1964 Daytona 500 - The King's 1st of Seven:
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-23-this-day-in-petty-history.html
1975 Richmond 500 - A day of domination:
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-23-this-day-in-petty-history_23.html
Today is also the anniversary of Kyle's first Cup win at Richmond in 1986.
Can't say I was there for the King's 1964 Daytona win (wish I had been, but I did watch him later that year twice in Richmond on the dirt).
Saw the 1975 win at Richmond by the King.
I did have the honor to be in the victory lane in the photo above with Kyle Petty and the Wood Brothers at Richmond in 1986, the day of the famed Earnhardt/DW crash. (In the video that's me with a mustache in Victory Lane behind Pattie with the red 7-Eleven coat & hat).
One curious thing to me was that KP didn't have a Winston Cup patch stitched on his uni. They had to slap one on him on an impromptu basis once he hit victory lane. In the last few years, Nextel & Sprint are on everyone's uni - dictated by NASCAR I'm sure. And before Nextel, I recall Winston being on just about everyone's uni in some form or fashion - but apparently not everyone had it in mid 80s.
Interestingly, VL folks also had to slap a patch on Adam Petty's uniform after HE won his first major race - the ARCA event at Charlotte. He wore his ASA uniform, and ARCA and Hoosier patches were quickly (but sloppily) stuck to his uniform.
Source: http://www.timesleader.com/fivemountaintimes/sports/Petty_rsquo_s_charity_motorcycle_ride_starts_in_Lake_Placid_05-08-2011.html
And here ya are in VL at Richmond Dave.
Source: http://www.racintoday.com/archives/12643
I well remember the Winston patch getting slapped on before Kyle got out of the car that day. That is curious and I can't explain why one wouldn't have been visible on his uniform - after all, we did sell a few Winstons in 7-Eleven. And, yep, that's me grinning next to Glen Wood and wearing a Winston cap for the photo. It was COLD!
Here's a pretty good piece about Kyle that ran in the Richmond paper this past September (FYI. KP's sister Lisa lives in Richmond married to former Late Model Sportsman driver, Charlie Luck) .
Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyle Petty started 829 races on NASCAR's top circuit, fifth all-time in NASCAR history. He won eight races and had 173 top-10 finishes.
With plenty to do, Kyle Petty happily keeps moving forward
By: Paul Woody
Richmond Times Dispatch
September 09, 2011
For many, Kyle Petty is a guy on television, SPEED TV mostly, who talks and talks and talks about racing.
Some might be aware that "Petty" is a name that has some history in NASCAR, but they're not exactly sure what that history is.
Anyway, this Kyle Petty guy, well he sure can talk and he seems to know what he's talking about. And, he certainly seems to be having fun.
Time passes. Things change. The Petty name once was the name in NASCAR. Lee Petty started the dynasty. Lee's son Richard, still known as The King to his devoted fans, won 200 races, the most in NASCAR history.
Kyle, 51, is Richard's son, Lee's grandson, and was no slouch behind the wheel either. Kyle started 829 races on NASCAR's top circuit, fifth all-time in NASCAR history.
In a career that stretched from 1979 through 2008, Kyle won eight times, had 52 top-five finishes and 173 top-10 finishes.
"My joke is that when I was racing, everyone knew me as Richard Petty's son," Kyle said. "Now, people know me as a guy on television. They still don't know I ever drove.
"But, yeah, I drove a long time for a lot of different people and did a lot of different stuff."
Petty drove for established teams, helped a team running a part-time schedule go full-time, helped start a team, started his own team and eventually merged his team with his father's team at Petty Enterprises.
The man got around.
As is evident from his television work, Petty can talk about all he learned from being around racing.
"I never dreamed of doing TV," he said. "Why or how I got here, I don't know. I guess they figured I run my mouth enough they thought I could sit in front of a camera and run my mouth."
Some athletes start to talk as their careers ebb and the possibility of a television career emerges. Petty always talked. He was, and is, among the most gregarious people ever involved in NASCAR.
He will talk at length on racing and on the extensive media coverage racing receives now compared to when he drove. He will hold forth on his family's distinguished racing history. He will talk at length on Victory Junction Gang Camp.
He does not shy away from talking of one of the great tragedies in his life, the death of his son Adam in a racing accident during a practice at the track in Loudoun, N.H. Adam was a fourth-generation Petty driver. He was 19.
"I don't think any parent ever gets over it," Petty said. "It skews your perspective on life. You're little and you have parents and grandparents. You watch an old tree die and a new tree's born. You watch your grandparents pass away and you know your parents are the next ones and you're in line and it's your children after that.
"It's just the circle of life, to quote 'The Lion King.' So, when the circle is broken and it's out of order, it makes you question what else is out of order. Things you value, tenets you've held your whole life to be true and cast in stone are not true."
Kyle and Patti Petty have two other children, a son, Austin, 29, who runs Victory Junction Gang Camp, and daughter Montgomery Lee, who is married to budding country-music singer Randy Montana.
The Pettys had no intention of letting Adam's memory fade. In his honor, they started the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, N.C. The camp occupies 84 acres, land donated by Richard and Lynda Petty, Adam's grandparents.
Victory Junction Gang Camp is for children with chronic or serious illnesses, and provides them the opportunity to swim, play, fish and ride horses. Every child who comes to the camp comes free of charge.
When he's not on television or radio Petty also does "Inside NASCAR" for Showtime and a radio show on Monday nights on Performance Racing Network Petty is raising money for Victory Junction.
"It takes about $5.5 million per year to operate," he said. "The camp goes year-round. We have about 60 full-time employees, and in the summers, we have about 140-150 employees.
"When we started it, most everybody said there would be no way we'd be able to raise that much money, no way people would support it. But when you think about it, we were in the fundraising business. We just raised money to race cars. If you're already in the business of going in and asking for money and showing the potential of their dollar buy, it fell right into what we already did."
Petty will keep doing what he's doing. One day, he might even be talking about a fifth- or sixth-generation Petty driver. You never know.
Petty does know one valuable lesson he learned from racing.
"Last week was last week," he said. "Next week, there's another race. No matter what went on last week or five months or five years or 15 years ago, I can't change that. It's past.
"You have to keep moving forward. You can keep moving forward and be miserable or move forward and have fun.
"I always try to have fun."
Little know fact about the Wood Brothers' winning car at Richmond for Kyle in 1986. That car was a Hutcherson-Pagan built car purchased by the Woods from PETTY ENTERPRISES!
The final time that former Petty Enterprises car ever ran, Dale Jarrett was in it for the Wood Brothers leading at Bristol when a wheel broke. The resulting crash totaled the car.
