Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Petty Family Celebrates 75 Years in NASCAR!

Transcript

The Petty Family Celebrates 75 Years in NASCAR! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
King, Your career and family's longevity in racing is truly
0:03
remarkable. What does this milestone 75
0:06
years mean to you? Means I'm old.
0:10
You know, I I guess it's sort of a deal that we look back and
0:16
say, OK, we're we was here when it all started, when NASCAR
0:20
first started the first Cup Series racing and we've seen all
0:25
the changes ever since they first started.
0:27
I know the first two or three races we went to, we went in a
0:32
family car, we went in a race car, drove it to the racetrack.
0:35
When it was over, we drove home. That's that's how much things
0:39
have changed and we've seen all those changes over the years and
0:43
we've done it from the family standpoint.
0:46
My dad started the thing, I come along, I'll come along, Adam
0:50
come along and my brothers, he was there.
0:55
Dale Inman, cousin has been. It's been a family affair and
1:00
the deal was I was the one that was out front.
1:03
They from a standpoint that all I did was drive the race car.
1:09
Some worked on it soon, but it's all the people that we had
1:13
around us that made it work. So I've never done anything by
1:17
myself. I've always had somebody pushing
1:20
me, making, making me do things. So it's just been a long, a long
1:25
road and it's been very successful for the pity family.
1:30
What were you feeling when you saw that first Kings hat
1:32
unveiled out there? Maybe get the big head OK,
1:37
'cause the hat's pretty big, you know, I I think it's it's, it's
1:42
really a neat deal from the standpoint that it'll be at all
1:46
the tracks. Fans, pity fans, other fans, all
1:50
the NASCAR fans, and get the picture took with it and you
1:54
know it. It just from my standpoint, it
1:57
it just continues to hook me up that much more with NASCAR and
2:02
Kyle, you've talked a lot about what the fans mean to the Petty
2:05
family. What does it mean to share this
2:06
with all the fans over the past 75 years?
2:09
So you know it's it's it's really cool because when you
2:11
look at it the design that's on the hat that's out here is you
2:17
know it's it's pictures of my Uncle Maurice.
2:19
It's my granddad. It's Adam it's myself it's all
2:23
of us and and and and I think you've got a it's it's pretty
2:29
cool when we sat down and and we realized that this year was our
2:32
75th that you know NASCAR was formed in 48 ran the first race
2:37
Granddaddy was there that it was you know he was 1213 years old
2:43
when they were in that first race.
2:44
So it's it's pretty cool that you've got a guy that's still
2:48
around that was 12 or 13 years old when they went to Darlington
2:51
for the first time when my granddad won his championships
2:54
and stuff and my dad came along. So you've got that history and
2:58
our family at the same time you know there's there's guys that
3:01
have had an impact on the sport from from Jake Elder who went to
3:05
work at at at Petty Enterprises were from my granddad and then
3:09
in 6061 when I was born that went on to win championships
3:12
with Dale Earnhardt Steve Mill Tony Glover Adam Stevens that's
3:17
out there right now. All these guys come through
3:18
petty enterprise. So what Petty Enterprises and in
3:21
the organization has meant to the sport, as you look out, it's
3:26
not just us, but it's it's it's really cool to think that as a
3:32
family and that that's what we look at.
3:34
It is and I've said it a million times to everybody in this room,
3:38
we grew up in rural North Carolina in a rural community
3:40
where there were farmers and there were lots of farmers that
3:43
were third and 4th generation farms.
3:45
We just happened to raise race cars on our farms and my dad
3:49
followed my granddad and I followed him and and Adam came
3:52
along and you know, it's just it's just what we always did and
3:57
what we always knew. And we were very, very blessed
3:59
to be in a sport and to be able to grow with the sport through
4:02
the years. And you know this, to be able to
4:04
to do this. And I set it out.
4:06
There is and I and and I I think most a lot of guys in here
4:11
already know this. But, you know, as we looked at
4:14
the Petty family and you look at that one thing, then then the
4:19
hat, the sunglasses, that stands out, that stands out more than
4:23
anything else. And that represents what we've
4:25
done and what he's done and what our family has done.
4:28
But I set it out there. I said, you know, I look at him
4:33
and I hope some of you guys again realize it, that he's 86,
4:40
will be 87 this year. And if he didn't, if he had
4:43
never driven a race car, he would still be that guy that had
4:46
bought a ticket to the Daytona 500 every year since 1959.
