ThatsRacin.com: NASCAR News

Petty charity ride rolls on different kind of wheels

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:12 EDT

Thursday was typical for the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America in that it was a really big day filled with a lot of small moments.

The motorcycle riders rolled into the Ballantyne Resort parking lots just before 6p.m. to complete the fifth day of this year's seven-day trip. They'll depart from the hotel this morning, have breakfast and then head south down Interstate 85, turning later toward the finish line Saturday in Savannah, Ga.

Before arriving, the riders spent part of the afternoon at the primary reason for the ride, the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

“Whenever we stop at camp, a lot of the guys ride in wearing glasses, but before long they're wearing sunglasses,” Petty said. “You can't go there and not be affected.”

One of Thursday's stories was about a little girl who saw her parents for the first time after spending a week at the camp near Level Cross. As she hugged them, the first thing she wanted to tell them about was riding a horse for the first time.

There was a brief ceremony at Thursday's arrival. Children from the Allegro Foundation performed, and the ride presented a $25,000 check to that organization.

Charlotte radio personality Robert Raiford, an annual ride participant, joked about being like a small child. “When you're little, you're not 4 you are 41/2,” he said. “I am not 80, I am 801/2.”

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory introduced legends Richard Petty and Dale Jarrett to the crowd. The problem was, it was Ned Jarrett and not his son, Dale.

“He just lost all of the votes in the Jarrett family,” Petty joked about McCrory, a candidate for governor of North Carolina.

Chick-Fil-A is the presenting sponsor for the ride and Dan Cathey, that company's CEO and the son of its founder, spoke to the crowd. But in the spirit of the ride, so did employees from two of the chain's N.C. restaurants. To raise money for the ride, the managers of those stores walked 22 miles from a store in Morganton to one in Hickory. They raised $1,800 in the process, and presented that money Thursday.

“On the first day this year, we had this little boy standing beside the road with a sign saying he had a donation,” Kyle Petty said. This year's ride started Saturday in Traverse City, Mich. “We pulled over and he had a Pringles can full of dimes, nickels and pennies. There wasn't a quarter in there.”

Petty counted the change that night at the hotel.

“It was $23.22, I think,” he said. “That's the story of this ride. We have great corporate sponsors and the riders pay a lot of money, but that's a cool part about it, too. And those people will never know just how far that $23.22 will go at camp.”

Briefly

Motor Racing Outreach is working with the Pajama Program to collect new pajamas for children's homes in the Charlotte area. Fans can contribute to the effort by bringing pajamas, in sizes for infants through teens, from 5:30 to 8:30p.m. Tuesday at the Smith Tower at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Casey Roderick won the legends pro division feature Tuesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway during the sixth round of the Summer Shootout series. Clay Hair won in masters, Cody Blackburn in semipro and Dylan Presnell in young lions.

Andy Mercer won the late model feature Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway. This weekend, the historic track will host the Dwight Huffman Memorial, featuring 77 laps in honor of Huffman, a longtime late model team owner whose teams won more than 150 feature races. Tickets are $7 in honor of the number on Huffman's cars. Racing, of course, will begin at 7p.m.

Thursday was typical for the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America in that it was a really big day filled with a lot of small moments.

Before arriving, the riders spent part of the afternoon at the primary reason for the ride, the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

“Whenever we stop at camp, a lot of the guys ride in wearing glasses, but before long they're wearing sunglasses,” Petty said. “You can't go there and not be affected.”

There was a brief ceremony at Thursday's arrival. Children from the Allegro Foundation performed, and the ride presented a $25,000 check to that organization.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory introduced legends Richard Petty and Dale Jarrett to the crowd. The problem was, it was Ned Jarrett and not his son, Dale.

“He just lost all of the votes in the Jarrett family,” Petty joked about McCrory, a candidate for governor of North Carolina.

Petty counted the change that night at the hotel.

Briefly

Inside the Nationwide Series

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:48 EDT

ELEVATOR

UP – Landon Cassill
Two top-10 finishes and a pole in past five races.

UP – Clint Bowyer
He continues to keep all challengers for the series title at arm’s length.

