(born
July 2 ,
1937 in Level Cross, North Carolina) is a renowned former
NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver. He is most well-known for winning the
NASCAR Championship seven times (
Dale Earnhardt was the only other driver to accomplish this feat, but with a mere 76 victories and a lone Daytona 500), winning 200 races during his career, and winning a record 27 wins (ten of them consecutively) in the 1967 season alone. (A 1972 rule change eliminated races under 250 miles in length, reducing the schedule to 30
36 races.)
He also collected a record number of poles (127) and over 700 top-ten finishes in his 1,185 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971-1989. He also won seven Daytona 500s and nine awards.
Petty is a second generation driver. His father,
Lee Petty , won the first
Daytona 500 in 1959 and was also a NASCAR champion. Richard's son,
Kyle Petty , is also a well-known NASCAR driver. Tragically, Richard's grandson,
Adam Petty , was killed in an accident at
New Hampshire International Speedway on
May 12 ,
2000 .
in January 2001]]
Richard Petty began his NASCAR career on
July 18 ,
1958 , 16 days after his 21st birthday. His first race was in Toronto, Canada, and he finished 17th in an Oldsmobile. In 1959, Richard was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year, after he produced 9 top 10 finishes, including six Top 5 finishes.
In 1960, he finished 2nd in the NASCAR Grand National Points Race.
In 1964, driving a potent Plymouth with a new
Hemi engine, Richard Petty led 184 of the 200 laps to capture his first Daytona 500, en route to 9 victories, earning over $114,000 and his first Grand National championship. On
February 27 ,
1966 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.
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". In 1969 Petty switched brands to Ford, due to his belief the Plymouth was not competitive on super-speedways. He would win 10 races and finish second in points. Lured by the sleek new SuperBird, Petty returned to Plymouth for the 1970 season.
On
February 14 ,
1971 , Petty won his third Daytona 500, beating team mate,
Buddy Baker , by one lap en route to another historic year, making him the first driver to win the event three times. He won 20 more races, became the first driver to earn more than $1 million in career earnings, and claimed his third Grand National Championship.
In 1972, now with the familiar STP sponsor livery, Petty won his 4th Winston Cup Championship, thanks to his 28 top-10 finishes, including 25 top-5 finishes and 8 victories.
On
February 18 ,
1973 , in a driver’s duel, Petty outlasted Baker to win his fourth Daytona 500 after Baker's engine gave out with six laps left. One year later, Petty won the Daytona "450" (shortened 20 laps {50mi/80km} due to the
Energy Crisis ) for the fifth time en route to his fifth Winston Cup Championship.
The year 1975 was another historic year for Petty, as he won the
World 600 for the first time in his career, one of 13 victories en route to his sixth Winston Cup. The 13 victories is a modern (1972 to present) NASCAR record for victories in a season, and was tied in 1998 by
Jeff Gordon .
In 1976, Petty was involved in one of the most famous finishes in NASCAR history. Petty and David Pearson were racing on the last lap out of turn 4 in the Daytona 500. As Petty tried to pass Pearson, at the exit of turn 4, Petty's right rear bumper hit Pearson left front bumper. Pearson and Petty both spun and hit the front stretch wall. Petty's car came to rest just yards from the finish line, but his engine stalled. Pearson's car had hit the front stretch wall and clipped another car, but his engine was running. Pearson was able to drive his car toward the finish line, while Petty's car would not restart. Pearson passed Petty on the infield grass and won the Daytona 500. Petty was given credit for second place.
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 in the infield that left many unsure if Richard had won. 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
A. J. Foyt and
Darrell Waltrip . Foyt had backed off because of his familiarity with
USAC rules which states that racing stops once the yellow flag waves. The NASCAR rule at the time stated that drivers should race back to the start-finish line (the rule was changed in 2003). 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 Richard's seventh and last NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. Petty was able to hold off Waltrip to win the title in 1979.
In the 1981 Daytona 500, Petty used a "fuel only" his last pit stop with 25 laps to go to outfox
Bobby Allison and grab his seventh and final Daytona 500 win. This win marked a large change in Petty's racing team.
Dale Inman , Petty's longtime crew chief, left the team after the Daytona victory (Inman would win an eighth championship as crew chief in 1984 with
Terry Labonte ).