4:50
Because he's just a race fan. And I think that in a in a
4:53
nutshell, is what our family is too.
4:55
We've just always been race fans.
4:57
So you you can put yourself in that position to say man, what a
5:02
great sport and what a great, great thing to be in.
5:04
And we just we're fortunate and very blessed to be here for this
5:08
many years. If you drove the family car
5:11
down, it was the same car that was in the race.
5:13
What was Plan B in case that car ever got in a wreck?
5:16
We never had nothing but Plan A. There was no Plan B.
5:23
And also how many times in your career did you do were
5:26
convertibles mixed in with the the regular cars and just what
5:31
was that like because that that had to be fairly?
5:33
Intimidating to be out. There in a convertible.
5:34
It happened in the middle of I've turned 21 July of 58 and I
5:44
want to start driving so that they didn't want two cars in the
5:49
same race because we we couldn't make the same money, OK?
5:55
And he said you go run the convertibles and I'll run the
5:59
hard dogs. And then there was a few races
6:03
that we ran together. And then even in 59 there was a
6:10
bunch of two, two race deals, convertibles and hard times.
6:14
In fact, the first race of Daytona had convertibles and
6:18
hard tops and so that kind of ended the convertibles,
6:22
especially on the big tracks. But you know, nobody really
6:26
realized that. I guess they did realize it but
6:30
didn't think that much about it. Of course hard tops run like
6:34
1214 mile hour faster than the convertibles did.
6:38
So, but anyhow, after 59, then I started doing the cup stuff.
6:43
So they really the first win I ever had was in a convertible in
6:48
1959 Conrad at Columbia SC. But that's not counted in
6:55
because all my stuff is kept stuff.
6:57
And really if you look at it, a lot of people don't think that I
7:02
run that many hard top races in 59.
7:06
It was really 1960s when my career really started and got
7:10
got going. Go ahead, Jacob.
7:14
Jacobs Human Race face, Digital One.
7:17
I guess really for both. Of you.
7:18
And then I'll follow up with Richard.
7:20
You, Richard, you won the race. Seven times the 500.
7:24
Of those seven and Kyle, you can.
7:26
Maybe. Chime in on this as well.
7:27
Which one to you was the most memorable?
7:32
The ones I lost, OK. You know, I mean like 6776 with
7:38
Pearson, you know that that thing really sticks and I guess
7:42
I probably is probably remembered as much about that
7:47
race the fans do as all the seven that I won and probably
7:53
out of the seven races that we won, we probably should have won
7:57
maybe four of them, three of them, somebody else had trouble
8:00
and stuff. But on the other hand there's
8:03
probably three or four we should have won, but we had trouble.
8:06
So we was lucky enough to run enough races over a period of
8:09
time to to be able to kind of even that out.
8:14
Yeah for for me watching his wins then 79 is the one that
8:21
stands out and and I think we had you know there were moments
8:26
if we go back to and and we'll go back to 61 when my granddad
8:30
wrecked here and and a lot of people forget that he went over
8:34
the wall and turns 1 during the first race and then my granddad
8:39
went over the wall in the second race.
8:41
But basically my my dad and my uncle Maurice and those guys
8:45
went back to level cross North Carolina, busted broke out of
8:49
business and that was it because they had no cars they had
8:53
nothing and my granddad was down here in the hospital and my
8:56
grandmother was living in a motel waiting for my
8:59
grandfather. So 79 was the same kind of thing
9:04
in a little bit different way because come off a really bad
9:08
year and 78 and a lot of people we don't remember until you see
9:14
the photo. But it didn't have STP all over.
9:16
That car had Southern Pride car wash down the side of it, had
9:20
STP on it and it was painted red and blue.
9:24
But it was not a true STP car to to win that race and the way
9:29
that race won and and the way it was we didn't we hadn't had
9:35
fewer people working at the race shop because we've cut our
9:37
budget. Steve Mill, Richie Bars put that
9:42
Oldsmobile body on there and we did it.
9:44
And it's one of the first cars I was fortunate enough to be able
9:46
to work on and help them build. So I took a lot of pride in and
9:50
working on your dad's car and it come in and win in the Daytona
9:52
500 no matter how it won. But if you go back to it, I
9:56
think that that race and a lot of ways epitomized what Petty
10:02
Enterprise was and that they never gave up.