DOWN – Brad Coleman
One finish of 15th or better in past eight races.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• JOEY LOGANO: Returns to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 team this week looking to pick up where he left off – with three finishes of sixth or better in his first four races.

• REED SORENSON: Returns to the scene of his last NASCAR victory looking to repeat his victory of a year ago and add a spark to his season.

• SCOTT WIMMER: Has finished in the top 10 in each of his last three races at the track, including a second place finish behind Sorenson a year ago.

OBSERVATIONS

• It could be due in part to the different cars used, but this season Nationwide Series “regulars” appear to be much more competitive against the Sprint Cup Series drivers, even in companion weekend events where the number of Cup drivers typically increase. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, for instance, appear just as strong in races with several Cup drivers as without. Even in the series standings, five of the top-10 drivers are not Cup regulars.

• Good move by NASCAR to transfer the series’ most popular driver award to NASCAR.com which has already produced a large response (more than 38,000 votes so far). In previous seasons, the award had been determined by a ballot in NASCAR Insider magazine.

THIS WEEK'S RACE

Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250
Where: Gateway International Raceway, Madison, Ill.
When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
TV: ESPN2
Last year’s winner: Reed Sorenson
Top 10 in points: 1. Clint Bowyer, 2,965; 2. Brad Keselowski, 2,782; 3. David Reutimann, 2,748; 4. Carl Edwards, 2,711; 5. Kyle Busch, 2,633; 6. David Ragan, 2,613; 7. Mike Bliss, 2,603; 8. Mike Wallace, 2,376; 9. David Stremme, 2,325; 10. Jason Keller, 2,278.

NASCAR technical director dies at 58

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:04 EDT

NASCAR technical director Steve Peterson, who played a key role in several safety initiative since joining the company in 1995, was found dead in his home in Concord Tuesday. A NASCAR statement said his death was apparently from natural causes.

Mr. Peterson, 58, was involved in development and installation of steel and foam energy absorbing barriers and helped manage and approve head and neck restraint systems and improved seat belt systems. He also helped co-ordinate the development of safety features in the new car now being used in NASCAR’s top series.

“Steve’s accomplishments to increase driver safety will continue to be a benefit to every NASCAR driver that gets behind the wheel for generations to come,” NASCAR Chairman and chief executive officer Brian France said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steve’s family and friends; he will certainly be missed throughout the NASCAR community.”

Mr. Peterson received the 2006 Motorsports Achievement Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers for his long-term contributions and leadership in motorsports.

“Steve was a tireless worker and passionate about all aspects of safety including the car, the track and the driver,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said. “Steve was our research and development effort long before there was a formal one.”

Mr. Peterson was crew chief for Cup driver Mark Martin in 1982 and also worked as a team engineer and design engineer. A graduate of Western Michigan University, he also was an avid go-karter and lifetime member of the World Karting Association.

Funeral arrangements were pending as of Tuesday evening.

Speedway Motorsports stock losing speed

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:57 EDT

No matter whose side you take in the tiff between Bruton Smith and H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler over Wheeler's departure from Speedway Motorsports, one thing is clear: Wall Street isn't happy with the company's performance of late.

Shares in the Concord-based company – which owns seven speedways, including Lowe's Motor Speedway, and wants to buy an eighth – have lost more than half their value over the past year, with the stock price dropping from about $40 last July to just above $18 Monday.

Even in today's bear market, that's a big slide. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index and other major market measures are down about 20 percent, while shares in International Speedway Corp. – Speedway Motorsports' chief rival – are down almost 30 percent from a year ago.

Both speedway owners have been tested by an economic downtown that has curbed fan attendance and spending at some NASCAR races. But Speedway Motorsports – after tracking closely with its main competitor in 2007 – saw a sharp drop in March and has yet to recover.

After a small bounce in late April and early May, Speedway Motorsports' stock has steadily declined. Wheeler retired as the company's president and chief operating officer, as well as president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, on May 22.

The sinking share value since then, Wheeler said in a recent e-mail to the Observer, is “what happens when the ‘right stuff' isn't there with investors.”

Industry analysts, however, say responsibility lies with two major moves this year: the $340 million purchase of New Hampshire International Speedway and the planned purchase of the Kentucky Speedway for more than $70 million.

