The original Petty Museum was opened at Petty Enterprises by Lynda Petty in the late 1980s. I made my one and only visit to that museum in May 1997. I remember being awed by the all the trophies - but also perplexed by the cramped quarters, dark paneling, low ceiling, etc. It was very cool - but hardly a first rate museum suitable for the Pettys' racing accomplishments.
A bit more than 10 years ago, the museum was relocated to a former furniture store in Randleman. I went to that location twice. It had much more room to display things than in Level Cross - yet the trophy cases were still packed much too densely. It was awfully tough to make out the badge plates on many of the trophies.
Now, the museum has now opened its third and hopefully final location - back where it began. The ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony for the Petty Museum was Wednesday, March 12. And I was privileged to have been invited to attend. As Billy Biscoe noted in an earlier post, the event was apparently open to all - though it appears that it wasn't heavily promoted. In my case, Richard's daughter Rebecca extended an invitation to me, and I wasn't about to miss it for the world.
When we arrived a few minutes before 6PM, we could tell weather was stalking us. The kick-off festivities were to be under a big banquet tent in the parking lot. Until then, many of us milled about in the 'red floor room' where many historical Petty cars now reside. Its here we found Bob Pockrass from The Sporting News recording his video piece with the King. (Also, I'm not sure who the guy in the background with the yellow tie is. Keith or Kevin, can't recall. But I ran into him again Thursday morning at Roush Fenway Racing, and we recognized each other from Wed. night. Small world.)
Soon Rebecca walked out of the office, and I introduced myself to her for the first time face to face. She immediately took my friends and me to talk with King. She connected him to me with my blogging efforts to document all of the Petty wins. She used Lee Petty's 1954 win in Corbin KY as an example. Richard said he and his mother drove the race car to Corbin while Lee was at another race. Not a truck with the car - the car. Said he spun it out in some small town because it had slick racing tires on it, but fortunately he didn't wreck it. They made it OK, and Lee won the race. Thinking I already knew the answer, I asked him "So I'm guessing you made sure to have your driver's license in your wallet, right?" He laughed and replied "Naw man, I didn't have no license back then."
Though I would have like to have monopolized his time with a million questions, no way would or could I. He went back to mingling with different folks as we looked around a bit more. Suddenly, the bottom fell out of the clouds and torrents of rain fell on the tent sending folks scurrying to the shop to wait it out. Two who did so were Winston Kelly from MRN and the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Ryan McGee from ESPN. We had an enjoyable 15 minute or so exchange telling the others when and how we became Petty fans.
Remarkably, I noticed the King by himself as the rains stopped and people began to head back to the tent. I took the chance to have him sign a pic of the 1974 STP Dodge Charger. I told him that was THE car of my kid years.
I never saw an all Petty blue Plymouth. To me the car was Petty blue and day-glo red. I said "The first time I saw that thing under the lights at Nashville..." and he finished my sentence with "...it burned your eyes out didn't it?"
With the rain gone, the sun returned - but it also brought some very stiff winds. For the next hour or so, everyone kept one eye on the podium and the other on the tent framing. We thought we were about to have Wizard of Oz twister moment a couple of times.
The event began with a joint meeting of the Randolph County Historical Landmarks Commission and board of County Commissioners. The only agenda item for both was to discuss the worthiness of declaring the Petty Enterprises site including Lee and Elizabeth Petty's house as a historical landmark. As public meetings, comments were accepted from the floor. Someone from the tourism department offered remarks as did one of the county commissioners who served with Richard on the board for 12 years. Winston Kelly from the Hall of Fame also spoke. The museum's new executive director Mac Whatley is seated to Winston's left, photo right.
I guess it goes without saying that the decision to recognize the site was unanimously accepted. Shown here receiving the recognition with the King are: daughter Sharon Farlow & her husband, Richard, the chairman of the county commissioners, the chairman of the historical landmarks commission, and Brian and Rebecca Moffitt with their sons.
Dale Inman was there - though I somehow missed him. I understand he, his wife and grandsons were there to see the early part but then left. Chief nor Kyle attended.
Richard took the time to personally thank the commissioner who offered the good words about the Petty family.
Rebecca then asked us to start moving towards the front of the museum. But just as quicky, Richard took the mic from her and joked "Y'all enjoy yourselves 'cause this is the last time you're getting in for free."
The herd then moved to the museum. One of the politicos had the magic pair of scissors prepared for use in cutting the ribbon. But in typical King fashion, Richard said "Naw man, I'll just use my knife." Sure enough, he flipped open his pocket knife & did the honors as the commissioner just held his scissors. Very funny moment.
The museum is definitely a work-in-process. Some basic construction / renovation on the main building is needed, and I understand more buildings will be converted to museum space in the years to come. That wasn't possible years ago when the Petty Enterprises was an active racing facility. But as with all museums I suppose, the one thing they DO have in place is a gift shop. Ha.
One of the first exhibits to see is the collection of King's 7 GN and Cup trophies - including the jukebox he won in 1975.
If only they could land the duds Richard wore to accept it!
Another area very well done is for Lee Petty. I thought his trophies were poorly displayed at the Randleman location - but are much easier to view now.
The centerpiece exhibit for now is King's 1967 season. They have displayed his 1967 Plymouth (presumably the one that had been on NASCAR's Thunder Road for the last few years) as well as several of the trophies from his 27 win season.
An exhibit I had mixed feelings about was the station wagon driven by Lynda Petty. The car originally driven by her has been 'restored' with a wrap to make it look like the Mrs. The King character in the movie Cars. I'm guessing kids and newer fans will be drawn to it more than I was.
I know long-time Petty fan and RR member Brian Hauck will have some heartburn over it. He had his photo made by the car as a kid.
And Brian and I saw it again a couple of years ago before it was 'restored' as a caricature.
One car was new to me, and the museum is really happy to have. Its a Chevy coupe once nicknamed Poison Ivy by King and Chief. I understand Lee raced it in the final modified beach race in Daytona in 1958. Maurice then took it over as a personal street rod. Ownership bounced around over the years, but it recently found its way back to Level Cross.
Though the house lived in by Lee & Elizabeth Petty will be part of the museum's tour, its not yet ready for public touring. But Mac gave my friends and me a personal tour of the house. I'm not going to share a lot of pics and stories from it as some mystery needs to be retained for folks to go. But I did learn a good bit. One thing I learned was the house was built in the late 1920s by Bob Toomes - Elizabeth's father. After he and his wife passed away, Lee bought the house from the estate.
I also ran into Austin Petty - Kyle's son. He was super pleasant and introduced me to his wife and young son.
As we headed back to the red floor room - with a glass of red in hand - we spent the next few minutes looking at the cars. Two in particular I'm really glad to see in the museum: Kyle's Peak Pontiac from his 1st year with SABCO racing and Adam Petty's 1999 Corvette.
After a few minutes, I realized the only ones left were my friends and me, Austin, and Winston Kelly. We talked cars from 2000-01 shortly after Adam's death, listened to stories about Adam's detailed maintenance of his Corvette, tried to figure out which ones were legit vs. replicas, etc.
Finally, Rebecca came out of the office. We said our final thanks and good-byes, and we headed out.
Enjoy your visit if you plan to visit the museum over the next few months. Just be aware they still have lots of work to do to return all the collections from Randleman and build-out the displays that are deserving of this type of museum.
--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 03/11/17 01:31:55PM