10:05
You just kept digging when the sponsor money wasn't exactly
10:08
what it should be, When the car wasn't the fastest car, he ran
10:11
every lap until it was over, because it's not over until they
10:14
throw the checkered flag. And that day was a huge day for
10:18
for our family and for our business.
10:20
And real quickly, Richard, what? What's it mean?
10:22
Just to see the tribute scheme on on Jimmy's car this week as
10:26
he tries to get back. In the 500, I think that's a
10:28
big, big deal. It's a petty blue car and I
10:34
think I won a couple of races with a petty blue car down here.
10:38
So we're looking forward to seeing, was it Betty, just to
10:41
attribute back to Legacy is bringing in what Legacy is just
10:47
the name. If it's got to have, it's got to
10:49
have a Legacy got to have something behind it.
10:51
So they decide to sort of bring some of our past back to Legacy,
10:57
which I thought they should have done before We're going to go to
11:02
Mark and then Dan, then Ben and Steven.
11:05
I'm Mark Garrow PRN Kyle, you grow up and it's the family deal
11:09
to race. So you're a little kid.
11:11
You're kind of watching this? As as you grow.
11:14
When did you begin to realize it was a bigger deal than you
11:19
understood to? Begin with and your dad was a
11:21
bigger deal than you first Understood.
11:27
Yeah. And you know what?
11:28
Probably older. I I've, I've, I've, I've joked
11:30
about it. But I was serious.
11:31
I was probably, I was in elementary school before I
11:34
realized everybody's dad didn't have a race car because pretty
11:36
much everybody I knew their dad had a race car.
11:39
You know, that's kind of the way it was.
11:42
But I don't think I realized until and and I I remember we
11:45
went to Greenville Pickens and took Dennis MacArthur with me
11:52
friend of mine and he was just blown away with the race cars
11:57
and Jade Thomas let me wax his race car.
12:00
Richard Petty wouldn't let me touch his race car but Jade
12:02
Thomas let me wax his race car and hang out with him.
12:05
But but the thing was then you realize that your friends
12:08
thought your dad was a pretty cool deal and and a pretty big
12:11
deal and I think it was it was not that I ever realized it but
12:17
it's that the way people acted towards him and the way people
12:21
acted in restaurants and you would walk in.
12:24
I mean, you know, it was we just grew up where you were when
12:29
you'd sit down in a restaurant to eat, 80% of the people would
12:32
be staring at you. And you're always like, what?
12:35
I got some got some of my teeth. What's up, You know, and and and
12:38
they were so polite because they would wait until he got through
12:41
eating and then they would come over and ask for an autograph.
12:43
But it was just and I know that sounds weird, but it was your
12:48
normal, you know what I mean? So I don't think.
12:50
I think it just kind of, it kind of evolved into that who you
12:53
realized that what he did was a little bit different and what we
12:57
we did as a family was a little bit different.
13:01
We're going to go to Dan and then Ben.
13:05
Hi, Richard. You mentioned how nice it is
13:07
that Jimmy's going to pay tribute to you on the car.
13:11
I'm wondering how you feel now at Legacy.
13:15
You know, last year when you were here, you seemed a little
13:17
like hurt over how things were going with the team and with
13:20
Jimmy. What's this past?
13:22
How's the relationship changed, if at all, over the past year?
13:25
Remember, every question is asked, you don't have to answer.
13:29
What's the question? What did you did you hear him?
13:36
He said last year. He thought you you were a little
13:38
uneasy with where Legacy was. Are you OK with it now?
13:41
Well, I'm a little bit better, especially once the pain in the
13:44
car blew. OK, the blue.
13:46
Color hides a lot, bud. No, I guess basically everything
13:54
was so new when we had to conference here last year, you
14:00
mean and there's been a lot of questions answered since then.
14:05
So I think I've got a little bit more comfortable with it.
14:08
It's not like what I'd like to see it, but from my standpoint,
14:11
it's a lot better. Oh, my end of it.
14:14
Anyway. Going to go to Ben and then
14:18
Steven. Ben White was a Fayetteville
14:21
Observer. Actually got two quick ones.
14:24
OK, you won 200 races. And this is probably the ME at
14:27
the time you've been asked this, but I'm going to ask it again.
14:30
You won against David Pearson. Bobby Allison.
14:33
Buddy Baker Kale Yarborough. Benny Parsons.
