Petty Driving
April 7, 2009 by Denise I Smithson
Filed under Sports
A living legend in the world of racing if ever there was one, Richard Petty has won an incredible 200 races in his career, holding one of his many records as a seven time winner of the Daytona 500. Other than Dale Earnhardt, he is the only racer to ever win the NASCAR Championship seven times, a record he is justifiably proud of.
In his 35 year career, he raced an astounding 1184 Sprint Cup races. His record includes not just 200 wins, but also 712 top ten finishes – an impressive achievement. Between 1971 and 1989, Petty had 513 consecutive starts; it is not for nothing that many believe him to be the greatest racer ever to get behind the wheel.
Petty comes from a racing family; his father Lee was the winner of 1959′s Daytona 500 (the first year that the event was held) and himself a NASCAR Championship winner three times over. His son Kyle is of course well known to NASCAR fans – and tragically, Petty lost his grandson Adam in a New Hampshire Interational Speedway accident only a little over a month after his father passed away.
The Petty family owns and operates Petty Enterprises, his family’s racing team. Based out of an enormous 100,000+ square foot former Yates Racing facility, he is still active in the organization and is as always popular with the fans and is to this day commonly asked to sign autographs.
He began his career in racing very young, taking up the sport at the age of 21; by 1959 he was named the NASCAR Rookie of the year after 9 top ten finishes, of which 6 were top five finishes. He retired at the end of the 1992 season, with his last top ten finish being in the 1991 Budweiser at the Glen race.
Richard Petty is remembered for three of the many crashes he survived. In 1970, at the Rebel 400, he was injured when his Plymouth Road Runner cut a tire and slammed into a wall, flipped several times, injured his shoulder and bounced his head off the pavement several times. This accident caused NASCAR to require the safety netting over the driver’s window.
Petty somehow managed to keep a broken neck a secret from the world, even competing in a few more races after being injured in a race at Pocono in 1980. His other incredible crash came in 1988 in the Daytona 500, when he was in a crash which sent pieces of his car flying – Petty himself though was able to walk away unhurt save for some temporary visual impairment.
In 1997, Petty was accorded some long due recognition, becoming an International Motorsports Hall of Famer. The following year saw him being named among the 50 greatest drivers in NASCAR and in 1992, he received the nation’s highest honor awarded to civilians, the Medal of Freedom.
Petty was always close to his fans, staying hours after races had concluded to sign autographs. He has also appeared in several films portraying himself. These films include Speed Zone, Stroker Ace and Swing Vote.
A man with racing seemingly in his blood, Richard Petty has dedicated his life to racing and he remains active in the field even today.
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