Tuesday race to vault into the Chase. Can the driver of the Blue Deuce do the same thing this time?

Mark Aumann: Kurt showed some impressive resiliency Sunday. That was a great finish after a rough start.

Raygan Swan: I'm going with a Roush Fenway driver in Michigan. I'm not really confident with Busch, even though it would be nice to see him win this season.

Mark Aumann: The guy who seems to be on the charge right now is Matt Kenseth. Four consecutive top-10s ... and he's been awesome at Michigan.

Autostock

Last year was more boat than car.

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David Caraviello: Kenseth should be a threat this weekend, continuing his rebound. Amazing how that team has bounced back. They looked doomed a month or so ago. As for Busch, he's still down there, 21st in points. But Pocono was a good start, and he's very good at Michigan. Of course, he also has a much deeper hole to dig out of.

Raygan Swan: Mark, have you checked the forecast?

Mark Aumann: I'm just hoping that the only swimming I do this weekend is in the hotel pool.

David Caraviello: I believe Sunday is 85 and partly sunny which is surely welcome news to the folks at the racetrack. That second race last year was a trial for everyone involved.

Mark Aumann: Well, we had similar forecasts last summer, David. The sun was partly behind those rain clouds every day.

David Caraviello: We knew the rain was coming. I think back to that weekend, and I still can't believe the amount of rain. I remember waking up every morning, peeking out the window, and seeing a typhoon. It just didn't stop. Fans were leaving early, angry they couldn't get money back. It was a tough situation. By Tuesday, the race was almost an afterthought. Everyone just wanted to get it over with.

Raygan Swan: It's amazing to see how dedicated fans can be though. Fontana was a good example of how fans will show up come hell or high water

Mark Aumann: Hey, you and I had the high water there this spring.

Raygan Swan: We sure did.

Mark Aumann: Yeah, every time I pack the Coppertone, I get a Morton Salt commercial instead.

David Caraviello: Mark is a magnet for the wet stuff. But last year's first race at Michigan was run under sunny skies and won by Carl Edwards. I'm sure track officials will take those conditions, and Jack Roush would take the result.

Raygan Swan: How many wins does Roush have in Michigan? 10. That was the win that allowed Carl's coach driver Tom to shave his mountain-man style beard that literally had creatures living inside.

David Caraviello: So if Carl wins this time, does the coach driver have to shave his head?

Mark Aumann: Michigan can be a hair-raising experience.

David Caraviello: So bring a pair of shears, Mark. And a raincoat. Just in case.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writers