14:36
What does it mean to you personally to have won 200 races
14:40
against the greatest stock car drivers in the world.
14:43
How does it what does it mean to you you know it it it just
14:48
happened. OK, I just.
14:50
I just happened to be there at the same time they was or they
14:53
happened to be at the same time. I would I wasn't there with with
14:58
Earnhardt's or you know Gordon's.
15:02
Jimmie Johnson. You mean, so how would I have
15:05
fired against them or how would they have fired against me?
15:09
But if you look at the people you just brought out, those
15:13
people won more races than these people ever going to go to, you
15:16
know, put it together and they did it in on a 1215 year period.
15:22
And so NASCAR started off and it had a leap. 80 fireball robbers
15:29
had had a few guys, OK, they carried it along for 10 or 12
15:33
years. And I've said this before.
15:36
Then me and Pierce and Allison's, Baker's, all them
15:39
guys. We came along, we carried it for
15:41
a while. OK, then Earnhardt comes on, he
15:45
carries it for a while. Jeff Gordon carries it for a
15:48
while. Jimmy Johnson carries it for a
15:50
while. We're looking right now, we're
15:52
looking for somebody to carry. And right now we don't have
15:54
anybody. That's my personal opinion on on
15:58
that. We've got some, we've got some
16:01
good candidates, but nobody's broke out and got their self
16:07
just a little bit better than anybody else.
16:10
Everybody's pretty even now. So from 1 standpoint, it's good.
16:15
From another standpoint, it's it's always good to to have a
16:19
fox out in front for the hounds all run for gotcha.
16:22
OK, second question real quick. 1979, everybody's talked about,
16:27
everybody's asked Donnie and and Kale before he passed away.
16:31
What went through their mind when they're at the bottom and
16:33
Turn 3 after they crashed. But nobody's really asked you
16:36
what went through your mind when you looked up and said, holy
16:38
cow, they're at the bottom and turn 3.
16:40
So what went through your mind in 79 when suddenly you're in
16:44
the lead and you're going to win the the Daytona 500?
16:47
I had to worry about Darrell because Darrell, Darrell, myself
16:51
and Fort was a little behind. Who's running for 3rd place?
16:56
And all of a sudden I get to the third corner and I'm running for
17:00
first place. But I didn't run any harder for
17:03
first place than I would for 3rd place.
17:06
And it just happened that we was in the right place at the right
17:10
time under the right circumstances.
17:12
But I don't think that. I didn't think about winning the
17:15
race as much as I thought about beating Darrell.
17:18
I had to be the first of that crap.
17:20
And so happens that it was #1. Still #3.
17:24
I'm going to go to Steven and Steve, Steven Toronto, CBS
17:30
Sports. I'll pose this question to both
17:32
of you because Kyle, you mentioned at the beginning.
17:35
You you referenced Randleman and.
17:38
When I got the opportunity to visit Randleman years ago, I.
17:42
Could really get a sense of how much petty enterprises and the
17:46
petty family. In general, contributed to and
17:49
built up. The community can you?
17:50
Talk a bit about how. The rise of petty enterprises
17:55
and all that your family has done.
17:57
The. Community built up the community
17:59
from. What it was to what it is now,
18:03
you know it's Randleman was a Milltown, the city itself is a
18:08
Middletown, and the surrounding area is farm community, and it
18:14
still is today. And to a large degree the mills
18:17
have gone away as they have in a lot of southern towns.
18:21
But it's still community. And I I think that's the deal
18:25
and I've said it a million times is you know there's the the what
18:32
he did and what our family did put the put the name Randleman
18:38
on the map in a lot of ways because it's just a crossroads.
18:41
It's just a small town and but at the same time it is it's that
18:47
place that we go back to that he goes back to.
18:50
And I've I've you've heard me say it where he's Richard.
18:55
Not Richard Petty. He's Richard and I'm Kyle and
18:59
that was Lee and that was Elizabeth and that was Maurice
19:02
and that was Adam. That that's just your name.
19:05
Nobody. Nobody referred to you as your
19:07
double name as your last name you know and and you walk out
19:11
through there and they scream Richard Petty.
19:13
You know, I mean, or they they scream your name, but they just
19:16
call you by your first name because you went to school with
19:18
them and they went to school. He went to school with their
19:22
parents. I went to school with the kids.