“They're high-priced acquisitions,” said Joe Hovorka, a senior vice president with Raymond James & Associates in Atlanta. “The path to value to shareholders is not clear.”

Shortly after Wheeler, 69, announced his retirement after 33 years at Lowe's Motor Speedway – a few days before the Coca-Cola 600 – he said his departure wasn't entirely on his own terms.

Wheeler and Smith, 81, had discussed Wheeler's retirement for about six months, both men said, but ultimately couldn't settle differences over Wheeler's compensation or retirement date. Smith said he expected Wheeler to leave May 28, after the Coca-Cola 600.

Smith – chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports – also noted that Wheeler has disagreed with him in the past on such projects as building condos near Turn 1 and building the drag strip scheduled to open in September on speedway property.

Leadership changes can cause ripples in the market, analysts said. With Wheeler's departure, “you had some cloudiness to how that all came about,” said Tim Conder, a managing director with Wachovia Capital Markets.

In addition, Conder said, Speedway Motorsports didn't add to its leadership team to replace Wheeler, instead elevating Smith's son, Marcus Smith.

“Marcus is a familiar face,” Conder said, “but he is definitely not as well known and doesn't have the experience and track record that Humpy Wheeler did.”

Just as important is Speedway Motorsports' efforts to add two more speedways to the company's portfolio, Conder said. International Speedway Corp. hasn't extended itself financially in the same way this year, he said, and that company's lower debt has kept its stock price from sinking as low as that of Speedway Motorsports.

Hovorka said the $340 million cash price for the New Hampshire track is a big chunk of Speedway Motorsports' market capitalization, now about $800 million. In essence, he said, the company is paying for two NASCAR Sprint Cup race dates.

The Kentucky Speedway has no race on the Sprint Cup schedule, Hovorka said, and it's unclear how Bruton Smith plans to land a race for that venue, which is in a media market smaller than most of those of other Speedway Motorsports tracks.

“Quite frankly,” Hovorka said, “it doesn't make a lot of sense to us.”

Newman will leave Penske Racing

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:50 EDT

Ryan Newman will leave Penske Racing and its No. 12 Dodges after the 2008 Sprint Cup season, the team announced Monday.

Newman is widely believed to be heading for Stewart-Haas Racing to join Tony Stewart for 2009. Stewart will have 50 percent ownership in what is now Haas CNC Racing next year and is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to drive there.

"We want to thank Ryan for his hard work and contributions to Penske Racing over the past nine years,” said Roger Penske, owner of Penske Racing. “We wish Ryan all the best for the future and we’ll continue to focus our efforts on making the Chase with Ryan and the Alltel Dodge team this season.”

Newman won this year's Daytona 500 for his 13th career Sprint Cup victory. He is 16th in the Cup standings through 19 races. Newman has made all 243 of his career Cup starts in Penske-owned cars.

“I appreciate Penske Racing and all they have done for me, but more importantly, I appreciate their friendship and what they have done for my career," said Newman, 30. "I would also like to thank all of the sponsors, especially Alltel, who have supported me."

Penske Racing said a new driver for the No. 12 will be announced "in the near future." Sources say David Stremme is one of the drivers being looked at to replace Newman in that ride.

Kenseth moving up, but needs a win

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:27 EDT

That's Racin' ranks the top 40 teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after the Lifelock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway at Joliet, Ill. Rankings are based on performance and potential for success. (Last week's ranking in parentheses):

1. (1) Kyle Busch -- car No. 18

Just in case you were wondering, the team in this slot won't be changing for a while.

2. (2) Carl Edwards -- car No. 99

Great car at Chicago, but the way the 18 team is going there's no room for mistakes.

3. (6) Matt Kenseth -- car No. 17

After a slow start, this team officially has its act together. But a win would be nice.

4. (3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- car No. 88

In a way salvaging 16th at Chicagoland with how this car ran speaks well of this team.

5. (7) Jimmie Johnson -- car No. 48

Without final yellow Chicago's story would've been this team stepping up to duel 18.

6. (4) Kasey Kahne -- car No. 9

It a bit of a stall after brilliant stretch. But this team has always had a knack for Indy.

