If NASCAR created its own dictionary, John Andretti's picture would be next to the definition of "optimist."

No matter how bad a situation is, no matter how poorly he's performing, Andretti is always ready with an optimistic spin for even the worst scenarios.

	John Andretti, left, with former teammate Buckshot Jones, hopes to remain with Petty Enterprises for a long time.

"I promise you I'm not going to give up," Andretti said. "I'm going to work as hard as ever and when we win a race, I know what's going to be written: 'Where'd he come from?' That's OK, because we know deep down what lies within us and we just have to pull it out and it has to be our day."

But even Andretti can be optimistic only so long. Despite his famous surname, his lack of successful exploits in NASCAR since joining the Winston Cup tour full-time in 1994 have been nothing short of infamous, such as the horrendous slump he has been mired in for the last three-plus years.

Since his last win at Martinsville, Va., in April 1999 (and only the second win of his career), Andretti has gone 108 starts without reaching Victory Lane again. Even worse, he's had just one top-5 finish in that same period (second at Bristol, Tenn., in April 2001).

After finishing 31st in last season's standings, Andretti, driver of the No. 43 Dodge, appeared poised to finally snap out of his funk in 2002 and resurrect what has been an almost invisible existence in recent years.

Unfortunately, instead of being a fresh start, this season has turned out to be more of the same stale bad news for Andretti, who returns to his native Pennsylvania for Sunday's Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway without even one top-10 this season. While he's not happy about how his year is going, returning to Pocono is one of the few bright spots Andretti has been able to enjoy lately, going back home to see friends and family and perhaps take his mind off his struggles for a while.

"I don't want to use the word 'embarrassing,' but that's not what we're capable of doing," Andretti said when asked this week about being in 32nd heading into Sunday's race. "I think some people are surprised to see where we're at. I've got too good of an organization I work with and the people I work with to be where we're at."

But being in 32nd is "not what we're going to continue to do," Andretti vowed.

"We've got too good of a program to be there," he said. "It's up and down, which is the hard part about Winston Cup. You want your downs to be 'that was sort of a rough day and we finished 20th.' You can't have a down day and run 30th, and your up days, you have to be a contender to win.

"Our strong races, nobody isn't ever going to recognize. Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, places like that where we had a very strong car and often ran with the people who won the race and felt like we were equally as strong as they were, except for Bristol where we got taken out so early. Then the races where we haven't performed, it seems like we've finished. I'd like to reverse some of that, but that's just what fate is, so we'll go from there."

Less than 24 hours after Andretti spoke optimistically about the future of his team, a major restructuring occurred within Petty Enterprises on Wednesday. Team owner Kyle Petty, who is a surprising 20th in the standings, shifted Andretti's crew chief, Greg Steadman, to the No. 44 Dodge of Steve Grissom. In turn, Brandon Thomas, late of Joe Gibbs Racing and previously with Penske South Racing, has assumed duties as Andretti's new crew chief.

"This is just another step in continuing our progress at Petty Enterprises," Petty said. "If we take the good people that we have, like Greg Steadman and Bryant Frazier (who makes way for Steadman by moving to team manager), and add more quality talents like Brandon Thomas, we keep improving all of our teams."

Andretti's best finishes to date in 2002 have been 15th-place showings at both Rockingham, N.C., and Charlotte, as well as a 20th-place run at Richmond, Va. His biggest problem has been mishaps: While he's finished nine of the first 13 events, he's been knocked out of three races by crashes and another due to engine trouble.

"We've had quite a few wrecks we got involved in when we were running really good," Steadman said. "That's really put us in the situation we're in. We've probably been in only three races we didn't run like we wanted to: Dover, Las Vegas and Texas. Those were bad finishes for us, but the wrecks hurt us. Those put you out back in the back of the field because everybody runs the whole race.

"As far as performance-wise, I think we're on track. It's just a matter of finishing races out and maintaining what we've got and not putting ourselves in certain situations. One good finish would turn everything around and get everybody pumped up real good. Hopefully that's what we're looking at at Pocono."

Andretti tries hard not to let the frustration get to him week after disappointing week. He tries to keep a happy face, and like the eternal optimist he is, attempts to put a positive spin on where things are and the direction they're going. Unfortunately, what Andretti hopes and what actually happens invariably wind up being two different things.

"I guess racers have a different attitude in life," Steadman said. "You get really mad and then you walk away from it and you have to go on with it and get over it. You can't hold it for the rest of the week or month. You've got to go on to next week because that's what's counting next. All of us are like that. We race real hard. We want to win every week, so you get very disappointed or upset when something goes wrong that keeps you from doing that, but after it happens you've just got to pick it up and go again.

"It's like a quarterback. He can throw an interception, but he can come back and throw a touchdown pass the next pass. You've just got to get up and go again. You can't dwell on the negatives."

Andretti not only is an optimist at times, he also has the bad habit of second-guessing himself. When Dodge rolled out the Intrepid last year, Andretti surprised many by predicting before the season that neither he nor anyone at Petty Enterprises would have a good year in 2001.

As it turned out, Andretti was right, but his frankness surprised many within the organization. If you start the season on a disheartened note, you're likely to stay that way for the remainder of the year -- and that's exactly what happened.

There have been a number of rumors -- both last season and even after just 13 of this season's 36 races -- that Andretti is headed out of the Petty camp. So far that hasn't happened, and judging from the way the Bethlehem, Pa., native is talking of late, he'll likely remain in the Pettys for a long time.

"I've been through a lot with Petty Enterprises," Andretti said. "I hung tough through difficult times, so I don't really know that that's going to change. I've said in the past, and I always say it, I want to be successful and I know this organization can be successful and successful to the level everybody expects it to be. For me, right now, it's short-term business at hand, which is Pocono. We'll go there and do the best we can and hopefully the best we can is something that satisfies all of us.

"I was talking to someone earlier and they asked me how things were going. I'm not one to sugarcoat a lot of things, but I think for me, it's easier to quit or it's easier to quit fighting than it is to continue to fight. But everybody on my team continues to fight, and I continue to fight with them.

"I believe in what we're doing and I'm staying focused on what we're doing. As time passes, maybe things will change. Nobody ever knows what's in the future. I've been here for lot rougher days, and I know everything is coming in the right direction. I don't know that I'm ready to get off right now because I think things are just around the corner for us."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.