Richard Lee Petty was born July 2, 1937 and is the second generation of NASCAR racers. His father was Lee Petty who won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was also 3 time NASCAR champion himself. He is commonly referred to as 'the king' and has raced in the Championship 7 times which has only been achieved by one other driver, Dale Earnhardt. In his career he has won 200 races, 7 of which were the Daytona 500.

1959 - Richard Petty

Richard's family has racing in their blood with his son Kyle Petty also now a NASCAR racing driver. However unfortunately Richard's grandson Adam Petty was killed in an accident at New Hampshire International Speedway on May 12, 2000 shortly after Richard's father Lee. After the accident the Victory Junction Gang Camp was set-up and is now run by Adam's brother Austin.

Richard Petty began racing in 1958 when he was 21 years old but didn't compete in his first race until the following year at the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds finishing 17th.

As time progressed Petty became more successful finishing 2nd in 1960 and winning races in 1963. In 1964 he won the Daytona 500 leading in 184 of the 200 laps and winning his first Grand National championship. In 1966 he overcame a 2 lap deficit to win his second Daytona 500 race making him the first racer to win 2 Daytona 500 races.

In 1965 Petty joined the boycott of NASCAR due to the banning of the Hemi engine through a change in the rules. During this time Petty took to the drag racing circuits but it his drag-racing career ended when he had an accident injuring several people and killing a 8 year old boy. In 1967 Petty entered a 48 competitions and won 27 of them earning him the title 'King Richard'.

In the 1970's the Chrysler Corporation removed their funding support for Petty's team. In 1972 STP took over the support for Petty insisting that he should change his trademark blue colors for something closer to the STP colors. After a night of negotiations Petty and the STP management team reached a compromise and he would go on to race a newly build Dodge Charger winning many races.

The 1990's would see the end of Petty's career with his last top ten position coming in 1992 in the Budweiser at the Glen competition. In 1992 he chose to race in every competition in his Fan Appreciation Tour which took his around the states participating in award ceremonies and special events.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the assumption that the pictures on this page represent a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any text or images that you feel need to be removed please contact me.

Richard Petty - Wikipedia
NASCAR Website
Richard Petty - Famous Texans