7. (5) Jeff Burton -- car No. 31

Just when it needs to be showing improvement this team looks a little wobbly lately.

8. (9) Tony Stewart -- car No. 20

Not sure we buy the into the pressure's off, watch out line. But watch out at Indy.

9. (10) Jeff Gordon -- car No. 24

A way to keep Busch from tying your modern 13-win record would be to win some.

10. (11) Greg Biffle -- car. No. 16

This team's fourth-place Chicagoland finish was its first top 10-finish since Dover.

11. (8) Denny Hamlin -- car No. 11

If Joey Logano drives the 20 next year, Hamlin will be Gibbs team's senior driver.

12. (13) Kevin Harvick -- car No. 29

Six top-10 finishes in eight tries at Chicago, and he's been good at Indianapolis, too.

13. (12) Clint Bowyer -- car No. 07

14. (16) Brian Vickers -- car No. 83

15. (15) David Ragan -- car No. 6

16. (17) Martin Truex Jr. -- car No. 1

17. (14) Kurt Busch -- car No. 2

18. (18) Ryan Newman -- car No. 12

19. (19) Mark Martin/Aric Almirola -- car No. 8

20. (21) Elliott Sadler -- car No. 19

21. (20) Bobby Labonte -- car No. 43

22. (22) Juan Pablo Montoya -- car No. 42

23. (25) Jamie McMurray -- car No. 26

24. (23) Casey Mears -- car No. 5

25. (28) David Reutimann -- car No. 44

26. (29) Robby Gordon -- car No. 7

27. (24) Travis Kvapil -- car No. 28

28. (26) David Gilliland -- car No. 38

29. (27) Paul Menard -- car No. 15

30. (31) Dave Blaney -- car No. 22

31. (33) Reed Sorenson -- car No. 41

32. (32) Sam Hornish Jr. -- car No. 77

33. (30) Michael Waltrip -- car No. 55

34. (36) AJ Allmendinger -- car No. 84

35. (34) Patrick Carpentier -- car No. 10

36. (38) Scott Riggs -- car No. 66

37. (39) J.J. Yeley -- car No. 96

38. (35) Regan Smith -- car No. 01

39. (37) Michael McDowell -- car No. 00

40. (40) Joe Nemechek -- car No. 78

Busch getting the breaks

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:47 EDT

JOLIET, Ill. -- Perhaps it is not wise to see the finish of Saturday night's LifeLock 400 as some sort of demarcation between the fortunes of Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

It, however, surely is tempting.

When Johnson passed Busch for the lead with 16 laps to go, Busch came over his team's radio and declared, “Race over.”

That's not how it turned out. Not this year, when everything that happens somehow adds up to 18 – the number on Busch's Toyota.

Johnson was pulling away and sailing toward his second win of the season until a late caution for David Gilliland's blown engine set up a two-lap race to the checkered flag.

That opened the door for Busch, 23, and he plowed right through it for his seventh win of the season.

Johnson is the two-time defending Cup Series champion, and he's going to be around in the final 10 races when the Chase determines the 2008 title winner.

He won 10 races on his way to last year's crown, and when you win that many races in a season, it sometimes seems like every break goes your way. In case you hadn't noticed, that's what's happening for Busch this year.

Even Busch has noticed.

“I don't know how to put it, it's so different,” he said of his winning roll; he's won three of the past four races. “After winning one or two races a year, this is something that's crazy.

“Last year, you would see Jimmie coming with 100 laps to go or 50 laps to go and I would tell my team, ‘Race over.' And I was pretty much always right. … I was over there (at Hendrick Motorsports, as Johnson's teammate) last year and it was like, ‘How can I get some of those wins?' Now I know how he felt. You have to stay humble and you have to stay hungry. Somehow it's paying off and working out.”

Part of that somehow is the fact that Busch's new team at Joe Gibbs Racing was hungry for success. Bobby Labonte won a championship with that team, but there had been some lean days after that.

Crew chief Steve Addington said he knew the team had good people and good race cars, but he also knew there was a part of the puzzle that wasn't fitting. Busch has provided that piece, and the results have been startling.

