Over the next five days, Andy Petree is going to finally empty some space in his shop complex outside Asheville, N.C., via a comprehensive auction to clear out a huge inventory of Nextel Cup racing equipment. “We’ve never had a sale in the eight years I’ve owned the team,” Petree said. “And we’ve got tons of stuff, just everywhere, so we’re getting rid of all of the Winston Cup stuff.” Petree, who will race the full Busch Series schedule for the first time this season, using #33 Menards Chevrolets for promising driver Paul Menard, is selling at auction some 20 cars in various states of assembly. He also has about 20 engines — from fresh to broken — and countless spare parts and equipments. “We’re selling all of our Winston Cup stuff because we’ve kind of changed the way we’re doing our deal, this year,” Petree said. “We’re running all Busch cars, which we didn’t have that many of, so we’re having to build all new cars and all new engines. There really wasn’t any sense in keeping all that Winston Cup stuff around. We had enough stuff lying around to do two Winston Cup teams and a Busch team — and now we’re just a full-time Busch team. It didn’t make much sense to have, I think 185 gear sets in the shop; when 60 will do you plenty (so) we’re just getting rid of a lot of stuff we don’t need that’s taking up space and resources.”(NASCAR.com)(1-22-2004)
