STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO
Inseparable
PETTY AND INMAN: BEST FRIENDS FOR 85 YEARS
BY BEN WHITE
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In NASCAR racing, one would be hard pressed to find two people with a
closer relationship than seven-time champion Richard Petty and eight-time championship crew chief Dale Inman. They are cousins with Inman being one month shy of a year older – and they are closer today than they’ve ever been. The two attended church together as young children, rode bicycles together and played in the woods and fields around their homes in Level Cross, North Carolina. As they got older, they played high school football together for the Randleman Tigers. When they became old enough to turn wrenches on Lee Petty’s Oldsmobiles, son and nephew went to work making sure the race car was ready before anything else was done. Starting in 1949, racing was how the Petty family put food on the table. In 1958, when the boys were in their early 20s, Lee Petty pointed to a car in the corner of the race shop and said that one could be Richard’s to drive. It was in pieces and that’s when Inman officially became Richard Petty’s chief mechanic. Over the next 32 years, the two were inseparable. As driver and crew chief, they earned 193 of Petty’s 200 victories. Throughout that time, there were countless discussions about how cars were performing on the race track and what to do to make them better. Inman was a master at making sure every nut, bolt and screw on the car was doing its job. “When I worked at Petty Enterprises while in high school, I remember Dale was a stickler about having all the screw slots pointed in the same direction,”
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said Kyle Petty, son of Richard Petty and a 10-time Cup Series winner. “It would drive him crazy if he came by and they weren’t done that way. But the fact is he built great race cars and he wanted them to look nice, right down to those screw slots. He says Richard Petty won all those 200 races but don’t let him fool you. Dale was a huge part of those wins. “And another thing was this; Dale Inman was right most of the time. But he wasn’t afraid to say he was wrong. That’s what made him a great crew chief.” Inman is extremely modest about his role in NASCAR and working with Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises. The two are still together today in consulting roles with Petty GMS Racing. In essence, they’ve been together for 85 years, whether in the woods and fields around Level Cross or winning Daytona 500s. “(Laughter) Richard has said many times over the years he would have won a whole lot more races if I hadn’t been his crew chief,” Inman said. “Richard was a great driver throughout his career, that’s all I can say. I was just there to help put all the pieces together. We didn’t set out to win seven Daytona 500 and seven championships. They just came together for us. We were extremely blessed.” Both Petty and Inman have been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR HALL OF FAME