19:24
So that's part of it. And I I don't think we ever
19:26
looked at it. We were just part of the
19:28
community. And I think the community looked
19:29
at us the same way. I don't think they ever looked
19:31
at us. They thought we were weird
19:33
because we had race cars, because they did other stuff.
19:36
But it's it's not that you didn't fit in because that's
19:39
where you always went home to. You know, we, we've said it a
19:43
million times. You travel all over the world
19:46
and all over the country, but there's no place like going back
19:48
to Randolph County and Randolph in North Carolina because that's
19:52
where you're from and that's where you're always going to be
19:54
from. And when it's all over with,
19:56
that's where they're going to sort of going to put us in the
19:58
ground that because that's that's where we're, that's who
20:02
we are. And I I think that's the that's
20:05
the thing that for us. And as we talked out there with
20:09
with the fans and stuff, that's the community we live in.
20:13
This was the community we worked in with all those guys in the
20:17
garage area. With all the NASCAR officials,
20:20
with all you guys in the press, that was always here, that was
20:24
the community. We just went from level cross to
20:27
inside a fenced in area, inside a racetrack somewhere in
20:30
Martinsville, VA or Daytona Beach, FL or Bristol, TN and
20:34
then you went back to your regular community.
20:36
So I don't think, I don't think he ever looked at it or we ever
20:38
looked at it, that we were just, we just grew up in that
20:42
community. That's who we were.
20:44
That's it. Thank you guys.
20:47
We'll go to Steve and then Mike and Dustin.
20:50
Steve Schweitzer with the Alaska Press and maybe you can both
20:54
comment on this. I I came here for the.
20:57
First time in 1970. Three you parked in the dirt and
21:00
the grass out front. You walked up to a shack to buy
21:03
your ticket and then walk through a chain link fence to
21:06
get inside to climb up the grandstand and take a seat and
21:09
watch the race. And if you out front today,
21:13
obviously you know an awful lot has has happened here.
21:16
Do you remember the? First time.
21:17
That you came to the track and what your impression, you know,
21:20
was two different generations. They're just curious how that
21:25
appeared to you. And the first time we came down
21:29
here, 1959 came through the tunnel, had the pickup truck and
21:35
race car on a trailer behind us and went through the tunnel and
21:41
it was just nothing in the infield.
21:43
I mean it was a lake out there, but you couldn't see it.
21:46
But the the number one and two corner look like a wall and they
21:52
look like it was two or three miles away.
21:55
I mean it was just over impressive I guess we'd seen
21:59
Darlington. We grew up around Darlington.
22:02
So Darlington was just a bigger racetrack than what we'd been.
22:06
We came here, it was just a whole different world.
22:09
And you got to figure when he came out of town, he came into
22:14
the swamp and there was a racetrack.
22:16
There was nothing out here. I mean, it's two Lane Rd. out
22:20
front and there was no buildings.
22:22
No, none of this stuff is out here in the day.
22:25
Like you said, you seen it grow up.
22:27
You know, we seen it grew up from 1959.
22:31
And from that standpoint, when Daytona was built, then it
22:37
opened this whole part of the country up as far as new
22:40
business is coming this way, drain the swamp and all that.
22:44
So when Trump drain the swamp, it was Francis, they drain this
22:50
rock. So you know, the the things that
22:54
we've seen change since 1959 is more than you've seen because we
23:00
were here for the very first race and you know, they didn't
23:04
even have a garage here. We parked out.
23:06
It rained one night and we had to.
23:09
We had to come out and get our tools, stuff, wipe them all off
23:12
because everything was wet. But it was better than anything
23:16
we've ever seen before. So we took it as being the
23:19
number one. And it's just like now you come
23:22
down here now and you come back. In 10 years, it's going to be so
23:27
much different. You're not going to recognize.
23:30
Yeah, I think for me you know that they came here in 59, I was
23:35
born in 60 and started coming here and if for not many of you,
23:41
probably none where they used to be.
23:45
We're halfway where the start finish line is in the infield
23:50
was a score stand and that's where they they scored and my
23:54
grandmother and my mom would score and it was a four sided
23:57
scoreboard. If you've ever seen old pictures
24:00
of it, it's a four sided scoreboard where it would go
24:02
around and under the four sided scoreboard was a playground with
24:09
some swing sets and the sliding board and some stuff.
24:13
And all the all the wives would dump the kids under the
24:17
scoreboard and that's where we were.