“I never dreamed it could be like this,” Addington said. “Winning seven races already is crazy.”

It also might have been crazy how, coming into this season, Johnson was being somewhat overlooked despite the fact he'd won the past two titles.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved in as his teammate in the Hendrick stable, and it had almost become a foregone conclusion that Johnson would win his handful of races and have the team through which the path to the championship ran.

As the series heads into its final off weekend of the season, however, it appears there's a new route. To win the title this year, Johnson and everyone else is going to have to deal with Busch and his team.

Busch said he won Saturday night's race by “pulling a Jimmie Johnson on himself” with the pass off the final restart.

“Anywhere from here on out Jimmie could do the same thing right back to me,” Busch said. “I know there will be times when it's reversed. But with him being the defending champion, I have the utmost respect for them.

“To beat guys like that is really special.”

The problem for Johnson and everybody else, however, is it's becoming routine.

Race Rewind | Busch brothers own last four wins

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:32 EDT

REAR-VIEW MIRROR/David Poole

-- The only race Kyle Busch hasn't won in the past four was won by his brother, Kurt. The last time that happened was in 1955 when Tim Flock won at Montgomery, Ala., and Langhorne, Pa.; Fonty Flock won Raleigh; and then Tim won at Greenville-Pickens. The Flocks, with Bob also contributing, also won four straight in 1952. The Thomas brothers also did it in the final four races of that year, with Herb winning three of them.

-- This was TNT's last race. It seemed like it the network's first-ever. Viewers missed a restart early and significant action on pit road all night long during commercials. But, for absolutely no reason imaginable, fans did see Larry McReynolds attempt some Mickey Mouse magic. The only trick TNT pulled was making broadcasting competence disappear.

PIT STOPS

Big turnaround for Harvick

Kevin Harvick's third-place finish couldn't have come at more opportune time as he has been floating above and below the cutoff spot to make the Chase over the last several weeks.

He gained four spots in the series standings to ninth, but still needs good finishes over the next seven races to ensure his participation in the Chase. Harvick is 52 points above the 13th spot -- the top 12 qualify.

"We have made a lot of gains this month and I hope we have put ourselves in position with these new cars and new engines to get some momentum," said Harvick, who earned his first top-five finish since the March 16 race at Bristol, Tenn.

Harvick was running third on the final restart when Kyle Busch moved to the outside to pass Jimmie Johnson and was keeping an eye on the front two in case an opportunity presented itself.

"I thought I might be in the right spot there coming into the last corner," he said. "We just came up a little short." -- JIM UTTER

Stewart's big weekend ends with top-five

With all the hoopla around Tony Stewart's announcement he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at season's end and was now 50 percent owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, one wondered how Stewart would fare on the track.

Stewart ended up fifth -- his best performance in three weeks -- and gave himself a little breathing room in race to secure a spot in the Chase. He improved two positions to 10th.

"We weren't bad. We just got in a situation where we got free in the last couple runs and that's when we needed to be really good and we just fought loose for some reason," Stewart said.

"You look at the top of the board there and (Busch) is winning races. We ran with him the majority of the day. We just lost the handle on it at the end." -- J.U.

Strong night for Red Bull

Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger spent much of the race near each other and in the top 10.

Allmendinger was making his debut with new crew chief Jimmy Elledge. Vickers' engine blew just before the end of the race but he coasted across the finish line in sixth place, while Allmendinger was 13th -- one spot off his Cup career high of 12th.

"We definitely had a top-five car. Unfortunately, the engine blew on the last lap. We were down a cylinder on the restart, so those guys got a jump on us," Vickers said. "It could have been worse."

Allmendinger was nearly ecstatic about his first race with Elledge.

"I had more information than I ever could imagine. I knew exactly where I was running the whole time, what lap times I was running, and what the guys near me and behind me were running," he said. "It's everything I could ask for and it seems like it makes driving so much easier." -- J.U.

Kenseth overcomes early problem

Matt Kenseth spent the early part of the race in the thick of the battle for the lead but just as he seemed ready to settle in up front he was forced to pit road with a cut tire.

