Petty team to skirt NASCAR rules

The Petty Enterprise team looks to use a loophole in the NASCAR rulebook next year with a driver swap to get both cars in the top-35 in points and be guaranteed race starting positions.

Bobby Labonte could find himself in the No. 45 instead of the 43 at Petty Enterprises should Kyle Petty fall out of the top 35 in Nextel Cup owners' points over the next five weeks. Petty said he would consider switching cars with his teammate so both would be guaranteed a starting spot, him on Labonte's points [17th] and Labonte on his past champion's provisional, the remainder of this season.

That also could help for next season if Labonte could race the No. 45 back into the top 35 that will be guaranteed a spot the first five races of 2008.

"Yeah, we'd consider it," Petty said Saturday between practices at Martinsville Speedway. "I'm not gonna lie. Look, as long as they don't change the rules and the rulebook is written that way, we're in the business to run racecars.

"We have two racecars, the 43 and 45. Whatever it takes to get those in, I don't see the issue with it."