24:19
And one of them would come down and bring us some sandwiches or
24:23
get us a Coke and they'd leave us in there and as soon as the
24:26
race is over they come back and gather us up and we'd go to the
24:28
car and then we'd head back to the hotel.
24:30
Then we'd go home and you know, I thought it was the coolest
24:33
place in the world. Racetrack with a playground, you
24:36
know what I mean? Couldn't be anything cooler than
24:37
that. And I have beach too, and an
24:39
ocean. Every, every racetrack didn't
24:41
have that. So that was, that was our our
24:45
little world. When we we we didn't know
24:47
whether it was a big track or a little track or or whatever.
24:50
When you're 567 years old, the longer you were around it, then
24:55
you begin to understand what Daytona was and what Daytona
24:59
meant to the sport. And you know he and I did a
25:02
thing not long ago for for NASCAR and it's it's, you know,
25:08
Daytona kind of ushered in the Speedway era of the sport
25:12
because then you had Atlanta and you had Charlotte and you had
25:16
over the next 8 or 10 years speedways that were built, not
25:19
short track speedways that were built.
25:21
And it was 30 years later before they came back and they started
25:24
building Texas and Kansas and all that.
25:25
So it was, it was just a phrase in the sport when the sport
25:28
really took off. So it is, it has changed.
25:32
It is changed drastically and it will continue to change.
25:35
And we had a conversation with with Jim today.
25:38
We were talking to him and I'm I was.
25:42
I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago for the week before the
25:46
Super Bowl when everybody was at at at the Coliseum.
25:52
And I was given a speech and I spoke about how NASCAR has
25:57
always been and the sport has always been able to shift and
26:01
change and be whatever it needed to be at that time.
26:05
Whether it was the 50s, whether it was the 60s with the with the
26:08
manufacturers, whether it was the 70s when when you had the
26:11
fuel crisis and RJ Reynolds came into the sport, whether you had
26:15
the 80s or 90s. And as I'm giving this speech,
26:18
NASCAR announces, hey, we're going to run this race on
26:22
Saturday night because it's going to rain on Sunday and
26:25
they're willing to shift and willing to move and make the
26:27
sport whatever it needed to be at that time.
26:30
And I think that's what as as he speaks about this place, what we
26:35
see today, you probably won't recognize in 10 or 15 years
26:39
because they have done and continue to do whether it's with
26:43
this car, with whatever. It just continues to be whatever
26:46
it needs to be to be relevant and to be successful.
26:51
And I think that's that's a tribute to, to not only the
26:55
competitors at the people in the front office and the fans for
26:59
for sticking with it and for you guys for for still caring about
27:02
it and writing about it and telling people about it.
27:07
Go upfront to Mike and then to Dustin.
27:16
Richard, as far as I know, you were not born with a cowboy hat
27:19
on. Do you remember when that
27:22
started right here? See points at me. 1970 879
27:32
somewhere along. Yeah, early he had when we
27:34
started a boot business, he. Linda had a little business down
27:38
there antique business. Kyle come in one day and say I
27:42
want to start selling boots down there so and she give him a
27:45
corner and it was Kyle Petty boot bar and C1 Horse guy come
27:52
by trying to get Kyle to start selling hats and I said he'd I
27:57
guess he he didn't jump on them right quick and he said well
28:01
I'll I'll give you one And he said well maybe my daddy will
28:04
wear it so they give me one of the hats and I left them.
28:08
So we've been working with C1 horse all these years so that
28:12
basically that's where the hat started.
28:14
I think I'd wear from time to time before I'd wear a cowboy
28:18
hat but it's just something you pick up.
28:20
It wasn't nothing special, but once I got these then same
28:25
model, everyone of them is different, but it's basically
28:29
the same thing. 70. Five years for the Pettys.
28:33
Can can Thad take it to 100? We don't know yet.
28:39
OK, he's he's been back and forth.
28:42
He's run all kinds of of different deals.
28:44
This is the first year that he's going to be able to run a full
28:48
circuit with one kind of car. I mean, last year he was in
28:52
three or four different cars in sports cars, modifies them and
28:57
and so he's never really settled down in one place.
29:00
Hopefully this year with a truck deal then we we're going to find
29:05
out and he's going to find out if he's a race car driver or
29:09
where he's going to have to go to work for a living, go to
29:13
Dustin and then we'll wrap up with Jerry and Deb.
