Louisville, KY (July 20, 2007) – Chuck Barnes Jr. has accepted a job offer from Petty Racing, the NASCAR Nextel Cup team made famous by the "King" Richard Petty and his son Kyle Petty, located in Randleman, North Carolina. Barnes Jr. was recently laid off at Ford Motor Company in Louisville, and decided to make a trip to North Carolina to seek out possible employment at one of the NASCAR Nextel Cup teams. Barnes Jr. had several interviews and had offers from several teams but decided that Petty Racing would be the best choice for his future in the racing industry.

"I was kind of set on working at Ford and getting my late model back together to race at the end of this season in the Triple Crown, but things kind of changed when I got laid off at Ford," remarked Barnes Jr. "I decided to go to North Carolina and talk with some Cup teams, if I couldn’t get a job as a driver, maybe I would enjoy working for a team. I’ve always enjoyed working on racecars, especially on the set-up part, and I think I can make a career out of it with a Cup team."

Barnes Jr. will leave this Sunday to start work at Petty Racing this Monday. Barnes Jr. will start out on car tear down, which is done after each event, to learn the inside and out sides of a Cup car. From there Barnes Jr. hopes to move quickly to the set-up plate, were all the final set-up preparations are done on the cars before heading to each race.

"I’m looking forward to working with everyone at Petty Racing. I had some offers from a couple of the larger teams, but I feel I will have a better opportunity to learn a lot more working for Petty Racing. It’s going to be neat working for Richard Petty, and just being around him at their shop. I also look forward to working with Kyle Petty and Bobby Labonte, this whole team has a lot of great people involved with it!"

"I’m not done racing yet, I’m just going to have to put it on hold for a while until I get settled in North Carolina. I still would like to have a chance at a racing career, but I have to be realistic and understand the chances of that happening now are not real good, but you never know, at least I’ll be there in racing country were I can keep in touch with everyone. I would also like to continue racing a late model again in the future, especially the bigger races like the Triple Crown, and some of the shows around North Carolina. There are a lot of guys working out here that still race the big late model shows including Jeff Fultz, Dennis Schoenfeld and Preston Peltier"

For now Barnes Jr. will be staying with fellow Louisville, Kentucky native Jessie Harris just outside of Randleman. Harris is a former racer at the old Louisville Speedway, he took a job earlier this year in the marketing department at Petty Racing.

More information is available on Chuck Barnes Jr. at www.chuckbarnesjr.com