Petty Blue - Richard Petty Story | Fence Armor

by permission of the petty family were honored to be able to share with you on our Channel Richard Petty's legacy and his history we thought it was important not a lot of people know about it and why we as a fence armor so proud to be part of the de petty family and sponsoring that at ARCA enjoy the movie and thanks for watching [Music] [Music] there is one of the great masters of this part Richard Petty [Music] from dirt pass to super speedways there wasn't a race that richard petty couldn't win Richard was NASCAR's first hero and the Petty's were its first family a racing empire that spanned generations none have more wins none more championships but success is difficult to sustain and sooner or later it would all fade away [Music] while the petty name would one day be known worldwide the family's North Carolina hometown didn't appear on many Maps level cross is a small southern town marked by whistle stops crossroads and backwoods although the world around has changed life here has not during the Great Depression farmers worked the red clay fields until their hands were stained the same it was a simpler time but there was nothing simple about their way of life for generations local cross is where the petty family has called home had no electricity no telephones you know no communications because you had as much as a guy next door twin bed until until really I got married which was 21 22 years old so we say we grew up together we definitely grew up together my mother and daddy they were very stern they had certain rules we knew what the rules were and if you broke them you got wok it was not ideal who was abused by anyways I with always being abused but that we weren't I would describe them is pretty strict parents very levin but it was not as shown with my dad was just a hot-rodder okay and he had a couple of trucks he did a lot of trucking sometimes he'd raised some pigs and sometimes would raise tomatoes in the summer you know he down a little bit everything everybody at that particular time was just trying to get along nobody trying to get ahead and just trying to make a living one way to make a living was to make moonshine and easily distilled corn whiskey that has been a staple of southern life since the Civil War moonshine runners could make more in one haul than farmers made in a month but getting it to customers was a risky business government revenue agents patrolled the back roads so bootleggers drove cars rebuilt to outrun them they drove for the money Lee petty drove to feed his family he hold her there ain't no two ways about it mom and Richard myself a lot of times we get to ride but he moved a night when he might even drops and then on even after that we got to go to the movies so my granddaddy and a bunch of my uncles and stuff they had of some steals around they did a little bootlegging too you know and you didn't think anything about it because it was just a way of life in level cross the whole neighborhood made liquor and they sold it and if you didn't you would go hungry I'm sure [Music] these liquor collars that all get together and everybody brag about how fast their car was and they used to race them on the road for money big money [Music] [Music] because they worked on their cars and suit them up so they could outrun the law then they got to soothing them up and running each other on these little tracks or whatever it was not the look to sport it was looked down through sport the people in our community and the people who want to school with we're more looking at deal it's just a bunch of bootleggers okay just a bunch of outlaws they want people that you wanted to invite to Sunday dinner I don't guess [Music] races were a rowdy bunch good old boys out to have a good old time but stock car racing was unorganized until a part-time driver named big Bill France headed up a new organization the National Association for stock car auto racing NASCAR turned racing into a series and gave drivers a chance to race for a living it was the opportunity to Lee had been waiting for his moonshiner experience making everyday cars go faster led to fast success now we have a battle for the lead between Tim Clark in 91 and lead heavy and sleepy I always looked at him has been probably the smartest driver that I've ever seen because one week he would run hard and the next week he wouldn't run hard but he went on both weekend he drove for a living he didn't drive for somebody else he knew that if he didn't finish that race then we might not get to the next race oh we had to win yeah we had we go to racetrack and we're looking have enough food and enough guys get to the racetrack that's the truth we drove with the race car to the racetrack I drove a race car always near the Californian rate I drove it all the way to New York raised Canada there were we didn't have no luxury at all I guess he was one of the first ones to make a living especially for his family in racing and when he decided to do it he just he just went at it and and made it work when my dad worked on a race car we were there what happened him Dale was in and out of helping us that he was almost like a third brother I was the only guy in school that went home and didn't work on the farm I went home working on race court I was building the engines in the court doing the rear end stuff doing the bodywork you know I mean painting the car or welding up the car building whatever it was daddy was they were real strict I mean you know you you know walk the line and they spoke you listened he thought nothing about it because he grew up in the