Fittipaldi getting set for future in NASCAR source: rpm.espn.go.com HAMPTON, Ga. -- Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark had to take a second look when he saw the car: a plain Dodge painted in Petty blue, with a white No. 43 on the side. "I was expecting to see Richard Petty get out of that thing,'' Clark said.
But a Petty wasn't in the car, although the driver was from a famous racing family. Christian Fittipaldi, nephew of former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and a veteran of both Formula One and CART, was taking his first laps at the speedway. Next season, Fittipaldi will run a combination of Winston Cup, Busch Series and ARCA events for Petty Enterprises, preparing for a full Winston Cup schedule in 2004. And even though he grew up in Brazil and eventually raced in Europe, Fittipaldi was well aware of the significance of the number and paint scheme of his new ride. "It gives me pride to drive this car,'' he said. "I didn't get to see much NASCAR growing up, but I knew who Richard Petty was. I'd get my racing magazines and flip through to see how he had done in his last race. "All racers know about Richard Petty.'' This wasn't Fittipaldi's first laps in a stock car. Before he signed with the Pettys, he put together a deal to run a limited number of Busch races this season for another owner. In two starts, Fittipaldi has a best finish of 35th at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis. He qualified fifth for that event. Although the Dodge he drove in the tests at Atlanta is very different from the Lola he runs for the Newman-Haas team in CART, Fittipaldi claims there are enough similarities to help his learning curve. "Even when I drove go-carts when I was 10 years old, I had a cart that was pushing or loose,'' he said, describing the handling characteristics. "The same in Formula One, CART and NASCAR. So the feel is different, yes, but the car is still doing the same things.'' Explaining what the car is doing has presented a few problems, though. "We still get a lot of 'oversteer' and 'understeer' from him, instead of 'loose' or 'push,' but we'll break through that,'' said Chris Hussey, who's in charge of testing for Petty Enterprises. "And he might have a problem understanding our Southern twang sometimes, but so far, it's worked out well.'' That's another interesting point about Fittipaldi joining this team, one of the founding members of NASCAR. The Pettys always have raced out of a shop near their hometown of Level Cross, N.C., a small town about 75 miles north of Charlotte, with third-generation driver Kyle Petty in charge of the family operation. They're as Southern as sweetened iced tea, cornbread and, well, NASCAR, and Fittipaldi was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. How do they get along? "The thing about Kyle is he is a smart man,'' Fittipaldi said. "He knows so much about racing and other things that he can talk about anything. He knows about all other forms of racing, so our backgrounds are really not as different as you might think.'' During his Atlanta test, Fittipaldi worked with Winston Cup driver Jerry Nadeau, a member of the Petty team. Nadeau also started his career in road racing, with open-wheel cars in Europe, so he's able to offer Fittipaldi advice on making the transition. "It's very difficult,'' Nadeau said. "When I first came into NASCAR, I was very fast, but I had trouble in the races. That's what is so tough. You have to do it for 500 miles every week.'' But Nadeau doesn't expect Fittipaldi to have any problems gaining the respect of other drivers. "We respect anybody that can get in one of these cars and goes fast,'' Nadeau said. "He won't have trouble.'' About the only trouble Fittipaldi has now is sponsorship. Turns out the car he tested at Atlanta was painted plainly for a reason. "We are looking for a sponsor right now, somebody that can join us as a partner in this,'' Fittipaldi said. "We have a long-term plan here, and Kyle and I are both committed to it. We want a sponsor who wants to be a part of that.''
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