June 19, 1969: The King wins in ... Kingsport

Richard Petty closes in on victory #100 with his win in the inaugural GN race at Kingsport Speedway in TN - a city appropriately named based on Petty's performance.

Also, RacersReunion members might recognize the name on the by-line of the embedded article.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/06/june-19-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Edited: June 19, 2014 - copying text of my 2012 blog post here.

1969 - Starting third, Richard Petty banks his 95th career NASCAR Grand National victory by winning the Kingsport 250 at Kingsport Speedway in east Tennessee.

Racing a Ford, Petty capitalized on the misfortunes of Bobby Isaac. Leading the race by 2 laps over the field, Isaac lost an engine in his Dodge. The King took over from there and won the race.

The race was the inaugural Grand National event at the .4 mile, paved track. Kingsport hosted three races from 1969 through 1971. Petty repeated his win at the track in 1970, and Isaac finally got his win at the track in the final GN race there.

Article provided by Jerry Bushmire.

My home town. I was 14.

My uncle who intro'd me to racing and insisted I become a Petty fan lived many years in Knoxville, Tri-Cities, and western NC. He started following Richard because of his own affinity with Plymouths. He told me that on more than one occasion he was able to meet and just chat with Richard at car dealerships around Kingsport and Maryville.

Some of my favorite memories of meeting Richard were at Lawrence Chrysler-Plymouth in Richmond in the 60s. Sometimes the Plymouth still had red clay on it in the showroom because it had just raced at Hickory and there wasn't time to wash it before it went in the Richmond showroom.

SHOW CAR? We don't a'need no a'stinkin show car. Aye.

In '69 it was the real thing on display in dealerships.

"The Dirty Dozen" - cool.