He fell a lap down at one point, got it back on a free pass under caution, and battled back for a seventh place finish which moved him up to a spot to eighth in the series standings.

"We just had a flat tire and there was a log of green-flag (racing) and it took us a long time to get our lap back and then we sort of ran out of time," Kenseth said.

"We were better than most, but it was still a huge advantage to be out front. When we were out front, we were running side-by-side with (Busch) and he ended winning the race." -- J.U.

Ignition problem hampers Hamlin

Denny Hamlin appeared to have a car capable of contending for a win Saturday night but fell off the pace early when he developed ignition problems and was forced to go to the garage for repairs.

Hamlin finished the race four laps down in 40th place which cost him five spots in the series standings. He is now 12th, the last position to qualify for the Chase, 27 points ahead of 13th place Clint Bowyer. -- J.U.

KEY MOMENTS

Lap 134

Matt Kenseth comes to pit road with a tire going down on his Ford. Kenseth had worked his car to the lead before that problem, but the unscheduled stop leaves him a lap down.

Lap 212

Shortly after taking the lead away from Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards comes to pit road thinking he's got a flat tire. What's actually wrong is that there's a broken brace on the nose of his Ford and his splitter has been dragging.

Lap 251

Two laps after a restart, Jimmie Johnson surges to the outside and takes the lead away from Busch. It looks like Busch, after having led 165 laps, is not going to pick up his seventh victory of the season.

Lap 261

David Gilliland's Ford begins spewing white smoke, its engine having let go. That brings out a caution without which Johnson would have clearly been on his way to victory.

Lap 266

Johnson leads coming to a restart with two laps left, but Busch isn't willing to settle for second. He makes his move to the outside going into Turn 1 and makes it stick. Busch completes the pass and holds off Johnson and Kevin Harvick to win.

NEXT RACE

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

When: Sunday, July 27, 2 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: Indianapolis Motor Speedway network

Last year's winner: Tony Stewart

Petty still true blue at 71

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:53 EDT

Weathered like a favorite leather jacket, crinkled with lines of experience but resilient to the ravages of age, Richard Petty still stands tall.

His face is stock-car's Rushmore. His wrap-around sunglasses and custom-made cowboy hat – resplendent with feathered accoutrement – are iconic.

He is a living, breathing trademark.

He is a walking, talking history book.

At 71 years old, “The King” is a fully realized legend.

Petty won 200 Cup races, a number so far beyond logic it almost loses value, and racked up seven championships. The second-generation racer from tiny Level Cross stood for a sporting epoch as the name and the face of his sport, the way Muhammad Ali did for boxing and Arnold Palmer for golf.

It had to start somewhere.

For Petty, the beginning came 50 years ago Saturday on a half-mile dirt track in Columbia, where generations of the Southeast's finest cut their racing teeth.

Three years earlier Richard had asked his father, stock-car pioneer Lee Petty, about driving.

“I'd already done everything there was to do except drive,” Richard says. “I'd built cars, I had worked on them, I had painted them and I had worked in the pits.”

He had even attended the first Strictly Stock series race – Cup's forerunner – in Charlotte in 1949, having to thumb a ride home after Lee wrecked the car they'd rode in.

Lee told his 18-year-old son they'd talk about driving when Richard turned 21.

“And if you knew my daddy,” Richard says, “you knew that was the end of it.”

Richard waited until his 21st birthday – July 2, 1958 – and brought it up again.

“Daddy said, ‘There's a car, you get it ready and you can race in Columbia,'” he says.

The Grand National Series ran that night at McCormick Field in Asheville. Lee took the family's No.42 Oldsmobile there and won $265, finishing fourth.

NASCAR's convertible series was running at Columbia.

“Daddy just sent me off on my own, basically,” Richard remembers. Dale Inman, who would go on to a career as one of the greatest mechanics racing would know, went too as Richard's crew chief. “If you look at it now in the scheme of racing, it was just Saturday night racing. But to us it was major league.”

Petty finished sixth, five laps down to winner Bob Welborn, but brought the car home in one piece along with $200.

Richard's clearest memory of that night is the ride home.

“We were in the pickup truck, me and Dale and one other fellow. I told them, ‘You know, I think I am going to like this driving thing,'” Richard says, smiling at his understatement.

