What do you write about the man in the shades and cowboy hat that hasn’t been said a million times before? Winningest NASCAR driver ever, most accomplished driver in stock car auto racing history, motorsports icon…Petty has earned every last accolade that has ever been bestowed upon him. Following in father Lee’s footsteps, Richard started racing in 1958 at the age of 21, and nothing has stopped him since. Even recently, Petty pulled out the car most responsible for his legend, the ’66 Plymouth Belvedere GTX he used in 1967 to pull a ten-in-a-row win streak and a 27 out of 48 record that year, and ran it up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.
Happy Birthday to Richard Petty. All Hail The King!
Happy birthday, King!
On the other hand, Petty is a great sports example of “life goes on long after the thrill of livin’ is gone.” While he was a dominating driver for much of the first twenty or so years of his career, he’s just been a celebrity for the past three or so decades.
His fingerprints are all over some of NASCAR’s worst decisions . . . the evolution from production-based race cars to tube-frame silhouettes and then to the hideous common-template (Petty lobbied hard for the common templates according to news reports) . . . The death of family-based Petty Engineering in favor of “Richard Petty Motorsports” — another bloated, underachieving, corporate facsimile of Hendrick/Roush/Gibbs/Ganassi/Childress/Stewart-Haas. . . . The hegemony of huge corporate sponsors and expensive specialization . . . NASCAR’s over-reliance on the “star” system . . . The reported flirtations with Toyota . . . The transformation of NASCAR from a racing series to a “marketing” vehicle for ripping off fans with an endless river of useless, overpriced trinkets, “collectibles” (which aren’t) and souvenirs.
None of that takes away from what Richard accomplished on-track in the 1960s and 1970s. But it’s probably best to remember him for that and forget everything he’s done since.
Happy Birthday Richard!
Got to meet him at the IROC race at Riverside when I was a kid. What a great guy, he was so friendly and talked to me for a while. Will always be one of my heroes.