Richard Petty

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Richard Petty
NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992) Named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers (2023)
NASCAR Cup Series career
1,184 races run over 35 years
Best finish	1st (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979)
First race	1958 Jim Mideon 500 (Toronto)
Last race	1992 Hooters 500 (Atlanta)
First win	1960 untitled race (Southern States)
Last win	1984 Firecracker 400 (Daytona)
Wins Top tens Poles 200 712 123
1959 Race No. 13 (Columbia )
Wins Top tens Poles 1 8 10

Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "the King", is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 43 Plymouth/Pontiac for Petty Enterprises. He is a member of the Petty racing family. He was the first driver to win the Cup Series championship seven times (a record now tied with Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson),^[1] while also winning a record 200 races during his career.^[1] This included winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times and winning a record 27 races^[1] in one season (1967).^[2]

He was inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.^[3] He is also statistically, one of the most accomplished driver in the history of NASCAR, having racked up most wins (200), most poles (123), tied for most championships (seven), most wins in a season (27), most Daytona 500 wins (seven), most consecutive wins (10) and most starts (1,185).^[4]

He earns broad respect in motorsport where beyond driving, he remains very active as both a team ambassador (Legacy Motor Club) in the Cup Series and owner of Petty's Garage (a car restoration and modification shop) in Level Cross, North Carolina. During his 35-year career, Petty collected a record number of poles (123) and over 700 top 10 finishes in a record 1,184 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971 to 1989. Petty was the first driver to win in his 500th race start, being joined by Matt Kenseth in 2013.

The Richard Petty Museum was formerly in nearby Randleman, North Carolina, but moved back to its original location in Level Cross in March 2014. Petty has also voiced a role in Disney's animated films Cars and Cars 3, playing The King, a character partially based on himself.

Personal life

Petty is a second-generation driver. His father, Lee Petty, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was also a three-time NASCAR champion. In 1958, Petty married Lynda Owens, who would die of cancer on March 25, 2014, at her home in Level Cross, North Carolina at age 72.^[5][6] Lynda's brother Randy Owens was a member of Petty's pit crew and killed at age 19 during a pit road accident when a water tank exploded during the 1975 Winston 500. Richard and Lynda had four children, including Kyle Petty.^[7] The family resides in Petty's home town of Level Cross, North Carolina.

Petty's son Kyle was also a NASCAR driver. His grandson, Adam (Kyle's son), was killed in a practice crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 12, 2000, five weeks after the death of Lee Petty. Adam's brother Austin is Emeritus Chairman and Founder of Victory Junction, a SeriousFun Children's Network camp established by the Pettys after Adam's death.

Racing career

Petty was born in

In 1960, he finished 2nd in the NASCAR Grand National Points Race, and got his first career win at the Charlotte Fairgrounds Speedway. 1963 was his breakout year, winning at tracks like

Joining in the Chrysler boycott of NASCAR due to the organizing body's ban of the Hemi engine, Petty spent much of 1965 competing as a drag racer. Petty Enterprises installed the Hemi in the new compact Barracuda and lettered "OUTLAWED" on the door. He crashed this car at Southeastern Dragway, in Dallas, Georgia, on February 28, 1965, killing an eight-year-old boy and injuring seven others.[11]^[12] Petty, his father Lee, and Chrysler Corporation faced lawsuits totaling more than $1 million, though Petty and his team came to settlements with the lawsuits within 1 month of the suits being filed.^[13] Afterwards, a second Hemi Barracuda was built, this time with an altered wheelbase and eventually with Hilborn fuel injection. This car was lettered with a large "43 JR" on the door. The car was very successful, winning its class at the Bristol Spring Nationals and competing in many match races against well-known racers such as Ronnie Sox, Don Nicholson, Phil Bonner, Huston Platt, Hubert Platt and Dave Strickler. Even after returning to NASCAR once the Hemi was reinstated, Richard continued drag racing the 43 JR until early 1966. ± On February 27, 1966, Richard Petty overcame a 2-lap deficit to win his second Daytona 500 when the race was stopped on lap 198 of 200 because of a thunderstorm. This made him the first driver to win the event twice. In 1966, he won the first ever race at Middle Georgia Raceway (Morelock 200). Petty broke the half-mile NASCAR record for half-mile tracks with an average speed of 82.023 miles per hour during the 100-mile (160 km) event.^[14] He would end up recording 4 wins there in his career, including one in 1970 in which he was very ill before the race. 1967 was a milestone year. In that year, Petty won 27 of the 48 races he entered, including a record 10 wins in a row (between August 12 and October 1, 1967). He won his second Grand National Championship. One of the 27 victories was the Southern 500 at Darlington, which would be his only Southern 500 victory. His dominance in this season earned him the nickname "King Richard". He had previously been known as "the Randleman Rocket".^[15]

In 1968, Petty won 16 races including the last ever race at Occoneechee Speedway.

