THE KING FOREVER

RICHARD PETTY TOOK NASCAR WITH HIM INTO HISTORY BOOKS

By Tom Gillispie

JOURNAL REPORTER

Some unsuspecting reporter asked Richard Petty about NASCAR history in 1998, during NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration. It was like asking George Washington or Thomas Jefferson about American history.

"I am history," Petty said in a stern voice that seemed out of character. "My family, the Pettys, we are NASCAR history. I'm NASCAR history whether I want to be or not. They talk about all the changes in the sport over the years and this and that, but, man, I was there."

Richard Petty wasn't racing when the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race was run in Charlotte in 1949, but his father, Lee, was, and Richard was there. Lee drove the family car, a 1948 four-door Buick Roadmaster, from Level Cross to Charlotte. With family members riding along, Lee found a Texaco station, put the car up on the rack, changed the oil, greased it, checked the air pressure.

Then he headed to old Charlotte Speedway.

About halfway through the race, Lee broke a swaybar, busted a tire and rolled the Buick over. The family had to hitchhike home, and then had to go back and get the car later.

Most of Lee Petty's career was more successful. He won the inaugural Daytona 500, in 1959, in dramatic fashion. He edged Johnny Beauchamp in a photo-finish - they didn't even announce the winner until a couple of days later. That began to cement his legend in stock-car racing.

But Lee's greatest accomplishment had nothing to do with his 54 wins, his three Grand National titles (1954, '58 and '59) and his $209,780 in career winnings. It was his son, Richard.

The strange thing is that, when Richard started out, he wasn't even Richard.

"When Richard Petty came along, he was Lee's son, and that's what they referred to him as for years," said Kyle Petty, who has replaced his father, Richard, as the CEO of Petty Enterprises. "When he went north (on the Northern Tour), he was called Dick Petty; he wasn't even Richard Petty, he was Dick Petty. He went through that stage, and then he found out who he was; he was Richard Petty."

Richard got his first eight career starts in 1958, was NASCAR's rookie of the year in 1959 and got his first victory in 1960. He won nine of 61 races and his first Grand National (later Winston Cup) championship in 1964.

In 1967, Petty won an astounding 10 straight races and 27 overall, and someone dubbed Petty "King Richard," or just "The King."

When Richard got his 54th win, in 1967, he and Lee Petty were NASCAR's two winningest drivers. In fact, his 27 victories in 1967 were exactly half as many as his father had in a 16-year NASCAR career. Richard Petty's records are many:

Petty won 200 NASCAR races, most of them on dirt tracks or short tracks around the Southeast. He has 95 more wins than second-place David Pearson.

Seven is The King's lucky number. Petty won seven Daytona 500s, three more than second-place Cale Yarborough. He also won a record seven NASCAR championships, later tied in 1994 by the late Dale Earnhardt.

Petty started 1,177 races in NASCAR's top division. No one else has 800 starts.

Petty won a record 27 races in 1967. He also broke the 10-win mark in 1963 (14), 1968 (16), 1969 (10), 1970 (18), 1971 (21), 1974 (10) and 1975 (13). His 13 wins in '75 are the record during NASCAR's "modern era." (Jeff Gordon tied the record with 13 wins in 1998).

In his career, Petty had the records for wins from the pole (61), superspeedway wins (55), short-track wins (139), poles (126), second-place finishes (158) and years leading the circuit in victories (seven).

Petty's career winnings of $7,755,409 were a runaway record until the big-money era of Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott and others.

Here's an irony: Richard Petty doesn't have the record for dirt-track wins in a career. Lee Petty won 43 races on dirt, matching Richard's car number.

With all of Petty's starts, the races kind of melt together. But some of them stand out.

The 1976 Daytona 500 had the greatest finish up to that time. On the white-flag lap, Petty trailed David Pearson by a car length. As the cars entered turn three, Petty pulled even, and the two old rivals battled through turns three and four with Pearson trying to keep the lead in the high lane and Petty trying to take the lead below him.

Petty's car pulled ahead coming out of four, but both cars began to bobble. They slammed the outside wall and spun across the track into the grass. The battered cars sat there, inert. Petty's engine died, but Pearson kept his going. On the radio, the Wood Brothers asked Pearson how he was. He said he was fine and asked about Petty. They told him Petty's engine wouldn't crank, then asked Pearson about HIS engine.

He said he was coming.

As Petty fumed, Pearson inched across the start-finish line at maybe 25 miles an hour.

Three years later, they may have topped that.

Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough were battling down the backstretch on the final lap when they got together and spun out. Bobby Allison stopped to check on his brother, and one of the most memorable fights in sports history broke out.

Back on the track, Richard Petty, who had resigned himself to third place, was screaming toward the finish line with the young hothead, Darrell Waltrip, on his tail.

With CBS covering the race flag-to-flag, the '79 Daytona 500 started NASCAR's rise in popularity. And it put another notch in the Petty legend.

The other most memorable race for Petty is the 1984 Firecracker 400 in Daytona Beach. President Reagan was there, and Petty got his 200th career victory. It even provided a bit of comic relief. Afterward, Andy Granatelli of STP, Petty's sponsor, tried to kiss Richard in Victory Lane. Petty offered some of his best moves of the day, a few bobs and weaves, as he tried to elude the short, rotund Granatelli.

But in the end, Granatelli got his man.

Lee Petty was a pioneer of stock-car racing, but Richard Petty was the sport's Babe Ruth or Red Grange. And, whereas Dale Earnhardt would take the sport to another level during the TV era, Petty got it cranked up.

Thousands flocked to tracks to see Petty. And whether he won or lost, he usually sported the famous Petty grin, and he signed autographs by the bushel.

Like Elvis, Richard Petty is The King. It's so ingrained in NASCAR lore that Kyle often calls Richard "daddy" in one sentence and "The King" in another.

People loved his straight-forward, country manner, the smile, the sideburns. When he finally adopted the Petty look - the mustache, the cowboy hat, the cowboy boots, the sunglasses - he turned into an American icon.

Even his cars were famous. He usually drove Dodges or Plymouths. At first they were "Petty blue," as Lee's had been. Once, he said, they ran out of blue paint, so they used red paint. The red-and-blue paint scheme became another trademark, and it went well with the colors of Petty's long-time sponsor, STP.

During NASCAR's 50th-anniversary season, there was a strong debate about who was the greatest stock-car driver ever. Some people favored Petty: most wins and most championships (tie) equals greatest driver. End of argument. Others favored David Pearson, the second-winningest driver and one whom many people considered a purer talent.

Some maintained that Petty's rival, Bobby Allison, had the most talent and was the greatest driver ever.

The same argument held with Dale Earnhardt, a legend who compared in ways to Petty, certainly in popularity. At least one racing historian said that Earnhardt might have won 250 races if he had had Petty's equipment and had run during Petty's era.

Earnhardt, a Petty fan, first said in 1991 that he knew he couldn't win 200 races - he finished with 76 wins - but he wanted to tie Petty's record of seven championships. When he actually did it, in 1994, Earnhardt seemed stunned. He had tied Richard Petty.

"I'm proud and honored to be in the same group with him," Earnhardt said then. "But he got us here and will always be The King. Nothing will ever take that away from him."