His first Grand National start came six days later, at Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto, finishing 17th of 19 in a race Lee won. In 1992, after 1,184 races in NASCAR's top series, Petty retired.

“The winning?” Petty says of what came in between. “No, that never got old.”

Not even in 1967, when he won 10 straight on the way to 27 victories in 49 races.

“Plymouth took us to New York and that was the first time I'd ever been in New York for the press,” Petty says. “That was one of the first times that we were exposed to the rest of the world. We were a Southern sport. Every once in a while we'd get lucky and get our name in the paper in Osk Kosh or something like that. But once we started winning all of those races people started covering it.

“I have a clipping some guy sent us from a paper in Canada and all it says is “Petty runs second.” It doesn't tell who won or anything else. It got to that point.”

Petty remembers those days with another type of fondness.

“In 1967 we had eight people working for us,” Petty says. “That was it. They went to all the races. … I was there every day, working on the car. … Those were the real satisfying years because I was involved in the whole program. I owned the car and paid the bills and you did it all.”

Earlier this year the Petty family sold a majority stake in the team to Boston Ventures, an investment group with the kind of dollars needed to compete in today's NASCAR world. That pushed “The King” another level away.

But no matter what it might say on the deed to Petty Enterprises, Petty's mark on his sport is indelible. He not only helped define it competitively, he laid the framework for how it deals with the people who love it. While the fan's accessibility to NASCAR's stars has eroded, Petty rightfully is cited as the man who set the standard for that to start with.

“We never got a dollar from a race track or from a sponsor,” Petty says. “Every dollar I ever got came from the fans. They're the reason Richard Petty exists. Their money came through the tracks, but without the fans there are no race tracks. They're the reason we had sponsors.”

It was Petty's farewell tour in 1992 that expanded the sport's merchandising horizons.

“I wasn't trying to lead anybody. … We just thought it would be a better deal for us and our people so we could get better cars and win more races. We were just riding the horse through the pasture along with everybody else, but we were leading the crowd without knowing it.

“The good Lord put me in the right place in the right circumstances at the right time. I got stuck here at the right time to ride that horse through the field.”

And, after 50 years in the saddle, he still rides tall.

Audience with 'The King'

Richard Petty competed head-to-head with many of his fellow all-time NASCAR legends. Here is how Petty fared one-on-one against some of them (head-to-head wins means which driver finished ahead of the other in races where they both competed):

Petty vs. David Pearson (550 races)

Driver

Head-to-head wins

Races

won

Top

fives

Top

10s

Avg.

finish

Richard Petty

289

107

291

366

9.8

David Pearson

261

289

349

11.2

Petty vs. Bobby Allison (693 races)

Driver

Head-to-head wins

Races

won

Top

fives

Top

10s

Avg.

finish

Richard Petty

385

134

351

455

10.4

Bobby Allison

308

329

436

11.3

Petty vs. Cale Yarborough (518 races)

Driver

Head-to-head wins

Races

won

Top

fives

Top

10s

Avg.

finish

Richard Petty

272

254

323

11.4

Cale Yarborough

246

243

300

12.4

Petty vs. Darrell Waltrip (562 races)

Driver

Head-to-head wins

Races

won

Top

fives

Top

10s

Avg.

finish

Richard Petty

216

182

270

14.7

Darrell Waltrip

346

260

347

11.6

Petty vs. Dale Earnhardt (415 races)

Driver

Head-to-head wins

Races

won

Top

fives

Top

10s

Avg.

finish

Richard Petty

141

160

17.1

Dale Earnhardt

274

178

266

11.3

No. 96 team held out of prerace

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:30 EDT

Hall of Fame Racing's No. 96 Toyota was held in the inspection bay at Chicagoland Speedway by NASCAR officials until shortly before the start of Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400.

The car failed pre-race inspection when two water bottles were found in the car containing lead, NASCAR officials said.

Driver J.J. Yeley was allowed to join the field after the 42 other cars had already started the pace laps and then was required to serve a stop-and-go penalty on pit road after taking the green flag.

Any additional penalties for the infraction will be announced next week, NASCAR officials said.