depression he grew up in hard times and everybody took everything they could get he was tough on Marcy and Richard very tough on them and his mother trying to keep the happy medium you know but he was tough and he liked being mr. tough [Music] name is a dirty racist he will appreciate that but these guys put me I'd have been in two dogs in 57 [Music] when I told you we all live together in the family that didn't include Lipe he didn't stay with Lee did not drink with I don't think the lead late at least certainly didn't shake like we did and so we socially were never ever together he was a family man were a lot of in that kind of the races they maybe they they come to party and just they haven't have a trace and they would run it le pedí and his family were among the leaders in helping to change the image of the sport from its original background we presented a family-type image and his family was always with him at the races his wife would fix lunch and either send with them to the racetrack we'll bring it to the racetrack for them so it was a total family effort she was very supportive of my dad no matter what he done whether he was farming or doing stuff legal or illegal she went along with whatever the show was when dad mom and Richard myself they'd hoped always falling behind had a tow car he'd hook it behind it and off we go we'd go to Charlotte or Richmond or we wind up going to Pennsylvania you know II said man you know these people got paved roads and they got electricity and you know all this kind of stuff so it really opened our world up in a just in a couple of three years we went from being really way backwards to see the real world all through my school years I never thought about driving a racecar I said you know hey my dad's driving he'll drive forever and never thought about him not driving so I wanted to be the crew chief on my dad's car and then when I was like 18 years old I said hey Devin you know they got some of these guys it's 18 19 years old then I want to drive a race car he looked at me and said come back when you're 21 said you you'll do a lot of learning from the time you're 18 - you're 21 young Richard Petty can only wait and wait and wait [Music] after I got out of school then that's kind of hot rodder around had a hot rod car raced up and down the road my brother was going this code and his girlfriend and Linda were both cheerleaders and I went to all the games and one night Richard just jumped in the car and said I'm going with Mars to take you hunting take y'all home I think I had a little girl die sparking over on the side here somewhere and I think she had a boyfriend you know I mean and so they just happened he was zooming in on me but I was being very leery of him being an older guy you know but it didn't take long for me to think he was pretty super nice guy a lot of times we go to a drive-in to get something to eat and he's like whatever you want to eat just order it no I'm like goodness the hamburgers were always delicious they just worked and it was just a deal after a while then we just got to be a pair I was gonna get married when I got out of school and he said to me one day he said we need to go ahead and get married because I'm gonna start racing and I'm gonna be gone a lot and I want you to be my partner and she said okay he's 17 years old you don't mean still in high school so it's okay we're gonna do this I knew in my best mind that was not the right thing for me to do right then but anyway finally we ran off we did get married and I told her I said you know I said you got to remember this I said racing is number one but if you try real real hard someday you can be number two she looks back she's that man was I innocent I was young and stupid and I said oh I'll just be happy being number two so that's where I've been all my life is number two right before I think I was 21 years old I went to my dad and said okay I want to drive a racecar well he said there's a car over in the corner I was a rural road rookie I had never been in a race car with a helmet on and a seat belt that had tried to run fashion it was a challenge of doing something on your own and without any help okay they give you a car they give you a steering wheel then it's your responsibility you're a hundred percent you can get on the breaks you can get on the gas you can turn left you could turn right I guess I felt like I had more control over what I wanted to do and what I could do than any other time in my life [Music] you know when we first started running my dad was at the top of the heap and I was at the bottom of the heap I don't know had a half a dozen races or something where we ran together and when our woman was 150 mile race at lakewood speedway in atlanta we go around all day and the place is really dusty and dirty they flagged me the winter I had never won a race okay so this is a great man somebody comes up and says hey somebody protested the race and I said what'd we do wrong I said well they think they've done more laps than you did and turn around Ernie was my dad Richard's mother scored his dad's car and sure enough when they went back and rechecked they found out that Richards daddy did win the race that Richard didn't win it and Richard was so upset with his daddy I mean that was a win for him that was a shock really that it would have given Richard an opportunity to to win that early in his career and yet his dad said nope you didn't win it I did and when you look at it from a father-son standpoint you say well you know you want your son to do better than you did but at the same time you want to be fair this was the Petty's