On
July 4 ,
1984 , Petty's 200th win was at the
Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. The race was memorable. In lap 198, a rookie driver crashed, bringing out the yellow caution flag, essentially turning Lap 198 into the last lap. The last two laps would be run under caution (This scenario is no longer possible under the July 2004 green-white-checkered rule change). Petty and
Cale Yarborough diced it out on that lap, with Yarborough drafting and taking an early lead before Petty managed to cross the start/finish line only a fender-length ahead. President
Ronald Reagan was in attendance, the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race. Reagan celebrated the milestone with Petty and his family in victory lane.
In
1992 , Richard Petty retired from NASCAR, but not before he had two last great moments. In the first one, he led the Firecracker 400 for the first five laps (after qualifying 2nd) before he dropped out on lap 84 due to fatigue.
The second was in his final race at season finale in Atlanta. Petty's career was honored when he paced the field on a pace lap. Petty raced for the only time against
Jeff Gordon , who was making his first Winston Cup start. The 1992 championship was decided by 10 points in the slimmest margin in NASCAR history (until the new "Chase for the Cup" was introduced). Second place finisher
Alan Kulwicki won the championship by leading the most laps (one more than race winner
Bill Elliott ). The resulting 10-point swing in points proved to be the difference.
In later years of his career, Petty developed the career of crew chief Robbie Loomis, who was at the helm of Petty Enterprises as crew chief in the 1990's, and won three races -- the 1996
Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix, the 1997
Subway 400 at Rockingham, both with
Bobby Hamilton driving, and the 1999
Virginia 500 at Martinsville, with John Andretti driving.
Of all the races he won, Petty is also remembered for three of the many incredible crashes that he survived:
- In the 1970 Rebel 400 at Darlington, Petty was injured when his Plymouth Roadrunner 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, which 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, Richard slammed the Turn 2 wall, nearly flipping the car. Petty nearly broke his neck in the wreck and kept his injury hidden from NASCAR officials for the next races, knowing that another wreck could possibly kill him. Such an incident could never happen today, because of modern NASCAR rules requiring an official series medical liasion to clear a driver after a crash.
- In the 1988 Daytona 500, Petty's spectacular crash on Lap 106 hurled parts all over the front stretch at the Daytona International Speedway. Incredibly, after so many flips, Petty walked away with no serious injuries. The crash was similar to the accident suffered by Bobby Allison during the 1987 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in that both cars became airborne after turning sideways, and both cars damaged the spectator fencing (though Petty's crash did much less damage to the fencing). 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 prior to the start of the 1988 season.
Richard Petty is currently a
Spokesman for
Cheerios and
GlaxoSmithKline with both Nicorette and Goody's Headache Powder. He is almost always seen wearing his trademark sunglasses and a Charlie One Horse hat. In
1996 , he was the Republican nominee for
North Carolina Secretary Of State , but was defeated by State Senator
Elaine Marshall in the general election.
Accessibility was his hallmark. In a sport, and a sports world, where big stars could and did refuse to sign autographs, Richard made a point of staying until everybody got one.
His work on behalf of his sport and his accessibility to fans are seen as crucial elements of NASCAR's transformation from the dirt tracks of the 1950s to the superspeedways and multi-million dollar sponsorships of today.
- His ornate Autograph can take more than 10 seconds to complete {Link without Title} .
- Petty Enterprises refuses to wear any alcohol decals, forfeiting the Budweiser Pole Award and Shootout awards, because of a deal Petty made with his mother not to do so.
- Richard Petty was offered $10,000 by Andy Granitelli to drop the familiar Petty Blue and paint his car all Day-Glo Red for STP. He refused, settling for a two-tone scheme, and by 1982, Gordon Johncock 's Indy 500 winning STP Wildcat-Cosworth was painted in similar fashion.
- Petty is known to NASCAR fans as "The King", "King Richard", or simply Richard (since all fans know who it is).
- A 60 Minutes feature story on Petty was taped in late 1988 for airing, but when Diane Sawyer defected to another network, the segment was wiped out. Harry Reasoner reshot the segment, and it aired in late 1989.
- Petty was famously not "Dick"; as the story goes, his mother is quoted as saying, "If we wanted him called Dick, we'd have named him Dick."
- Kenny Chesney metions Richard in his song "How Forever Feels" stating, "Hands on the wheels, cruising down the the interstate, gas pedal sticks carrys my car away, I was going as fast as a Rambler goes, I could feel the speed from my head to my toes, now I know how Richard Petty feels."
The Nascar Grand National Series was changed to the Winston Cup Series after the 1971 season.
