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Richard Petty on Daytona 500s past and present

Monday, 27 February 2017


By Eric Johnson / Images by Nigel Kinrade and NASCAR archive

It's funny getting an audience with the King. Even with racecars roaring by intermittently off in the high banks distance and basically creating a jet wash wall of sound, he almost has a rhythm in the way he speaks. Rising action, falling action, almost perfectly timed pauses – his very own comprehension of the English language – Richard Petty speaks like no other. And whether he means it or not, it just all sort of makes perfect sense.
Petty has been coming to Daytona International Speedway since they pulled the curtain back on the place for the First Annual 500 Mile NASCAR International Sweepstakes at Daytona in 1959. While his engine coughed up some valve-and-cam pieces and he only ran eight laps in total, he shook it off to fight another day. In fact, five years later he won the thing and we all know happened as the years clicked off.
Taking a quick break from a seemingly endless line of fans, sponsors and well-wishers at 2017 Daytona 500, the King talked about the Great American Race and the 31-degree talking walls of the house Big Bill France built. High banks, high drama, high hopes and a higher calling, in his 32 year-run at the Daytona 500, there just isn't a person on planet earth who knows more about this larger than life kaleidoscope of speed, sound and vision. Take it away King Richard.
Richard, you were here and ready to roll at the first Daytona 500 in 1959. What did you think of this place? I can't even begin to imagine what this all looked like to you and all of your competitors who showed up to race.
"When we showed up here, the first turn looked like it was 10 miles away. There was nothing in the infield. No buildings or anything. Up to then the biggest thing we had ever seen was Darlington, which was a little more than a mile. I was a 21-year-old kid and my eyes were about yeah big. It was fantastic to see it the first time."
What did your father Lee think? Was he as blown away as you?
"Yeah, it amazed him because he had never been on anything that big. The guys that had raced before on the other tracks, it took them a while to adapt to this kind of racetrack. To me, I had no experience so anything was new to me. The other guys had to unlearn in order to learn, so it took him a little while to adjust to it."
When you first went out in the car, what did you think? I mean the banking alone...
"We didn't run but 130 mile an hour, but that was unheard of in 1959. I mean, that was flat flying. So you go out and you run and the place is so big that you had no idea you were running wide open. You had no idea whether you were running 80 mile an hour or 280, you know what I mean? You'd come in and they'd say, 'You run 130,' and I'd say, 'I done what?' I'd never been that fast in my life, but you just didn't realize it."
And you had it pinned all the way around, huh?
"Yeah, the track was so big that you got no sensation of speed because the infield was way away from you and the grandstands were way away from you. The sensation of speed was more there when everything was close to you. When you're running 100 mile an hour and the fence is real close, you feel like you're running 200 mile an hour. Here, you run 200 mile an hour and you don't realize it."
What about the car back then? Did it get real squirrelly?
"No, no, the cars were very stable at 130 mile an hour, 140. We didn't get into the speed where handling really made a whole lot of difference. We just got in the car and didn't know any kind of setup or anything. We just had some springs in the car and they worked. Then, over a period of years, we kept getting faster and faster and we had to start working on the suspension. After we got the suspension figured out, they started working on aerodynamics and all that stuff."
Your dad Lee won the first Daytona 500 (pictured above, No. 42). After they sorted out who won it and he was declared the first winner, did you guys have any sort of idea of just what a huge deal this race and this track would become? Or was it more like, "Hey, we won this thing. That's kind of cool..."?
"Yeah, I think he won $19,000 or something for winning the race and that was a huge deal because I think at that time if you won a race, it was like $1,000 or something – maybe $1,500 at some of the bigger races. Winning $19,000, man, you thought you was rich!
"You know up until 1959, Darlington was our superspeedway. And then even three or four years after Daytona, Darlington was still the place everybody wanted to win. By 1964, Daytona had maybe not replaced Darlington, but was standing beside it, you know what I mean? Then Daytona got to be bigger and bigger and bigger. Daytona was the first superspeedway race I won. I won a bunch of short track races, but never a superspeedway. That year, in '64, Chrysler came out with the Hemi (note: A 426 cubic-inch engine with hemispherical combustion chambers) and we just had them outclassed, so it made it easy from that standpoint."

