Petty Enterprises Hires John Andretti for 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Season

18 November 1997

LEVEL CROSS, NC - It's official. Petty Enterprises and John Andretti will 
reunite for the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup season. 

This is the second time in his career that Andretti has been tapped to drive 
the famous STP-sponsored Pontiac. He drove for The King Richard Petty in 
the final 11 races in 1994 but the combination could not come to an agreement 
for the following season and went their separate ways. 

"John drove for us three years ago and we liked what we seen," said Petty. 
"At that time he wasn't ready for us or we weren't ready for him or whatever. 
Now he's a little bit more experience. The way everything worked out for his 
we thought maybe it would be a good time to put the Andretti and the Petty 
team back together."

The 34-year old driver finished 23rd in the 1997 final point standings with 
Cale Yarborough Motorsports and recorded his first career victory in the 
Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 5. In October the team's 
sponsor RCA announced that they would be reducing their involvement in NASCAR 
racing and would not return as a primary backer in 1998. Just last week crew 
chief Tony Furr was named to replace Andy Graves as the head wrench for the 
No. 25 Budweiser Hendrick Motorsports Team and pilot Ricky Craven. 

Andretti replaces Bobby Hamilton who will move over to the No. 4 Morgan- 
McClure Motorsports team. Hamilton completed the season 16th in overall 
points with one victory at North Carolina Motor Speedway in October, six 
top-five and eight top-ten finishes.