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45 Years Ago This Month Richard Petty's 10 Race Win Streak Began

Stock Car Racing History

This was published on August 12, 2012 in the Scranton (Pa) Times Tribune :

Petty reflects on record 10-race winning streak 45 years ago
BY SCOTT WALSH (STAFF WRITER)
Published: August 12, 2012

Associated Press - 1966

Richard Petty gestures to his crew during a pit stop at the race in Charlotte in October 1966. Exactly one year later at Charlotte, Petty's NASCAR-record 10-race winning streak came to an end. The streak began 45 years ago today - Aug. 12, 1967 - at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Racing in NASCAR in 1967 was much different than it is today in the Sprint Cup Series.

Back then, it was known as the Grand National Series. The schedule was composed of 48 races and they were run on all kinds of tracks - dirt, paved, quarter-mile, half-mile, superspeedway.

There was a barnstorming feel to it, too. Teams would race on a Thursday or Friday at one track, then pack up and head to another track to race Saturday or Sunday.

"That was the deal then," Richard Petty recalled last week at Pocono Raceway. "When the race was over, it was over, whether we won or lost. All we did was go to the next race track and get ready to try to win the next one we were running."

That season, no matter where or when they raced, Petty and his team proved their versatility and won.

He captured the second of his record seven championships in 1967, finishing with 18 poles, 27 wins, 38 top fives and 40 top 10s.

And, for one remarkable two-month stretch, no other driver could beat him.

Ten races. Ten consecutive victories - a NASCAR-record winning streak that likely will never be matched.

It began 45 years ago today - Aug. 12, 1967 - at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. Petty started on the pole and led all 250 laps to win by three laps over Jim Paschal.

"It doesn't seem like 45 years. Yet it doesn't seem like yesterday either," Petty said. "It was just one of them deals where everything fell together. You didn't do anything different than what you'd been doing and nobody else did anything different. It all just accumulated for two months."

Just how dominant was Petty during the streak? There were a total of 2,931 laps run during the 10 races. Petty led 1,781 of them or 60.76 percent.

After his victory at Winston-Salem, Petty headed to the half-mile dirt track at Columbia, S.C., Speedway on Aug 17. He started on the pole and led 29 of 200 laps - including the final 12 - to win by one lap over John Sears. Then on Aug. 25 at Savannah, Ga., Speedway, another half-mile dirt track, Petty started on the pole, led all 200 laps and won by five laps over Elmo Langley.

Up next was the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina on Sept. 4 (Labor Day). Petty started on the pole and led 345 of 364 laps, including the final 236, to win by five laps over David Pearson. It was the only Southern 500 win of his career, and his performance was so dominant that his famed blue No. 43 Plymouth from that race sits in the Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum.

Win No. 5 in the streak came Sept. 8 at the 4/10-mile Hickory, N.C., Speedway. Two days later, at the half-mile Virginia State Fairgrounds dirt track in Richmond, Petty started second and led the final 163 of 300 laps (177 total) and beat Dick Hutcherson to make it six straight wins.

On Sept. 15, Petty won again, this time at Beltsville, Md., Speedway. He led 171 of 300 laps from the pole and beat Bobby Allison by two laps. On Sept. 17, he started on the pole at Orange Speedway in Hillsboro, N.C., led 88 of 167 laps and beat Hutcherson to make it eight in a row.

Victories at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia on Sept. 24 and North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina on Oct. 1 gave Petty 10 straight checkered flags.

Petty said he and his team didn't dwell on the streak. Their focus simply was on winning the next race.

However, as the streak unfolded, fans and the media began to take notice.

"You can imagine how big a deal it would be today," Petty said. "Back then, we were still a Southern sport.

"But by doing what we were doing, we got publicity all over the world. I don't know when it was, but some guy from Canada sent me a clipping out of the paper. The headline said, 'Petty runs second.' It never said who won the race. So we were getting publicity - good, bad or indifferent - just because it was something nobody had ever done."

Alas, the winning streak finally came to an end at Charlotte on Oct. 15. Petty started fifth, but had his day end after 268 of 334 laps due to engine failure. He finished 18th as Buddy Baker won the race.

"All good things come to an end," Petty said. "And if you stay long enough, all bad things come to an end, too."

Since then, no one has come close to matching the streak. In 1971, Petty did win six races in a row and Bobby Allison five straight. In NASCAR's modern era (since 1972), four straight races are the most drivers such as Darrell Waltrip (1981), Dale Earnhardt (1987), Harry Gant (1991), Bill Elliott (1992), Mark Martin (1993), Jeff Gordon (1998) and Jimmie Johnson (2007) have been able to win.

"To win two in a row is tough today," Petty said. "The way it is now, it's going to be an almost untouchable record."

Contact the writer: swalsh@timesshamrock.com

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

SWEET 16 comes out on top

Stock Car Racing History

Mark, pit crew and pit side observers really escaped tragedy. That could have been so much worse. Everytime we think we have covered all the bases a new deal jumps out and bites us. Thank goodness everyone involved was uninjured.