In 1969 Ford significantly ratcheted up their factory involvement in NASCAR when they introduced the Ford Torino Talladega. The Talladega was specifically designed to give Ford a competitive race advantage by being more aerodynamic and thus faster, especially on super-speedway tracks more than a mile long. Petty switched brands to Ford, due to his belief the Plymouth was not competitive on super-speedways; he wanted a slippery Dodge Daytona but Chrysler executives insisted he stay with Plymouth. He would win 10 races and finish second in points. Won back in 1970 by the sleek new Plymouth Superbird with shark nose and towel rack wing, Petty returned to Plymouth for the 1970 season. This is the car in which Petty is cast in the Pixar film Cars (2006), in which Richard and Lynda Petty had voice roles.

The 1970s

On February 14, 1971, Petty won his third Daytona 500, driving a brand-new (for 1971) Plymouth Road Runner and beating Buddy Baker, by little more than a car length en route to another historic year, making him the first driver to win the race 3 times. He won 20 more races (which would make him become the first driver to earn more than $1 million in career earnings) and claimed his 3rd Grand National Championship. At the end of the 1971 season, Chrysler told the Pettys they no longer would receive direct factory funding support; this caused the Petty team great concern. In 1972, STP began what would turn into a successful 28-year sponsorship arrangement with Petty, however, it marked the end of his famous all "Petty Blue" paint job. STP previously insisted on an all STP orangish-red color for the cars, but Petty balked and after an all-night negotiation session, the familiar STP orange/"Petty blue" paint scheme was agreed to as a compromise that would later become part of STP's motorsport paint schemes, most notably Gordon Johncock's win in the 1982 Indianapolis 500 (where the car had a primarily "Petty Blue" scheme). Thanks to his 28 Top 10 finishes (25 Top 5 finishes and 8 victories), Petty went on to win his 4th NASCAR Cup Series championship. 1972 was a year of change in other ways, as it was the last year where Petty would campaign a Plymouth-based race car; as in the middle of the year, he debuted to drive a newly built 1972 Dodge Charger in a few races (winning one of them), as he believed that the car would have a slight aero advantage over the Plymouth body style. In a driver's duel on February 18, 1973, Petty, in a newly built 1973 Dodge Charger (a body style he would use exclusively until the end of 1977), outlasted Baker (now with the K&K Insurance Dodge race team) to win his 4th Daytona 500 after Baker's engine gave out with 6 laps to go. A year later, Petty won the Daytona "450" (shortened 20 laps {50 mi/80 km} due to the energy crisis) for the fifth time en route to his 5th Winston Cup Championship.

1975 was another historic year for Petty, as he won the

Oddly 1978 will stand out as the one year during his prime that Petty did not visit the winner's circle. The Petty Enterprises Team could not get the new 1978 Dodge Magnum to handle properly, even though much time, effort, and faith were spent massaging the cars. Unhappy with the seven top-five and eleven top-ten finishes (including three-second places), Petty decided that his longtime relationship with Chrysler could not continue and he instead began racing a secondhand 1974 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the fall race at Michigan. Returning to the General Motors fold proved successful as Petty recorded six top-ten finishes in the final ten races of the 1978 season and finished sixth in the final standings. He would go on to even better results in 1979. Petty won the Daytona 500 in an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in the "Famous Finish" and ran most of the remaining races in a Chevrolet, winning four additional races and taking the NASCAR championship for the seventh, and last, time by 11 points which was the closest points margin in NASCAR history until 1992.

Twilight years (1980–1991)

Petty won two more Daytona 500s in 1979 and 1981. In 1979, he snapped a 45-race drought, winning his sixth Daytona 500, the first to be televised live flag-to-flag; it would become notorious for a fistfight between competitors following the controversial finish. Petty won the race as the first and second place cars of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crashed on the last lap. Petty held off Darrell Waltrip and A. J. Foyt. The race is also regarded as being the genesis of the current surge in NASCAR's popularity. The East Coast was snowed in by a blizzard, giving CBS a captive audience. The win was part of Petty's seventh and last NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. He was able to hold off Waltrip to win the title in 1979.