29:15
Dustin Long, NBC Sports. Richard, for all the talk of all
29:19
your wins, what did it mean to see your son win races like here
29:24
in 79 in the ARCA race and all his other victories?
29:27
You know, it was it was probably more enthused about him winning
29:33
than me because the time he came along I'd win, won a bunch of
29:37
races. So it wasn't just a a regular
29:40
deal, it was special to win races, don't get me wrong.
29:44
But when you got a son coming along and he wins races, then
29:47
that's really special. And I guess the first Cup race
29:52
he won was in Richmond, VA and he was running along her 5th or
29:55
6th and Earnhardt near me all crashed.
29:59
He winds up winning the race and so then we got a picture of me
30:07
in the car. My dad won a race up there and
30:11
I'm sitting in the car, OK? Then I I come along, I win
30:15
races. Then I had a son to come along,
30:17
win at the same racetrack that made it, even though it was his
30:20
first cup. It was very, very special for us
30:24
to all three or three generations, one at the same
30:27
racetrack. You know, I don't think you
30:35
think about it at that time. You know I don't think I thought
30:38
about it until after Adam come and and it's it's so funny you
30:43
know I am because you know I'm I didn't want a lot of races but I
30:47
won a few races and and I I will get be asked a lot what are the
30:52
most important races. Your biggest wins and my biggest
30:57
win was 79 when he won here because I felt like I had built
31:01
that car. I felt like that was the first
31:03
car they let me Weld on. That was the first car they let
31:06
me put inner panels in. That's the first car they let me
31:09
do things with. I've done things before, but you
31:13
were 1718 years old and you helped Richie and and Steve
31:16
build that car, that win and then Adam win in that ARCA race
31:21
at Charlotte. Those are the 2 greatest wins
31:24
that I'll ever experience in my whole life.
31:27
I could have won this race 20 times and those still two would
31:31
rank more because the guy I love as a dad and as a hero, to help
31:38
him win something and then to come along and be able to help
31:41
your son win something and do something too.
31:44
Those were there's a big moments in my life, really big moments.
31:48
So, you know, I never thought about me until Adam, and I will
31:57
say that. Jerry Jordan kicking
32:00
thetires.net I don't know if you know how many cowboy hats you've
32:04
ever had or worn, Do you? Do you?
32:07
No, not really. I usually keep 12 or 15 around,
32:11
you know, So you wear them a while and I'll autograph them
32:16
and we'll give them, give them away for auctions and stuff, for
32:20
charity deals. So there's been hundreds of
32:23
them, I know that. I will say this.
32:25
Everybody in our family has a grandfather clock from
32:27
Martinsville and a cowboy hat from Richard Petty.
32:29
OK. So just do the math on that.
32:33
So there's 28 of these these statue hats that are going to be
32:37
scattered around NASCAR tracks. How much input do you get?
32:41
On what? They're going to look like and
32:43
have you seen. No, the way the way it is, I
32:46
think the the hats come plain and then each racetrack puts
32:51
their special stuff on it and then when we come back here for
32:55
July the 4th, this one year, July the July 4th.
33:01
October. Yeah, they change it.
33:03
But anyhow, for the summer race then it'll have, it'll be
33:06
wrapped different, it'll look a little bit different.
33:09
So every race, every race and every hat will be a little bit
33:13
different because they are advertising their racetrack.
33:17
They're not advertising Richard Petty.
33:19
You mean they're using, they're using that hat to advertise
33:23
herself with. So it helps me and it helps
33:26
them, yeah. It's it's it's pretty cool
33:28
because you you know when we go to Martinsville they'll be
33:31
photos of him and Martinsville, Victory Lane Granddaddy winning
33:35
at Martinsville, that when we go to Bristol it'll be the same
33:38
thing. When you go to Talladega, it'll
33:39
be the same type thing. So it's all and it's whether
33:42
it's the spring race or the fall race or the summer race,
33:45
whatever it may be. So the race tracks have really,
33:49
really gotten behind it. Russell Branham helped do this
33:52
one and did a great job picking, picking the photos and doing the
33:56
stuff and it's pretty cool. It was really cool.
34:00
Knew what was common, but when you see it it's really it's
34:05
really it's just different. It's just cool.
34:07
I'm. Going to wrap up with Deb Ted
34:11
Williams Ottaweek, kind of back to what you were talking about
34:14
earlier about community and growing up there.