Dear ESPN...........Sincerely, NASCAR

Current NASCAR

I'm gonna see if we can't get Legend outfitted in one of those college mascot outfits and get him on a Sports Center promo. Any school use a skunk for their mascot!!??

DID THE HONEY BADGER DO THAT???

Stock Car Racing History

Mike, you beat me to it. I'd have considered throwing him/her off the bridge if it wouldn't have damaged somebody else's car.

There is absolutely no place in racing now, in the past, or any time for throwing an object on a racetrack. I have always been grateful to the groups of fans who stood and identified such a culprit and had them arrested.

As for the F-bomb,just what are we expecting when we have all these "live" feeds" of drivers in competition?

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks, Johnny.

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History

DW always looked like a fish out of water the few times he showed up at our 1/3-mile asphalt Southside Speedway. He didn't fare very well. On the other hand, Bobby Allison showed up and won several times.

Now, Johnny, are you gonna make us wait till somebody guesses the track where Jaws tore up Dale's stuff?

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History

Mike... this is a little excerpt from Sonny Hutchins' obituary story in 2005 in the Richmond paper:

Though he made only 38 starts in NASCAR's premier series, Sonny Hutchins had many fierce battles with Cup champions such as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

In an interview last year, Mr. Hutchins re- called his favorite part of racing was "showing up at someone else's racetrack and beating them." He said with a devilish grin that Waltrip called him "the dirtiest driver he ever knew" after trumping the three-time champion at a Tennessee short track.

He also had a few run-ins in the mid-1970s with Earnhardt, infuriating "The Intimidator" by bumping him into the wall at back-to-back Late Model races at Richmond and Martinsville. The seven-time champion hadn't forgotten when they crossed paths again in 1990.

"I walked by and said, 'Who's the dirtiest driver you know now?'" Mr. Hutchins said, "Earnhardt said, 'Well, look at the teacher I had.'"

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History

One of my sincerest regrets was that I was not in attendance when Langley Speedway promoter Joe Carver (later DW's business manager) staged a 3-car Late Model Sportsman match race between DW, Ray Hendrick, and Sonny Hutchins.

DW finished third of the three behind Ray and Sonny. DW always called Sonny the dirtiest driver he ever raced, as did Dale Earnhardt, in good fun. Years later at RIR, Sonny told Dale after he took DW out in the February 1986 Cup race that he'd learned all those dirty driving tricks pretty well and they had a heck of a laugh!

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History

Now, remember, Johnny.... 'twas PattyKay who sailed us across the pond, lol!

But, so long as we are there, I have always wished I could have seen the magnificent Argentine driver, Juan Manuel Fangio .

To this day, many knowledgeable Formula One historians still consider him to be the best to have ever driven in that series. His Formula One career didn't even begin until he was the ripe old age of 39 in 1950. Through his retirement at age 47 in 1958, he won an astounding 24 of 51 races, still the best winning percentage in Formula One history at over 47%! His 5 World Championships came with FOUR different teams!!

And I'll also throw Jimmy Clark's name into the ring. Everybody talks of Jim Clark's Formula One exploits and his 1965 win at Indianapolis. Few remember that he first came to our side of the pond from Scotland in 1963 , never having been on an oval track, and entered three USAC events. He won Milwaukee , finished second at Indy and won the pole at both Trenton and Milwaukee. Pretty amazing for a driver who'd never been on an oval!

One of the most exciting days of my life occurred in September 1965, the day before the Capital City 300 in Richmond. Ned Jarrett's sponsor, Richmond Ford Motor Co. had Ned's #11 1965 Southern 500 winning Ford and Jim Clark's 1965 Indy 500 winning Lotus side-by-side in their Broad Street showroom. I could roll that little green & yellow Lotus with one finger. In 1967, I was one of the fortunate 53,000 to ever see Clark run a NASCAR stock car race, when Holman-Moody put him in a car for the American 500 at Rockingham.

And who knows what Hershel McGrif f would have accomplished had he decided to race full time. After winning the first Mexican Road race in 1950, Bill France tried his best to get Hershel to run NASCAR full time. But, Hershel had his lumber business and ran only once or twice a year in Cup except for 1954 when he started 24 races and won four of those while taking the pole at 5.

One of those 1954 wins was at a little place named Macon, Georgia and another at North Wilkesboro, North Carolin a , besides his wins at Charlotte and San Mateo. One can only imagine what he'd have done.

I always wished, too, that I could have seen Ted Horn - for sentimental reasons. The 1946, 1947 and 1948 AAA Champion won the very first Champ car race on our "new" 1/2-dirt Richmond track in October 1946 after racing moved from the old mile dirt track.

Most of all, you know what I really wish???

I wish I could have seen our own RR members like you and Tommie Clinard, and Jeff and Legend and Rex and all of the others in their prime on the track. I'd love to make it to one of the vintage races and see Bopper and Jim Wilmore and the others.

It is so much more fun at the track when you know somebody out there and can pull for them because they're your friend, buddy or acquaintance.

Age old discussion, to date who is the best to ever sit in the seat of a race car.....

Stock Car Racing History