I will say this Tim. Tony predicted the dumping at Sonoma which is meaningless to predict dumpingat Sonoma but low and behold he does it first I think. The hot head had to be embarassed with his car sitting on a heap of tires near the end. Even funnier was he still had to run his mouth afterwards.
Just another round of the traveling, circus courtesy of NASCAR.
I was there when Bush showed up in 1992 and he was booed from the main grandstand. It was real hot that day, real hot !
Ronald Reagan in my opinionwas thegreatestAmercian president of the 20th century and he truly loved America.
What a story book day for Richard. What can you stay ? He drove a great race period.
jeff. This has already been done with two movies. Arnold Swartzorwhahatever and David Carcodine where the players .......
.....You hit it on the head though
I think PE leased a couple of FORD from H&M but I am almost sure that Maurice eventually reskinned a couple of Plymouths as Torino's.
In addition it has been rumored that when Petty showed up for Daytona in "69" they were 10 mph off the pace with Holman and Moody power plants. Maurice fixed that also as they salvaged a top 10 in the 500.
The reality for Petty Enterprises over the years was that they do what ever it took to run and win races even though they had loyalty for Plymouth and Dodge. Lee was running Oldsmobiles until they pulled factory support. Lee ran the Olds till they ran out of parts and then they moved on.
We were sure dumbstruck in 1969 when Richard went FoMoCo. Didn't take long for Chrysler to woo him back, either. I seem to remember big discussions back then of Petty Enterprises not being able to adjust to coil springs. At any rate, that electric blue 1969 Ford seemed totally out of place. Today's fans who weren't following racing in 1969 can't imagine the shockwaves of that change after all the success of "Plymouth by Petty." It was like Robert E. Lee going over to the Yankees or Ronald Reagan running for President as a Democrat. It was a BIG, BIG deal back then. It would have been like Dale Earnhardt, Sr.leaving NASCAR for Indy Cars or Richard not going in the inaugural Hall of Fame class. It was HUGE.
My uncle intro'd me to racing in 1974. He jokingly threatened me I had to pull for Ol' Blue if I expected him to tote me to the races. He started pulling for Richard in the early 60s because he drove Plymouths, and my uncle was a MoPar guy. Immediately I started pulling for Richard mainly because I like the look of the car ... and because I wanted my uncle to take me again!
But the fact Richard drove a Dodge by then didn't matter much to me I don't think. Don't get me wrong, I think that STP red/Petty blue 74 Dodge Charger was the coolest looking race car of the decade. But when Petty Enterprises went to GM in 78, it didn't cut me as deeply as it did others - including my uncle. Even with the more recent swap by Richard Petty Motorsports to Ford, I just shrugged.
