--(Cont'd From Front Page)-- "The way I look at it is I'm kind of like (Bill) Elliott," said Petty, who has relinquished his ride to road course ace Boris Said for Sunday's Centurion Boats at The Glen. "Elliott never retired. He just quit coming by, you know what I mean. So when somebody calls him and tells him to come back, he just comes back, because he's never really officially retired -- whatever officially retiring means.

"I've always said that, if I'd had the career that Richard Petty had, or Dale Earnhardt Sr. had, or somebody like that, then you look at it and say, 'Yes, those guys need to retire.' Or on the reverse side, Mark (Martin) announces his retirement, and then he signs up for a full year next year. You don't want to be that person, either.

"So the easiest thing to do is kind of do what comes along. If you get to run, you run, and if you don't run, you don't run."

Should another full-time driver replace Petty next year, Petty hopes the organization won't use the No. 45 in deference to Adam, who died May 12, 2000 in a crash during practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, less than two months before his 20th birthday.

"The broader question is if we'll even run the 45," Petty said. "If I don't drive it, we may run 40-something-else -- or 10-something, 12-something, three digit numbers. I don't know.

"The 45 was Adam's number, and I would rather see it be Adam's number in my mind always. We talked about that with the Boston Ventures guys (Petty Enterprises' new partner). If we've got to go to a different number, and we run the 43 and a different car, it's kind of like when Robert Yates went from 28 to 88. You just change numbers."

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