this was the cost of racing this was how Lee had become a two-time champion nobody had won more races he was his sports first king [Applause] [Music] but in 1959 a new era and NASCAR had begun with concrete turns three times taller than the Petty's home the Daytona International Speedway offered unbridled horsepower like nothing the world had ever seen [Music] going through the tunnel and here a 21 year old kid coming in never seeing the racetrack they look like it was 15 miles down to the first and second corner man that was a big crazy what the hell's is you know it was just a monster it scared the hell out of me I'll put it out and then don't scare me it scared everybody that come down in through that tunnel coach we've been running half a mile quarter miles and maybe a mile track now then and we look up there and see this monitor you know what I mean and how people's eyes bumped out of the head and so I said well myself I said those fellas ain't got no more experience on this thing race car than I have and so I said I'll just get in there and I've run wide open that's what I did and the first state tonne of 500 Li and Johnny Beauchamp barreled neck-and-neck toward the checkered flag immediately after the race Beauchamp was declared the winner Lee protested the photo snapped at the finish line would take three days to develop on Wednesday the front pages reveal that the defending NASCAR champ was the first champ of the Daytona 500 two years later father and son were back to reconquer Daytona but the track of the family's greatest triumphs became the site of catastrophe I got in a wreck and went over the first corner went out of the boat [Music] just as I walk out infirmary they said Lee PD just went over turn three and four walk [Music] [Music] when we got to the hospital they said we don't think your babies don't live said it is it's gonna be touch and go wait and to talk to him he was about half conscious and all just to all the pieces cut up everywhere punctured lung just his leg just busted off just hanging there and he looks up and he said okay he says [Music] everything we had that day was gone we had nothing nothing but mangled sheet metal to load up to send back home we left there that Monday and we did not know if his daddy would never die [Music] there was two or three of the people that had worked for us and they felt like his daddy was going to be gone and they quit so eventually when Mars came home there wasn't anybody but Marcin Richard all of a sudden it was on a 23 year old kid and his 21 year old brother I mean if I was pressured I don't remember you know we just done what you had been taught to do and that's what you've done nobody knows what they can do till they put under the gun okay and then you either produce or you don't and the toughest part was we wasn't doing to get that made it really really tough to be able to come up with enough money to get to the next race [Music] Bernal by Roberta Greg on the engine [Music] all through 61 he just struggled and struggled in the struggle it was a terrible year but I knew that is with Richards positive attitude that he would make it work he wanted to race and he was willing to do whatever it took and March did too they just press our beard and that's what it takes that's how people succeed they don't throw in the towel this is Bob Smith of WN DB sports department of the hospital bedside of Lee petty world famous stock car driver from Randleman North Carolina Lee as you know is presently recovering from injuries received in a race here at Daytona Beach on February the 24th Lee how are you today Bob I'm feeling real good and I'm glad she was able to come over today because I think I feel better today and I want to say hello to all my friends and plus I'm looking forward to the race and maybe Richard will win it to make me feel lots better Lee petty we want to thank you very much for allowing us to come into your hospital room here today bob has really been a pleasure that I was able to do this for you plus all the friends and the people over the radio throughout the country today Lee spent four months in a Daytona hospital while the wreck didn't end his life it ended his driving career the future of Petty Enterprises was put into the unproven hands of a 23 year old Richard Lee became the boss man but the family business soon became less about family and more about business it was his business he hired me as his driver and he expects me to win so you don't go over and pet the guy on the back hey man you've done a good job that's what I hired you for that's the way he looked at it when we didn't do good now he could flat tell you what you needed to do better now you could do that Richard would come in on on a Monday and his daddy would start like well what was wrong with that car yesterday what was wrong with you yesterday he didn't pay you compliments for anything you've done good it was always what you done that wasn't good I felt like I was learning and accomplishing what my ability was I was just trying to make it work the best I could whether it was driving the car whether it was with a family so there was a lot happen in those couple of three years [Music] we had two children just boom boom right together Sharon and Kyler exactly 12 months apart so a lot of times I couldn't go with Richard and I was home with the kids it was just a total different way of life now grant you we didn't have a fine home or a big new car but we had each other and we were happy I never remember my mama whine and crying saying who is your daddy was here or anything like that you know my mom is a very independent