Reflecting on Richard Petty’s 200 wins

A LIFETIME IN NASCAR

“A Lifetime in NASCAR” recalls memorable moments from NASCAR’s incredible history. Hosted by longtime NASCAR journalists Ben White and Aaron Burns, here’s a snippet from a recent episode:

BY AARON BURNS

BURNS: Looking back on it, I’d struggles early with crew chief say of the biggest “Silly Season” Harry Hyde. They got hot in that moves of the 1980s, two really Folger’s No. 25 car, won a ton of stood out. First of all, the shock races and Tim just missed out on and awe that I’m sure every- finishing second in points to Dale body had when Richard Petty Earnhardt. announced he’d leave Petty Then, here you have Darrell, Enterprises – the team his fa- late in that 1986 season, thinkther, Lee, founded – to drive for ing “You know what, we’re going Mike Curb and keep the same to create the Dream Team,” with manufacturer, sponsor and car Waddell Wilson and a whole number. group of talented folks. Darrell

Visually, it wasn’t a change, signs with Rick and they unveil but it had to be a shock when it this bright-orange, wake-you-upwent down in 1984. when-you-looked-at-it Tide car.

WHITE: It really was. The That had to just turn NASCAR on entire motorsports community, its head, because who would’ve I remember when it came out expected the champion to go to and we all said, “No, someone’s a team that had hardly proven gotten some bad information. There’s no way Richard Petty • A lot of people think Richard Petty (pictured here in 1964) won 200 races with Petty Enterprises, but that is not correct. anything at that point? WHITE: In that era, Darrell is leaving Petty Enterprises. was on the top of his game and, That’s crazy.” of course, everybody wanted

But, as the days went on, it became more of a story. to drive for Junior Johnson. It did come close, once, to a situation where Dale They’d ran since 1949, when Lee founded the team. It Earnhardt was talking about possibly driving for Junior. That didn’t materialize, was a very close-knit, family organization and you’d but talking about Darrell, you’re leaving a really strong race team at Junior’s and think to yourself, “Man, there’s just no way that can you’re going to an untested situation at Hendrick. happen,” but I remember Richard saying that he felt What went wrong in that deal was there was so much talent with Darrell as it was just time to make a change. We found out it a driver, Waddell Wilson as a crew chief and engine builder, that there just was was true and while a lot of people think Richard no chemistry. You had all that talent under one roof, you had unlimited financial Petty won 200 races with Petty Enterprises, it’s not resources and support from Procter & Gamble with Tide as a sponsor, it was like correct. a dream team, but as Darrell has said many times, it turned out to be a nightmare.

BURNS: For all the success Richard Petty had – BURNS: It’s not anything that anyone expected, like you said. I think as domand it’s worth mentioning, he went back to Petty inant as Dale Earnhardt was in 1986 and as dominant as Bill Elliott was in 1985, Enterprises in the late 1980s – he won his 200th and I think everybody was expecting Darrell and this group to win 12, 13, maybe 14 final Cup Series race at Daytona in 1984 with Mike races. They only won one race in 1987, it was at Martinsville in the fall and it was Curb as his team owner. under very interesting circumstances.

Two years later, to me, was the ultimate bomb- Darrell was running third to Dale and Terry Labonte, Darrell nudged Terry a shell. You had Darrell Waltrip, a three-time Cup bit, Terry got into Dale, those guys got sideways and Darrell drove by and won. Series champion regarded by most of the NASCAR Now, Darrell had a lot of success at Hendrick Motorsports – he won his only media as the best driver in NASCAR, he’s the de- Daytona 500 with them in 1989 – but that was after Hendrick had to reshuffle its fending champion. He’s leaving Junior Johnson’s deck a little bit and then, finally, it seemed like Darrell got on solid footing before team to go to Rick Hendrick’s team, Hendrick Mo- he dropped another bombshell on the NASCAR world in 1990: He was leaving torsports, this upstart group that didn’t win a single Hendrick to start his own race team. race in 1985. Part of the Out of the Groove Podcast Network, “A Lifetime in NASCAR” is avail-

In 1986, Tim Richmond comes to Hendrick and able on platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.