Senior Salute

FOR THE RECORD: RICHARD PETTY THE KING OF NASCAR THE KING OF NASCAR

Throughout NASCAR history, no driver has been more successful or more popular than seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty. Among the inaugural inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the winner of 200 Cup Series races, Petty, who will celebrate his 85th birthday on July 2, enjoys talking about family history, growing up with legendary crew chief and fellow NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Dale Inman, and the enjoyment of winning races and championships. BY BEN WHITE

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST RECOLLECTION OF LIVING IN LEVEL CROSS, NORTH CAROLINA?

Probably, Christmas as a child. I remember being probably 4 or 5 years old. One of the first things I remember getting for Christmas was a scooter. It was red. And let me say, the house isn’t as big as it looks. On Christmas, grandmother would have all of the family come in. They would all exchange presents. Santa brought me a scooter. Me and Chief (brother Maurice) both. (Laughter) We would run them up and down the hallway and I remember they took them away from us until everyone went home. There was just no room to ride them. Over a period of time, we asked for a bicycle and then an electric train.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR MOM, ELIZABETH TOOMES PETTY. WHAT WAS SHE LIKE WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?

(Laugher) She was a very stern lady. She was lovable but stern. She just wanted to keep us straight. The big thing would be when Chief and I would get into a fight and daddy (Lee Petty) would be gone. She would make us wait until he got home. You know what I mean? With our kids (Kyle, Lisa, Sharon and Rebecca), Lynda would take care of it because she wanted us to have quality time with the kids when I came home and not be scared of me. But we were scared when daddy was coming home. There were different philosophies on that.

DID YOU PICK TOMATOES AS A KID?

This whole place around here (where Petty Enterprises/Petty’s Garage is located) was once covered in tomatoes. Maybe the next year my daddy decided to raise pigs. The next year, it would be

potatoes. I didn’t pick tomatoes or potatoes, but I did pick tobacco for my uncle. When daddy was doing all that, I was pretty young.

DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT BEING SOMETHING OTHER THAN A RACE CAR DRIVER?

Driving a race car just happened. I guess I never really thought about being a race car driver until I was 17 or 18 years old. I was initially just satisfied working on daddy’s car. He was winning races and championships and I was just tickled to death to just be able to work on his cars. He’d let me change oil and things like that. Back in the day, you really didn’t work on the car all that much. It was a stock car. (Laughter) Then, you kept the oil changed, the spark plugs changed and air in the tires. That was about it.

YOU AND DALE INMAN ARE IN YOUR 80S NOW. HE’S NINE MONTHS OLDER THAN YOU. YOU’RE HANGING OUT. WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DID YOU DO AS KIDS?

We’d race bicycles. We took some twoby-fours and built carts and got some wheels off wagons and raced each other down hills that we had cleaned off. To begin with, we raced down a straight line. Then, we built banked corners and raced on them. We’d also go to the creek and go swimming.

HOW WAS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND DALE EARLY ON?

We were closer than brothers. Chief and I had fights and arguments like brothers do. Me and Dale never had that. I guess we were close as companions.

AND YOU BOTH PLAYED HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FOR THE RANDLEMAN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM, RIGHT?

Yes. I played guard and linebacker. Back then, you had 12 or 14 people on the

whole team. Everybody played the entire game. Dale played halfback and he was really fast. He weighed 145 pound and he was the quickest guy on the team. I weighed 210 to 212 and I was the biggest guy on the team. We played football, baseball and basketball. I was an average player, I guess. There weren’t but 250 in the entire school from first to 12th grade when I was in school. There were only 52 or 53 in my graduating class. It was a small school. The other farmers’ kids would play ball and then go home and milk the cows and work in the fields. I came home and worked on the race car.

WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BECOME A RACE CAR DRIVER?

One day (in July 1958), I wanted to try it. We went to Columbia, South Carolina. It was myself, Dale and Red Myler. I wound up sixth a couple of laps down. On the way back, between Columbia and Rockingham, I said, “I think I’m going to like this dadgum driving part.” Up to that time, I didn’t know. Once I ran that first race, I said, “This is what I want to do.”

ON JUNE 14, 1959, YOU WON YOUR FIRST RACE AT LAKEWOOD SPEEDWAY IN ATLANTA AND YOUR DAD PROTESTED AND HE GOT THE WIN. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT?