person I'm sure there were times she was lonely I'm sure there what times she needed him desperately she didn't let us night my mother was incredibly strong she was the disciplinarian whether it was our grades whether it was something we did after school or before school or to another student or to our brothers or sisters she was the one that kind of take the bull by the horn and kind of put us back in line I was the one and you can ask them you ask I'll did your daddy ever whip you and he'd say no but my mother well the daylights out of me Linda was the homebody she took care of everything at home so we live two separate lives together okay you got figured you know you got a 27 28 year old kid and all he wants to do drive a racecar and so family came Sackett around racing Richard had some wins on small tracks in 1962 and 63 but the 43 car didn't have the raw speed to win the big races then in 1964 dodge introduced its race ready 427 horsepower engine the Hemi with Richard behind the wheel and Maurice under the hood the family business was back in business [Music] Richard how long you've been in this racing business about five years then you're picking victory this is it this is the first time I've ever won old lady sleeper so your fire was a champion before you how much longer you gonna be in this business well I guess from now in this life you Richards first Daytona 500 win would lead to his first NASCAR championship over the next three years 243 one race is big and small with wife at Darlington in 1967 his 55th win broke his father's NASCAR record Richard Peddie a man who today at the Drunken Raceway made racing history with his father the man whose record he broke plea how do you feel about all that be a real good drew is I think he throw a real good race your car handle good and we had all the look with we just hit I mean we won a race then we went home worked on the car went back and won a second race that's great then all of a sudden you win five and you win six new and seven eight nine ten races in a row reached a certain plateau now we need to go on we're know looking back then [Music] I went to the racetrack one and who was gonna run second [Music] early in the morning I lasted how you do I say everyone again just you know it was great [Applause] [Music] Marie said had zeroed in on the engine building part of it and had become what was considered then the best in the business he wouldn't sleep I'm he didn't taking that he'd wake up and think of something else he was gonna do the next day and write it down or jog it in his brain and go back to bed and wake up again I mean he was always an innovator that's what it kicked her buds Dale Inman of course having grown up with Richard and Maurice he knew what made them tick and had learned over the years what it took to make the car kick [Music] they haven't wanted the pet eat it I'm not saying the same the easy rich is a pretty good driver when they got their combination together Mars building the motors Richard driving the car and Dale turning the wrenches they were almost unbeatable [Music] [Music] lies under the checkered flag [Music] [Applause] by the mid-1970s Richard Petty had become an auto racing icon he would win the Daytona 500 a record seven times and he would win an unprecedented seven championships no driver in history would win as many races among the fans he was their runaway favorite he was the king I don't know who started the name King you know what I mean but it's great you know it's big for it well I think he projected a wholesome good-old-boy image he didn't drink he didn't fight and that appealed to people they like to hero what parent didn't want their kid to love Richard Petty the fans was buying the tickets so you say ok these are the people that's letting you do what you want to do next you're a race car when the race is over you'd be give out and they give you oxygen ok and you set there for three or four minutes get some oxygen take the oxygen away and then you start signing autographs I mean you know nobody ever said a racecar driver was smart did he would sit there till the lice person got an autograph and live we would wait and we would wait and we would wait and we would wait and sometimes it would be getting dark and finally here he'd come wandering into the car after we might be like the only person in the infield left and then sometimes this is this is really bad and it happened a lot like we would open the doors and shut him like so much during the day that the battery would be day yet and here's daddy just driven 500 miles and he comes and gets in his car let's to us go home it won't start that's how he got to be so popular with the people he was a very first one to an arm angle with the fans as the sport grew up Richard Petty set the standard for the drivers understanding of the level of importance that the fans have in our business which'll throws open the doors of the peddle compound for an open house celebration that draws nearly 40,000 turned on penny fans they formed a line more than a mile long waiting patiently to shake the hand and get the flourishing autograph of King Richard Richard signs autographs for two solid days down oh yeah leave petty you were one of the sports first-rate champions but of all the champions in stock car racing Richard Petty is the greatest if you look out here and see all these people and all Richard's success what does it mean to you if so what you call it the inner satisfaction I really can't express it but it's an inner satisfaction that you accomplish and materialize over the years I just felt like that was part of me part of