With the apparent disappearance of storied Petty Enterprises into a conglomo with Gillett Evernham Motors closing the book on 2008, ol’ Left Turns is left looking at 2009 with the glass half-empty and definitely without rose-colored glasses.

Not that the demise of Petty comes as a surprise. The winningest team in NASCAR history has been struggling for a decade now, and the end, while certainly sad in a nostaligic sense, was only a matter of time.

At the end of the 2008 season, Petty Enterprises was basically left with no sponsors, no drivers and no prospects, just a fabled name and the number 43, along with the venture capitalists who bought controlling interest in the team seemingly way out of their element. 

On one hand, it’s somewhat amusing that the slick investment suits couldn’t make a go of it in a “redneck” sport, despite buying the most recognizable brand in NASCAR history. On the other hand, I hate to see anyone lost money these days and I especially don’t like seeing it end this way for the Pettys — good and decent people and great ambassadors for the sport.

While the Petty name is expected to live on somewhere in the new moniker for Gillett Evernham Motors — perhaps in place of Evernham who made it clear last season on ESPN that he no longer called the shots at GEM — the dissolution of the Petty team is symbolic of what’s happening in NASCAR.

The small guys are being squeezed out of existence by the so-called super teams.

When Petty lost General Mills’ Cheerios brand as sponsor of the 43, the team was dead. When Bill Davis Racing lost Caterpillar as sponsor of the 22, the team was dead. Both sponsors moved to Chase to the Cup contenders at Richard Childress Racing — Cheerios with Clint Bowyer in the 33, and Caterpillar with Jeff Burton in the 31. (RCR newcomer Casey Mears will take over Bowyer’s former sponsor and car number, Jack Daniels in the 07.

By my count, NASCAR’s top series may have a difficult time fielding 43-car fields for every race next season, based on the sponsorships known as of today.

Roush Fenway, five cars: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan.

Hendrick Motorsports, four: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

RCR, four: Burton, Bowyer, Mears, Kevin Harvick

Joe Gibbs Racing, three: Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano

Roger Penske, three: Kurt Busch, David Stremme, Sam Hornish Jr.

DEI-Ganassi, three: Martin Truex Jr., whoever drives the Target car

Gillett Evernham (Petty) Motors, two: Kasey Kahne, A.J. Almendinger, plus partial sponsorship for Reed Sorenson.

Red Bull, two: Brian Vickers, Scott Speed

Michael Waltrip Racing, one: Waltrip, also with a half-season for David Reutimann in the 00.

Stewart Haas Racing, one: Tony Stewart, also with a half-season for Ryan Newman in 39

Yates Racing, one: Paul Menard, also with partials for Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland.

That’s 29 cars with sponsorships for the full season. Including the partial sponsorships above, there are nine or 10 with partials.

That’s it, and that’s scary.

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