In 1980, Petty won two races early in the year at

While the 1981 season gave Petty 3 wins, he felt the season was a failure, and the Regals being ill-handling and poor in reliability. For 1982, he made the move to the Pontiac Grand Prix, with the promise of substantial factory support from Pontiac. 1982 was a repeat of 1978, and no victories were to be had. At first, the Grand Prix behaved much like the Dodge Magnum of 1978, with handling and speed problems. Toward the end of 1982 things improved with several top-10 finishes, which opened the door to a successful 1983 season with three victories, and several top-5 and top-10 finishes. In 1983, he broke his 43-race winless streak from 1982 with a win in the 1983 Carolina 500, barely edging out a young Bill Elliott. After a controversial win at Charlotte in October 1983 (recognised by NASCAR as win No. 198), Petty left the race team his father founded for the 1984 season. He spent '84 and '85 driving for Mike Curb before returning to Petty Enterprises in 1986.^[16]

Because of the

On July 4, 1984, Petty won his officially-recognized 200th (and what would turn out to be his final victory) race at the

, who recorded a 28.829-second lap (139.734 mp/h) in his Pontiac Grand Prix.

Petty's last ride (1992)

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On October 1, 1991, Petty announced he would retire after the 1992 season. Petty's final top ten finish came at the

At the 1992

Despite the busy appearance schedule and mediocre race results, Petty managed to qualify for all 29 races in 1992. On his final visit to each track, Petty would lead the field on the pace lap to salute the fans. Petty's final race, the season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which also marked the start of Jeff Gordon's NASCAR career and the second-closest points championship in NASCAR history, with six drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship, is hailed to this day as the greatest race in NASCAR history. A record 160,000 spectators attended the race and celebrated Petty's farewell. In the intense title race, the championship contender, Davey Allison, got mixed up in a crash with Ernie Irvan, dashing his title hopes. Long-shot contenders Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and Harry Gant fell behind in the long run, which left Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki to compete for the title. The race went down to the final lap with Elliott winning and Kulwicki taking the championship by 10 points because he had led the most laps, one more than Elliott, which gave him a five-point bonus.

Facing intense pressure, Petty barely managed to qualify at Atlanta, posting the 39th fastest speed out of 41 cars. He would not have been eligible for the provisional starting position, and had to qualify on speed. On the 94th lap, Petty became tangled up in an accident, and his car caught fire. Petty pulled the car off the track, and climbed out of the burning machine uninjured. His pit crew worked diligently with less than 20 laps to go to get the car running again, and with two laps to go, Petty pulled out of the pits and was credited as running at the finish in his final race. He took his final checkered flag, finishing in 35th position. After the race, Petty circled the track to salute the fans one final time in his trademark STP Pontiac.

Thereafter he made a few public show appearances at racetracks. On August 18, 1993, NASCAR participated in a tire test at the

Petty as an owner

In later years of his career, Petty developed the career of crew leader

In 1995, Petty moved to the television broadcast booth, joining CBS as a color commentator.

Sponsorship

Petty promised his mother not to accept

Close calls

As well as his numerous victories, Petty is remembered for three of the many disastrous crashes that he survived:

• In the 1970
  Rebel 400 at Darlington, Petty was injured when his Plymouth Road Runner cut a tire and slammed hard into the wall separating the track from the pit area. The car flipped several times before coming to rest on its side. This accident injured Petty's shoulder and helped Bobby Isaac to win the 1970 Grand National Championship. During the accident, Petty's head hit the track pavement several times, a mishap that, along with Joe Weatherly's fatal crash six years earlier, led NASCAR
  to mandate the installation of the Petty-developed safety net that covers the driver's side window.
• In a 1980 race at Pocono, Petty slammed the Turn 2 wall, nearly flipping the car. He barely escaped, breaking his neck in the wreck, but still raced the next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.^[23] This is unlikely to happen now because of modern NASCAR rules requiring an official series medical liaison to clear a driver after a crash.
• In the 1988
  Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and Carl Edwards's 2009 Talladega crash in that, in all three cases, the racers' cars became airborne after turning sideways and damaged the spectator fencing (though much less in Petty's case). Petty's car became airborne despite the use of the carburetor restrictor plate, which was mandated by NASCAR for races at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway just before the start of the 1988 season
  .

• Petty was inducted into the first class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 23, 2010.
• In 1997, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
• He was named one of
  NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers
  in 1998.
• He was sole stock car representative in the first class inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1989.^[24]
• He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George Bush in 1992, the first motorsports athlete ever to be honored with this award.