my job part of what I wanted to do part of what I was wanting to accomplish I look at my autograph and assist thank you thank you for buying a ticket thank you for paying for my kids to go to school or eat for the house they live in so every time you see my autograph it doesn't say Richard Petty it says thank you Pal petit was born into an established racing dynasty but growing up as the only son to the king made it challenging for the boy to become his own man the option of racing was always there waiting for him but Kyle's future was not preordained when Kyle was little people would come up and say I bet you're gonna be a race car driver just like your dad and I kept saying I don't think so I don't think so [Music] so not was seven eight nine years old in race your bicycles everybody raced your bicycles and you would pretend you were Richard Petty whoever it may be but you never really thought that far ahead I never really said that what yeah when I get to be you know 18 years old I'm gonna be a race car driver and count just always did whatever I mean if this was a tree and I was just gonna do whatever and he kind of never went along with the crowd you know he played football basketball baseball and golf [Music] Kyle was really a good football player really a good quarterback he had been good I don't Georgia Tech then to Carolina been given a bunch of different schools and they were recruiting I probably had some athletic ability but I did not have the heart or the passion to play football I don't like getting hit if he wasn't going to college we won't need him to go to a business school so we sent him to a business school and he must have went for maybe a month at the most and one day the lady called and she said I'm gonna refund your money don't send him back he's not interested in this business school so that ended his business career one day I just woke up and I knew more about racing that knew about anything else and I'm lazy so I just went the easy route he's really smart and he's got a lot of talent but his daddy was Richard Petty sometimes I look at him and I feel like that he got kind of what what did you expect him to do and I think that his intentions were to go at it and he might not ever be as good as his daddy but I think he felt like he could be almost as good oh he definitely felt the pressure of being Richard Petty son all the expectations were that he's gonna start where his daddy is and go forward tomorrow Kyle's career began in 1979 with a lower level race on NASCAR's trademark track Daytona in his first race 18-year old Kyle scored his first win he made a phenomenal first impression but early success was short-lived the toll of running two cars full-time during the team Kyle couldn't win and the king had stopped winning then Dale Inman Richard's crew chief cousin and closest friend quit Petty Enterprises you know we've been not doing as good as what both of us was willing to do as far as winning races and he just said okay it's time that I need to go see if I can do something else it had probably got to a point where maybe I wasn't getting along with more recently as good as I thought I should have you know it wasn't only business I mean it was a lot personal too I can remember when Dale left daddy got really quiet it's like somebody died you know just that morning that you go through when you lose somebody it wasn't it was bad it was a big void because we had depended on him to run so much of petty enterprises up to that time I think Dale Inman was always more of a leader at petty enterprises than Richard Petty was Richard Petty was the frontman there's a difference in being a frontman and being a leader and if you watch the way things played out at penny Enterprises after Dale left we all went our separate ways and within another two or three years one day linman left the downfall was fast and success came to a standstill it was 1983 the reality was the team was short on leadership short on horsepower and fading fast that it's Charlotte maurices motor-powered the 43:2 there 198 when but post-race inspection would reveal an illegal engine who knew what was not important history would remember the team had cheated it was bad I mean we we never meant to cheat Mars was the big person he was a scapegoat for the whole deal I had to do it I was the guy that made the decision this is what's gonna happen that's how we're gonna do it the point well that's why I dragged Richard through the mud Hindman Mars had some other differences after that but he just felt like it was time for Mars to bow out of petty enterprise you know I mean Danielle like if I said it didn't hurt and but you know that's you passed laid out for you and that's the road I got laid down I still love my brother I think I don't beef with him [Music] the petty racing dynasty that originated in level crossed North Carolina was never routine it was a family now America's first family of racing is breaking up as the breakup takes place the clan patriarch Lee petty hones his golf game on the front lawn and deals with the question why it's no no way that things today like it was yesterday and there's no way tomorrow it'll be like it is today the future is Kyle pity just as if Richard fate took over bleep it is time for Kyle pity to start in that vein to take over richard pick one of us was gonna have to go either Richard Petty was gonna have to go work out that he was gonna have to go for the company to survive we were not gonna be able to generate the income that we needed to run two cars and it just it wasn't gonna work I said okay the best thing for us to do if we made a move