Richard Petty is an American icon. We can debate until the cows come home as to his rank in the all-time list of NASCAR racers but what cannot be debated is his dominance during NASCAR’s most grueling era. Today’s world of professional stock car racing is tough as all get out but back then these guys were running forty or more races a year on speedways, short tracks, dirt, fairgrounds, and wherever else they could show up, it was truly a slog for the ages. By 1970 the sport was really growing by leaps and bounds, with Petty as one of the prime names leading the charge into the living rooms of the American public. One of those trips into the living room came at Darlington in 1970 and it stands as perhaps the scariest moment of the man’s career.
In this video we relive Petty’s horrifying wreck with period footage and also commentary given by Richard’s wife Linda, Ned Jarrett, Dale Inman, and the voice of Jim McKay on the broadcast. The footage of the crash is terrible and the sight of the man hanging upside down in his race car is even worse. What we were really impressed by is the footage that they got of Petty being treated at the infield hospital. In today’s world there’s a place no camera would be allowed to go and we’d also bet that no network would hang onto the shot of Petty upside down and lifeless in the car.
NASCAR machines have always been built strong and we were happily impressed to see how well this one held up to what can only be described as a titanic frontal impact when the car came down the banking at speed and drilled the inside wall. The video is chilling and the commentary by those that were there is truly great.
Here’s NASCAR how it was, in living color.
Just like Big Daddy is to drag racing, Richard will always be the number one NASCAR driver. Oh, sure, other guys might eclipse his number of victories, but they will never eclipse him as “The King”. Dale, Sr. is the closest anyone will ever come in my lifetime….