Politics

In 1978, Petty was elected to the

Petty is currently a spokesman for

For public benefit, Petty and his son Kyle have lent their talent to host "Lifting It Right", an automotive lift safety training DVD produced and distributed by the Automotive Lift Institute (ALI); it is used in high school vocational programs and community colleges. He has recorded public service announcements for Civitan International, a nonprofit organization of which he is a former member.^[35] He has also established a summer camp known as "Victory Junction", which is intended to give seriously ill children an outdoors, summer-camp experience and has medical staff on hand around the clock in case of emergencies.

In May 2011, Petty was chosen to be the Grand Marshal for the 2011 STP 400 of the Sprint Cup Series.^[36] In public, he is usually seen wearing his trademark sunglasses and a Charlie 1 Horse cowboy hat, with a large snakeskin hat band and a plume of rooster feathers at the front.

After retirement, Petty purchased a 90-acre (36 ha) ranch south of Jackson, Wyoming.^[37]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Grand National Series

Winston Cup Series

Daytona 500

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

Film and TV appearances

• In 2011, Petty was featured in the show Modern HotrodZ. Petty's Garage now builds Custom cars for the general public, most of which are Limited Edition.
• He appeared as himself in the movie Swing Vote driving in his famous blue No. 43 car, and letting Bud drive his car to Air Force One to meet the President.
• Petty voiced
  Pixar animated movie Cars (2006). His car, the Road Runner Superbird with the distinctive "Petty Blue" tint and the number 43, is also the model used for the car in the movie. He is hoping to get one more victory in him before he can retire from racing on the Piston Cup circuit. Though The King's accident caused by his longtime running rival Chick Hicks at the end of the film was a re-creation of Rusty Wallace's real-life Winston 500 accident in 1993, the bit in which rookie racer Lightning McQueen assists him to the finish line is based on the 1976 incident, albeit by the pit crew. Petty's wife Lynda voiced The King's wife, a 1976 Chrysler Town & Country station-wagon (based on Petty's family car), in that movie as well. Petty's character did not appear in Cars 2 (2011), but did return in Cars 3 (2017), in which Petty voiced his character as the crew chief of his nephew and new Dinoco racer Cal Weathers, who was voiced by driver Kyle Petty
  , who is Richard Petty's son.
• Petty appeared in the Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder (1990).
• He appeared in the Burt Reynolds movie Stroker Ace (1983) as himself.
• Petty appeared as himself in the movie 43: The Richard Petty Story (1972) (a Victory Lane Production, released by Video Gems, distributed by United American Video in 1986).
• In 1989, Petty appeared as himself in the movie Speed Zone, driving in his famous blue No. 43 car.
• In 1967, Petty appeared in the opening credits of the Elvis Presley movie Speedway that was shot and filmed at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. This movie was released in 1968.
• He was in Petty Blue, a documentary by NASCAR.
• Petty guest-starred in the Alley Oop daily comic strip from June 7 to June 20, 1994, in which he drove a pickup truck to help corral an escaped dinosaur (that had been transported to the 20th century).
• Petty appeared as himself in the (1965) Howard Hawks film Red Line 7000.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard Petty.

• Official website
• Richard Petty driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Richard Petty Gives a Tour of Petty Enterprises
• Richard Petty at
  IMDb
• Richard Petty discography at Discogs

Sporting positions
Preceded by David Pearson	NASCAR Grand National champion 1964 1967	Succeeded by Ned Jarrett David Pearson
Preceded by Bobby Isaac Benny Parsons Cale Yarborough	NASCAR Winston Cup champion 1971, 1972 1974, 1975 1979	Succeeded by Benny Parsons Cale Yarborough Dale Earnhardt
Achievements
Preceded by Tiny Lund Fred Lorenzen Pete Hamilton A.J. Foyt Bobby Allison Buddy Baker	Daytona 500 Winner 1964 1966 1971 1973, 1974 1979 1981	Succeeded by Fred Lorenzen Mario Andretti A.J. Foyt Benny Parsons Buddy Baker Bobby Allison
Preceded by Darel Dieringer	Southern 500 Winner 1967	Succeeded by Cale Yarborough
Preceded by David Pearson David Pearson	World 600 Winner 1975 1977	Succeeded by David Pearson Darrell Waltrip
Awards
Preceded by Shorty Rollins	NASCAR Rookie of the Year 1959	Succeeded by David Pearson