out of here to get a sponsorship for Kyle's car and pretty well let him run his own [ __ ] I would say Kyle's going to come out the worst on this time because he's got a long way to go and a lot to learn at the end of the year and things don't go well Kyle can say well uncle marce it's your father daddy is your fault it can be anybody's fault but piles because piles running the show [Music] initially the plan was I was gonna run what was a single car team and that worked pretty good for maybe about a month to 45 days and then nobody liked what I was doing so the King sticks his nose back into it and he wanted to leave but he didn't want to let it go and probably put too much pressure on Kyle because Kyle was trying to be a car owner and a mechanic and a driver and a businessman it's one of the shortcomings that Richard Katie had Y denied is quit you know they didn't spend all my time in my effort and my sponsorship just on the one car with Kyle the we didn't do that and that was probably a greedy deal on my side because I was still enjoying what I was doing to Petty Enterprises pared down to one car but the team continued at steady unceasing decline [Music] Richard had left a level cross shop taking his sponsorship and his number to a new team while the king wasn't running the way he once did he did start running better winning his 199th race was already the most in NASCAR history when number 200 would be an historic milestone [Music] it was July the 4th the president was there it was just like if we had to wrote the script it couldn't have been any different gentlemen start your engines holding his lead on the inside he's brought that day one of the toughest competitors that he ever fired and that was killing Auburn and kale was dying to win that race he said [Applause] [Music] patty in fog in car 28 now this may be the race that we're looking out here as they sweep up into traffic [Music] it's Richard daddy by a foot petit winces 200 career NASCAR victory [Music] [Applause] [Applause] we wind up winning the to honest race and trying the President of the United States and you Lila forward I mean you know who's gonna believe this crap you know you know 200 is very very important but under the circumstances with all the presidents has ever been in the United States this is the first one it's ever showed up at the racetrack so everybody's got a gun from a from race and stand for and I won't be the one that was able to to welcome him to Grand National race they lock down the garage area and we had a picnic that was great I mean all these people never seen the president or whatever he's better with him we were sitting right beside the president and we were eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and it was just it was just one of those days you think this came in because it's just been a great day a great day then a number of things over the years that have happened that seemed to take the sport to another level and that was one of us some of the races I look back and I said man we should have won this race we'll give this one away but for the two hundreds to come out then all the rest of the places that are lost or whatever had to be in order for faith to put you there on July the 4th in front of the president last lab 200th win [Music] Richard would race for eight more years but his 200th win would be his final trip to Victory Lane then in 1985 Kyle left Petty Enterprises to drive for another team it proved to be the Fresh Start that he needed [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] away from the family business Kyle finally had the chance to forge his own identity he could not be his own person and do his own thing if he refused to sign an autograph it was people like well he's not like his daddy that doesn't bother him because he doesn't want to be like his daddy I did not want to be a clone of my father either okay so I understood where he was coming from that was one of the reasons why you seen Kyle with long hair earrings you know doing everything different than what his father did so that it was Kyle Petty he was not Richard Petty's son it was Kyle Petty here's a man it drives a Thunderbird 240 miles an hour please welcome do you got a record deal Hey [Music] [Applause] well that's just that's just his difference he wants to be different you would never say Richard Petty wearing a long ponytail hi what y'all doing in there he just wants his own identity and I think anytime you have a father who is accomplished in anything and he has one son that son has a lot of expectation and so I have grieved for that part for Kyle it had taken Kyle six years to win his first Cup race over the next six seasons he won four more it should have been considered a solid career for anyone other than the king son back at petty enterprises Richard and Dale Inman reunited but there was no recapturing the past race after race season after season the team continued to finish out of contention the Kings reign had long been over on the track nobody feared them instead they began to fear for him is that battered remains Richard Petty's automobile here this afternoon Richard Petty's still looking for victory number 201 in his career at a long time since number 200 I never dreamed about Richard Petty not being in a race car did he drive longer than he should have and you know I don't know I thought he would just race for every wasted there were some people that thought that he should should hang it up you always hear that the people have a tendency to remember you for the last thing you did and you don't want them to remember you as a has-been