For the 1997 season, Petty formed his own team, PE2 Motorsports, and fielded the No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac Grand Prix for himself. He had two top-five finishes and nine top-ten finishes, and finished 15th in points, the highest points placement of all the new teams to run during the 1997 season. He only had two top-tens in 1998, and fell back to 30th in points, causing him to return to Petty Enterprises and run his team from their shop, and became Petty Enterprises' new CEO. He began the 1999 season with two early DNQs, and finished 26th in points despite finishing in the top-ten nine times. Petty also made guest appearances on ESPN to provide commentary during Busch Series races. He had one top-ten early in 2000, the same year in which his son Adam died while practicing for a Busch Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway. He missed the next two races and returned to drive the No. 44 for the rest of the summer, before moving to the Busch Series full-time to finish out the season in Adam's No. 45 Sprint Chevrolet. He had four top-tens in the car over a span of fourteen races, and attempted two Cup races with the No. 45 Sprint PCS Chevrolet in 2000, finishing 31st at Martinsville. He also filled in at the Brickyard 400 for Penske Racing after their regular driver, Jeremy Mayfield had to miss the race due to a concussion; Petty finished 32nd. Steve Grissom drove the No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac for the rest of the 2000 Winston Cup season and qualified 5 races in 2000. Kyle Petty had to drive the 45 Sprint PCS Chevrolet and the No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac and qualified in 19 races in 2000; causing him to finish 41st in the points standings in the 2000 Winston Cup Series.