Petty to focus on Busch program for rest of 2000.

Kyle Petty made one of the boldest moves of his long career on Tuesday afternoon when he announced that he would be handing his Winston Cup seat over to Steve Grissom at the Southern 500 at Darlington in early September , allowing him to race his late son Adam's Busch Grand National Sprint PCS Chevrolet in the secondary Busch Grand National Series.

Since 19 year old Adam was killed at New Hampshire more than two months ago, Kyle has raced the late driver's Chevrolet in several BGN events as a mark of respect to his son.

That agreement will continue for the remainder of the season as Kyle helps the devastated young team get back on their feet. The team were to have joined Adam in the family run team in the Winston Cup next year when Petty Enterprises were to embark upon a three car Dodge Intrepid campaign with Kyle, Adam and John Andretti as the driver.

After much deliberation Kyle decided that it would be wrong to put anyone other than a Petty into the car as Adam had built up such a good relationship with his crew.

"I felt it was important to get into the 45 car and carry on something we had worked so hard for and that Adam had worked so hard to build," said Petty who is the current CEO of Petty Enterprises. "When I went into Adam's shop and talked to his guys I realised that this was his team. These guys are Adam's guys."

Petty Enterprises NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Steve Grissom will take over Petty's Winston Cup car for the final third of the season although the team's sponsorship deal with Hot Wheels has had to be restructured and the team are now looking for a new primary backer for the #44 car.

Petty Enterprises still plan to run a three car team of Dodge Intrepids in the Winston Cup next year with Andretti, Kyle and a new driver behind the wheel. However if a new sponsor cannot be found for the #44 car, the team will revert to running a Busch program next year.

Grissom, who has already stepped in for the Winston Cup team in the wake of Adam's death at Charlotte and Loudon, is not thought to be in with a shot at the full time ride next year as Petty Enterprises plan on maintaining their Truck program. He does have experience of testing the new Intrepid however and ran with Ray Evernham's newly formed Dodge team at Kentucky last week.