A living legend in the world of racing if ever there was one, Richard Petty has won an incredible 200 races in his career, holding one of his many records as a seven time winner of the Daytona 500. Other than Dale Earnhardt, he is the only racer to ever win the NASCAR Championship seven times, a record he is justifiably proud of.
Born in 1937, Richard Petty ran 1184 NASCAR Sprint Cup races over 35 years. While he has won 200 races, he has 712 top ten finishes in his career. Richard Petty is considered the greatest NASCAR driver of all time with 513 consecutive starts from 1971 to 1989.
Racing comes naturally to Richard Petty – his father Lee Petty won the very fist Daytona 500 race in 1959 (Lee Petty is also a three time NASCAR Championship winner). It seems to run in the family; his son Kyle is a NASCAR star in his own right. Tragically, his grandson Adam passed away in an accident at the New Hampshire International Speedway, right after he had lost his famous father.
The Petty family owns and operates their own racing team, Petty Enterprises. The team is based out of a former Yates Racing facility which boasts more than 100,000 square feet of space. Although his professional racing days are long behind him now, he is still frequently mobbed for autographs at his public appearances.
He began his career in racing very young, taking up the sport at the age of 21; by 1959 he was named the NASCAR Rookie of the year after 9 top ten finishes, of which 6 were top five finishes. He retired at the end of the 1992 season, with his last top ten finish being in the 1991 Budweiser at the Glen race.
Richard Petty is remembered for three of the many crashes he survived. In 1970, at the Rebel 400, he was injured when his Plymouth Road Runner cut a tire and slammed into a wall, flipped several times, injured his shoulder and bounced his head off the pavement several times. This accident caused NASCAR to require the safety netting over the driver’s window.
Petty somehow managed to keep a broken neck a secret from the world, even competing in a few more races after being injured in a race at Pocono in 1980. His other incredible crash came in 1988 in the Daytona 500, when he was in a crash which sent pieces of his car flying – Petty himself though was able to walk away unhurt save for some temporary visual impairment.
He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997 and a year later, NASCAR named him one of its 50 all time greatest drivers. This award was followed up with a Medal of Freddom in 1992; the highest honor accorded to civilians in the US.
Petty was always close to his fans, staying hours after races had concluded to sign autographs. He has also appeared in several films portraying himself. These films include Speed Zone, Stroker Ace and Swing Vote.
Richard Petty has spent nearly his entire adult life in the world of racing and he is still active in NASCAR (though no longer behind the wheel) even now.