He was in a hardtop and I was in a convertible. At that time, the factories had all left the sport. The promoters were giving $500 if you had a current year model car and won the race. That was daddy’s excuse. He said, “We can make $500 more if I win instead of you winning.” Second-place was the best I had ever run up to that point and I never really thought anything about it, and still don’t.

IN 1967, YOU SEEMINGLY COULDN’T LOSE WITH 27 WINS IN 48 RACES WITH 10 WINS COMING IN A ROW USING ONE 1966 PLYMOUTH. HOW AMAZING WAS THAT?

(Laughter) We lost Daytona. We took the 1967 Plymouth to four races and fell out of four races. I told Dale to put it in the corner. It doesn’t have a good personality. We went back to the 1966 Plymouth •The Petty home in Level Cross, North Carolina.

•Convertible racing in 1959.

•A young Richard Petty.

•Lee, Richard and Kyle Petty

and ran all those races and didn’t wreck it bad enough that we couldn’t fix it. We only had eight people working on our crew total that year.

THERE WERE OTHER GREAT YEARS AS WELL:

Oh, yeah. The 1971 season was a good one when we won 21 races, So was 1972 when we won eight, and we won championships both years. So was 1975 with 13 wins that year. Seven championships in all through 1979.

YOU WON SEVEN DAYTONA 500S AND THREE FIRECRACKER 400S AT DAYTONA. WHY WERE YOU SO GOOD AT THAT TRACK?

There were four or five of those races that I won. There were two or three of those that I lucked into. When I look back, there were a couple, three or four that I should have won that I didn’t win. So It kind of evened itself out. When the seasons were over, everyone started building their cars and went to test a couple of times and you know, things just worked. It was like going to Martinsville (15 wins) or North Wilkesboro (15 wins) where we won so many times. We just knew we were going to win. When we went to Charlotte, we always ran good but we only won four or five races over there. Why? Darlington was the same way. I won three there and never won after that.

•Richard Petty, The King.

•Bubba Wallace, Richard Petty and Ryan Blaney.

•Richard Petty at Daytona.

CONCERNING THE LAST LAP OF THE 1979 DAYTONA 500, NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU THIS QUESTION. WERE YOU REALLY SURPRISED TO SEE DONNIE ALLISON AND CALE YARBOROUGH CRASHED OUT IN THE THIRD TURN ON THE FINAL LAP?

Oh, yeah! I was busy racing with Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt, trying to hang on to third. I was trying to figure out how to keep them from drafting back by me. I was busy watching my mirror headed into Turn 3 and all the sudden, there lay the first- and second-place cars down in the infield at the bottom of the turn. They were far enough ahead that they had crashed and stopped. I think they had a 20 second lead. I’m thinking, “Dang, now I’ve really got to keep Darrell back there.” Now we have a chance to win this race.

HOW DO YOU SUM UP SUCH AN INCREDIBLE CAREER WITH 200 VICTORIES AND SEVEN CUP SERIES CHAMPIONSHIPS?

(Laughter) I tell Dale all the time I would have won 400 races if it hadn’t been for him. But you know, I won some of the races myself driving. Circumstances won some of the races. Some of the races were won by his strategy.

WHAT’S THE OFFICIAL STORY BEHIND THE COWBOY HAT, BOOTS AND SUNGLASSES THAT HAVE BEEN YOUR LONGTIME TRADEMARK?

(Laughter) I would wear a cowboy hat from time to time up until 1979. Lynda had a place right down the road here that sold antiques. One day, Kyle came into the store and asked his mother for a corner of the shop to start selling hats and boots. At the time, he and his family were deep into horses. She said Ok. One day, a guy came by and asked Kyle to take on his hats. He said to Kyle, “If I give your daddy a hat, will he wear it?” He said, “He probably will.” You know what I mean? This is 1979. One day, we were in west Chicago in the middle of nowhere. We cut a deal and we’re still doing it.

As far as the sunglasses, my eyes have always been sensitive to light. I’ve been wearing polarized sunglasses for years and years. I used to wear bubble goggles on the race track but dirt would get behind them. I found that the polarized sunglasses helped me see oil on the track and made the oil look darker. I thought, “Man, this is great.” It was just one of those deals that just happened.