In some way, the news that Kyle Petty would consider leaving Petty Enterprises shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s just the latest evidence that today’s NASCAR is so completely different from even 10 years ago.

Remember the days when this was mainly a family-dominated sport? There were the Pettys, Woods, Childresses, Hendricks, Yateses and Roushes. There were always guys like Bill Davis and Junior Johnson and Alan Kulwicki who could be competitive in a given year without megabucks sponsorship. There was a Dale Earnhardt, Inc., with a driver named Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The common man could identify with these guys. You knew who was calling the shots and you knew that, above all, loyalty meant something. No way would someone as dedicated to family as Kyle Petty elect to leave the family business.

Yet that’s what came out of an interview Kyle’s wife gave to Mike Mulhern of the Winston Salem Journal recently. Patti Petty, after seeing her husband yanked out of the 45 car twice this year against his will, revealed just how frustrated the two are with the way the organization is being run these days.

“Maybe I’m the only one here willing to tell the truth,” she said. “They haven’t wanted Kyle in the car the last three years. They want a young driver — a 30-year-old, a 20-year-old. They told him at Watkins Glen, right when he was standing there in his driver’s suit, that they didn’t want him in the car.”

Now, admittedly, no one will confuse Kyle Petty with Jimmie Johnson, but that’s not the point. He once had a promising driving career, but he chose to join the family business in 1997 at his father Richard’s request to help lead it for the long term.

And though the organization has had few successes in recent years, the recent move away from the obsolete little race shop in Level Cross to the Charlotte area was an essential change toward improvement. So were the hirings of Robbie Loomis to help oversee the race shop and Bobby Labonte to drive the team’s top car.

It’s doubtful any of this would have been accomplished without Kyle’s pushing. And that came while he was grieving the death of son Adam, who was supposed to be a key component of the team’s future. There is no doubt Kyle Petty lost a lot more than a son that day in New Hampshire, but one thing is clear lately: He hasn’t lost his desire to compete.

When replaced in the 45 by young driver Chad McCumbee at Texas earlier this year, Petty made it clear the decision was not his.

“I told them I’ll do whatever it takes to make this team better,” he told the media. “They felt that was me being out of the car and somebody else being in it. If that’s the way they feel, then that’s their option, because they (Loomis and Richard) run the place. Do I think I’m the problem? No, I don’t think I’m the problem, but I’m pretty arrogant on that side. ... I think we have problems, but I don’t think Kyle Petty is the problem.”

Would retaining Kyle Petty make much of a difference with the 45 car’s performance? Doubtful, since the 48-year-old driver has failed to crack the top 20 in any race this year and hasn’t won in well over a decade. That’s not the point. This is Petty Enterprises and Kyle Petty should be allowed to dictate his own role, within reason.

He would prefer to drive a partial schedule and help mentor a replacement until the younger driver is ready. That plan, obviously, isn’t what Richard Petty and Loomis have in mind. But are they really calling the shots?

As several other struggling teams have done, Richard Petty sold a large part of his business — in his case to Boston Ventures, a corporation that brings the race organization much-needed capital. But it also brings a bottom-line mentality that now rules NASCAR — win, make money or get out.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this. Ray Evernham basically started the Dodge NASCAR program and ran its signature team for years. After selling most of his stock in the team to Alex Gillett, Evernham is now an outsider doing television work.

What happens at Roush Fenway Racing if the organization begins to struggle?

Corporations are now becoming very strong in NASCAR, and while the sponsor has always been an integral part of the sport, it’s a new world when Fortune 500 companies can tell Jack Roush what to do on race day.

Unfortunately, it’s a world NASCAR fans are beginning to dislike.