The King holds court
Richard Petty reflects on his four-plus decades at Daytona
Posted: Thursday February 11, 1999 11:10 AM
| |
Richard Petty: "The track grew and grew as the years went by, and I grew and grew as much." AP |
By Denise N. Maloof, CNN/SI
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Richard Petty has seen the birth and evolution of many things during his NASCAR life, and two of them are Daytona International Speedway and its namesake race.
The seven-time Daytona 500 champion remembers his first glimpse as a cross between shock and bewilderment. Upon arrival as a 21-year-old rookie in 1959, he drove through the track's entrance tunnel and saw, "nothing in the infield but mud."
Forty years later, the 61-year-old King-turned-team owner operates out of a super-duper infield motor home. There's no shortage of guards, gates and gawkers, and there's even a duck-dotted mini-lake on the backstretch side.
"There were no garages out here, or anything," Petty said. "They threw some gravel down and we put up some tents. It rained one time and we couldn't even get to the car it was so muddy. It was all swamp. They drained the land to build the track. There used to be nothing but a two-lane road out there."
Now, there's interstate-wide Speedway Boulevard along with an adjacent museum, Daytona USA, and NASCAR's headquarters across the street. But the Petty family adopted Daytona from the start. The King's father, Lee, won that first 500 in 1959, and the King claimed his first 500 in 1964. Richard Petty remembers driving a convertible in a 100-mile race, and piloting a regular stock car in another 100-miler as preparation for the inaugural 500.
"I ran about eight or 10 laps and blew up," Petty said, recalling his first 500 performance.
His father's was much more memorable. Lee Petty and Tim Beauchamp crossed the finish line in a dead heat, and NASCAR officials needed several days and photographs before they could declare a winner.
"We had to stay here until Wednesday, until they found enough photos to say that my dad had won," Petty said. "But it turned out to be a good thing because it stayed in the papers a week after the race, and people couldn't help hearing about it."
During the 1950s and early '60s, the Southern 500 at compact Darlington Raceway was the darling of NASCAR, according to the King. As the circuit's first superspeedway, Daytona was newer and larger - at two-and-a-half miles -- than anything on the Winston Cup circuit, and Petty says that fans and sponsors responded.
"It was the biggest thing they'd ever seen at that point," he said. "And it didn't take that long before it was bigger than Darlington. [The 1959 photo finish] gave them a lot of publicity, and I'd say by '61 and '62, it was as big as Darlington."
Daytona's second Winston Cup race, now known as the Pepsi 400, also began in 1959. Petty has three of those victories under his belt -- 1975, 1977 and 1984 -- and his last win in his last race at Daytona, the 1984 Pepsi 400, is his most memorable Daytona moment.
"Oh yeah," he said. "I won it on the last lap, in front of the President [Ronald Reagan]. That's pretty good."
As Daytona added more luster, grandstands and amenities, the Petty legend burgeoned, too. Fans' first glimpse of NASCAR each season was the Daytona 500, and Petty was often in the lead, or near it, during the '60s and '70s.
"The track grew and grew as the years went by, and I grew and grew as much," Petty said. "My career and Daytona paralleled each other. I'd have a good year, and it'd be a good year for Daytona."
Even when it wasn't, it made history. The King played a leading role in two of the most famous Daytona 500s, in 1976 and 1979. In the 1976 race, he and David Pearson collided coming out of Turn 4 on the last lap. Pearson managed to re-crank his Mercury after spinning, and take the checkered flag; Petty's Dodge coughed and died.
"That was pretty painful," the King said, admitting that he and Pearson exchanged pleasantries.
In 1979, Petty was among a trio that trailed Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough heading into the final lap. This time it was Allison and Yarborough who exchanged paint. Petty beat Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt, respectively, back to the line for the win, while Allison and Yarborough exchanged now-famous pleasantries.
"I told Cale and Donnie later that at least David and I did on the front stretch in front of everybody," Petty said, laughing at the memory. "They did it on the backstretch where nobody could see them."
But even in chaos, the King noted a fortuitous postscript. The 1976 Daytona 500 was the first race that CBS aired live from start to finish, and both television and NASCAR benefitted from fireworks, plus last-lap sprints.
"There was a blizzard that year, and the whole East Coast was snowed in," Petty said. "Nobody could go nowhere, so what'd they do? They watched TV. It was great. They had a captive audience. And about half of those people that watched it probably would've been doing something else. But they weren't, and it made an impact."
| 
