Inside the Halls of Petty: Who says it's an off week?

OK everyone, there isn't a race this upcoming weekend. It's Easter weekend. That means it's time for our guys to spend some time at home with their families. They get some time to get caught up, relax and have fun with their loved ones. I think the entire organization is excited about that.

It's still a busy week leading up to Easter. NASCAR has so many mandated tests that we are allowed. One of them is this week at Richmond International Raceway. We'll be testing the Car of Tomorrow and learning more about that. We also have taken the time to talk a little bit about Martinsville.

Inside Petty

Each week on NASCAR.COM, Robbie Loomis will take fans "Inside the Halls of Petty Enterprises." A championship-winning crew chief, Loomis has 26 victories atop the pit box and as Vice President of Operations oversees both Petty cars.

It was a little bittersweet for Petty Enterprises. Kyle Petty and the No. 45 Dodge team had another solid run in the Car of Tomorrow. Despite starting near the rear of the field, Kyle guided his car through the field like the veteran he is. His 22nd-place finish proved the he was one of the top performing Dodge teams of the day. That team is improving each week and getting better. We like the progress the team is making and they are learning together. That's positive. We need to build off these runs and move up the standings.

Unfortunately Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Dodge team didn't have the success they were hoping for. We had a problem with the brakes and the car suffered some damage. Paul Andrews and the guys on the team did a great job repairing the car. They were able to get him back on the track to finish the race. I know the team was disappointed, but they made the best out of the situation.

This break gives the teams a chance to catch their breath after an extremely busy start to the season. This is definitely true for Petty Enterprises. This has been a very aggressive season for us. We have been spending a lot of time preparing the Car of Tomorrow, making our current cars better for the intermediate tracks and testing. We're putting a lot of effort into continuing to make our cars faster.

That's what Richmond is about this week. Since NASCAR implemented the testing rule that says when and where you can test, these sessions have become very important. Add in the fact that we will be taking the COT, and you can see this is not time to just drop everything. Richmond will prove to be a very important test because we should be able to learn a lot more about these cars. We've seen some issues with these cars already. We need the track time to learn how to fix them. We want track time to learn how to make them go faster.

Going faster and getting better are the ingredients that will help us get to Victory Lane. We have focused on our engineering staff and crew members to do that. These guys are putting a lot of hours into making Petty Enterprises a winning team. They study these cars, prepare them, test them and race them. They are totally focused. They don't like seeing problems, but when one happens they fix it immediately. The guys are going to be at Richmond this week making our cars faster and better.

Speaking of Richmond, did you know that track was the site of Kyle's first Nextel Cup victory? The victory also made him the first third-generation driver to win a Nextel Cup race.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Easter weekend. It will be good to relax with family and friends.

See you in Victory Lane,
Robbie Loomis