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Richard Petty part 2


Of all the years you ran this race, I have to ask you about the 1970 Plymouth Superbird (above, as driven by Pete Hamilton that year). In my humble opinion, that was the coolest racecar of all-time. Even in 2017, it just strikes me as an unreal car.
"Yeah, it was. You know at that particular time, Ford and Chrysler and the factories was really into racing, so they went about as far as they could go with the engines at that time. Then they started going with the body and that started the aero wars. Then when they come with the Superbird and the Daytona 500 Dodge, it was all so far out there that NASCAR said, 'Whoa, we're going to have spaceships out here in two or three years!' You know it all started out as stock cars, but it got too far out there, so NASCAR just sent everybody home with those deals and everybody went back to more of a stock body. I'm glad they done that because it could have been weird by now."
You won seven NASCAR championships and seven Daytona 500s. To that end, I've heard drivers who have also won a title and a Daytona 500 say that winning the 500 was as big, if not bigger, than winning a title. What's your take on that?
"When I was winning championships, Daytona was more important than a championship. Now, the way they got things done, this is the first race of the year and they're already talking about points, you know what I mean? We got 36 races to go and they're already looking at winning a championship more than winning a race."
So back in the day, were you more of a guy that just wanted to win races as opposed to being some sort of "points racer"?

"I just wanted to win races and at the end of the year, if they added it up and you won a championship, fine. If you didn't, OK, we'll get it next year."
You won seven Daytona 500s. Is there one that just sticks out from all the others?
"Not really. You know, there were a couple that I lucked in and won, like 1979. And '76, I lucked out on winning that one. After winning all the races and not winning some races, it kind of balances itself up. Some of them we should have won and we had a better car, but others we lucked into. Some that you lost, you should have won. It all evened itself out.
As I watched the qualifying Duels, that sensation of speed and sound of the cars going around in a pack like they do on this 2.5-mile track is just mind boggling. It's so larger than life that it doesn't even look real...
"Oh yeah. It's still Daytona. We come back here in July and the thing looks like it shrunk up. It's still a big race and all that kind of stuff, but it's just not.... The Daytona 500 is like the Superbowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby. It is our showcase deal. No matter what, this is the showcase place.
If Big Bill France was able to show up here on Sunday and watch the race, do you think all this would astonish him?
"Yeah, I think it would blow his mind, too. He was very much of a visionary, but I don't know if there was anybody could look 59 years ahead and see what this thing. Think of all the things that started in 1959 that are not here anymore. And they were big things at that particular time, but they kind of faded away. Daytona has not faded away. It's a sensation, that's what it is. You watch it on TV and it's great and you can see all the moves and stuff, but it's nothing like being on the property where you hear it and smell it and being a part of it all."
And guessing what's going to happen on Sunday?
"Nobody knows. That's what keeps us all coming back. I mean, you can have the best car here and there is no sign you're going to win the race. You might have the worst car here and you still have a chance. This is a crapshoot. I've seen on the side of a car here that says Florida Lottery. That's what this is. This is the Daytona Lottery, OK?!

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also
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[h=2]Petty celebrates RPM's new chapter[/h] Friday, 16 February 2018



By Kelly Crandall / Images by Whitton & LaBounty/LAT



"New" was the word of the day for Richard Petty on Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

The new-look Richard Petty Motorsports. The new Chevrolet Camaros the team is running after a switch from Ford. A new driver in Darrell Wallace Jr. New home on the campus of Richard Childress Racing. On and on it could go.

It wasn't hard to lose track of how many times the word was used during two separate news conferences Petty was involved with. Not that you could blame him, either.

"What it was is we sort of got into a rut with the same deal, the same thing going on. So, I said, let's just start a new chapter," Petty told RACER about his continued positivity. "That's when we were able to get with Chevrolet and get with Bubba Wallace to drive the car.


"Again, it's a whole new chapter in the life of Richard Petty."
One that's off to a start better than many might have expected.
Thursday night, Wallace finished third in his Can-Am Duel qualifying race after impressively making his way to the front of the field late in the going. The result netted him a seventh-place starting effort for the Daytona 500, his very first start in the event. Petty described Wallace's performance as a win for the team.


Off the track, the organization also couldn't ask for much more.
While the attention has certainly ramped up since the series arrived in Daytona, the calendar flipping to 2018 has brought with it a consistent stream of Bubba Wallace mania: headlines, interviews, video packages and everything in between.


Even better, all the attention has all been positive. This is not the RPM of just a year ago when discussions – the little that the team usually drew – centered on performance, driver status, and even a public misunderstanding with Smithfield that played out on social media.
"It's been good PR for us and all the people that we work with, and all our crew, too," Petty acknowledged.

Wallace has drawn large crowds during media events where he was available. Media outlets who consistently cover the sport have seen competition from national outlets such as ESPN the Magazine, which is taking the time to highlight Wallace and the team.


Perhaps most impressive, earlier this week it was announced that Facebook Watch would be airing an eight-part docu-series featuring Wallace and his team leading into Sunday's race (which can be found here). "Behind the Wall: Bubba Wallace" provides an all-access look at preparing for the Daytona 500 and Wallace's first season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.


"[Everything] has been a positive deal not only on Bubba but on Richard Petty and on Richard Petty Motorsports," said Petty. "All in all, everybody involved with us feels good about it."