34:18
Richard, Kyle, the fam, the Petty family has always been
34:23
community service oriented, giving back to the community.
34:26
When you had the fan club days, you raised money for the ball
34:30
fields and what was needed there, victory junctions on
34:34
petty family land. At Richard, you were county
34:37
commissioner, Linda was on the Board of Education.
34:40
Where does that all come from to?
34:43
The belief. And teaching to give back to the
34:46
community, It just happened, you know, I think probably, he said.
34:54
Set up, stay around and got to thinking look how fortunate I
34:58
was to be able to go and do make a little bit of money from time
35:03
to time and then come back and be able to help people in the
35:06
community. And it was just something that I
35:10
think probably Linda Gill my wife was probably the one that
35:13
that pushed us to get started in the thing and it's just been a
35:17
family a family tradition that we have.
35:22
We're so much fortunate than a lot of people around us
35:26
especially Randolph County is probably the cheapest county in
35:30
in North Carolina and but it it's not only in the county we
35:35
try to help a lot of different ways.
35:37
We got the PD foundation. Yeah, I mean they we do a lot of
35:41
stuff with Paralyzed Veterans of America, you know, whatever, I
35:47
guess whatever comes in front of us, I mean the hats and stuff
35:51
will give away for a hard foundation, do one for an eye
35:57
foundation, you know, kidney back, whatever.
36:00
But it's something that we can give and do and help somebody
36:06
that it just makes you feel good, OK.
36:10
And you know, it's one of the deals that I always felt like
36:14
it. If I give away enough stuff,
36:15
somebody will give me some stuff too.
36:17
And and that's the good Lord. Same.
36:20
Same fit for that. Yeah.
36:22
And I honestly, I think, and I said it before, it just comes
36:26
from our, the community. It comes from being growing up
36:29
in that community. It comes from, you know, where
36:32
my dad lives now. There was a gentleman who lived
36:35
across the road, Mr. Evans. Mr. Evans had the only hay baler
36:39
in our part of the county and Mr. Evans would bail everybody's
36:42
hay. He just came out and bailed
36:44
everybody's hay. Well, it was my uncle's uncle
36:47
bottles. Any farmer that was around, he
36:49
just bailed your hay. And that's what they did when a
36:52
farm, when a barn burnt down, everybody got together and build
36:55
a barn. We hadn't Go back to the race
36:58
shop and he'll tell you they're countless farmers and guys would
37:04
bring their plows, would bring their tractors just up to be
37:07
worked on because he couldn't, didn't take, couldn't take them
37:11
anywhere. So we'd Weld them up or put them
37:13
back together and and help them do stuff, trade a motor, build a
37:15
motor for a pickup, whatever it took.
37:17
But that's the community you grew in.
37:20
You grew up in you, you helped each other.
37:21
You helped your neighbor. So it's just always been with
37:25
with grandmother Patty, with my grandmother Owens, my mom's
37:28
mother, with the churches that we went to the Methodist Church
37:32
there and and and Level Cross and then Randleman, it was just
37:36
being a part of the community because you helped each other.
37:39
And like I said before, our community just extended to here.
37:44
You know, and I've said it, when we build a camp and when Adam's
37:47
accident happened, you didn't realize how big your community
37:51
was until you realize that your community was in this garage
37:54
area. But it encompassed the fans too.
37:57
And that community reached out and gave us something.
38:00
They gave us something back. With Victory Junction, they gave
38:02
these kids something back. So it's just always been a part
38:06
of of who our family was, was to try to help other people.
38:11
And when Adam's accident happened, it came back 10
38:15
million fold, 10 million fold and continues to this day.
38:18
So that just feeds that spirit to give more.
38:25
Well, Kyle and Richard, thanks so much for sharing all of your
38:27
stories here tonight, and we can't wait to see each of these
38:30
installations as we travel around the country this year.
38:33
Thank you. And I I know, I know, y'all just
38:34
had us here for a long time because qualifying's not until
38:37
8:00 and y'all were killing time.
38:39
But thank you guys. Thank you for having.
38:41
Us tonight. I want to thank all y'all people
38:43
for making the pity family yes part Have y'all's business more,
38:50
but making racing as big as what it is for sure without the
38:54
press, TV and all that stuff we'd still be working on them
38:59
plows I guess. So thank you guys.
39:01
Appreciate it. You have a good week.