sometimes I would get really upset and I'd say have you thought about quitting have you thought about getting out of this and he'd say nope no I hadn't thought about it there was no way she was going to try to talk me into quitting if I wasn't ready because I've never been happy with quitting if I hadn't made it season myself the older he got the more my mother worried about it she always felt like you could you could only tempt fate so many times and then something would happen he gets here again as a car came to rest at the entrance to pit road his car is really smashed I heard the announcer just screaming Richard Petty's flipping flipping so I'm walking down to the infirmary and the minister he come to the door and he said come on in Linda he's okay and when we walked inside they was a closed-circuit TV and all I could see on that screen was that car up on the fence and I thought they are lying to me he is dead he's got to be dead I'm laying there looking at the ceiling I hear somebody coming in she's been crying the wreck really did look spectacular and I know it scared her to death and I said you you don't even have a clue how frightened that was because I thought that was the time that you were gone [Music] after four decades 1992 would be Richards last season behind the wheel he marked his retirement with a farewell tour he was a fitting end for a star which spent his career staying in touch with his fans [Music] it was another one of those watershed marks that established what a a successful athlete does to pay back those who made him successful that connected and bonded the fan to the driver we've done an autograph signing this guy broke down and cried and cried he could not believe he was finally meeting Richard Petty and I'm like I can't even comprehend that and so today on the 4th of July this president comes not only to greet the American people and the fans here but this president comes to greet a King Richard Petty one of the great Americans Richard I'm proud to be dear son [Applause] it was just great that the NASCAR and the fans and the press and everybody got behind and it made me feel good that they recognized and appreciated what we had meant to racing [Music] [Applause] a championship at stake here today but perhaps as important it's the final race for a guy who started his career back in 1958 has become the king of stock car racing it's Richard Petty's final ride [Music] when he taught that race before the last time he would say heaven because we knew how much he loved it and it was just saying for us to see him have to say I'm not gonna do it anymore ever the rest of my life [Music] the very last race that we got it got in a red and they had to rebuild a full front end of court just so I could say and they could say when he read his last laugh Richard Petty is taking one around this racetrack as the fans salute him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I go up and sit down in the front of the trailer okay here comes Amanda and Lisa and Sharon and Rebecca and they come in there and they all get the crime and I get to crying with you know we'd Center cried for about five minutes and then we got happy you know they were they were so tickled that it was over with you know I mean then I guess our state after the race they put daddy in the back of a convertible and mama was sitting beside him and they did this lap around the track and the look on my mom's face of relief joy you know it was like finally you know I don't have to worry about him [Music] and there was just that we made it we did it we spent our entire life sticking together raising a family doing something he loved and the most awesome thing out of it was he was the best there ever was and ever will be [Music] Richard's final season was ironically his son's finest hour in 1992 Kyle finished fifth in points and ran in championship contention but his success was overshadowed by the Kings retirement fifteen years and eight wins after leaving Kyle returned to drive for Petty Enterprises but it was clear Richard's son would never be king anything he said he's mine too he could do until he decided he was going to be a racecar driver but he could not conquer that racecar never conquered it like his daddy he had pure talent and I won't say I was wasted I'll just say that he never developed it to its fullest extent maybe this is why I never won a hundred races and I never want a bunch of championships because I never came to the sport to say I'm gonna make it in the sport I got to make it in this sport I looked at the sport a little bit different I grew up in rural North Carolina where people are dairy farmers people were tobacco farmers and there's a lot of farms in my community that are fourth and fifth generation farms the way I looked at it I just happened to be a third generation farmer that raised race cars and it was my job to keep the business and keep the Patti name alive that political is owing as a fourth-generation Danny that's Adam we went to a lot of races together we travel a lot with Adam and we went to Daytona knows we went to Charlotte's we went to Martinsville my career was taking shape at the same time my family was taking shape and they went as much as they could go there weren't buses there weren't airplanes back then and that was long strips in a car and then you sit in an infield in a car with no potty and for me as a wife that's the same thing as it is for him it's a lifestyle you know when the first grandchild is born it kind of belongs to everybody you know he's all of ours so everybody's world revolved around Adam you know everybody did everything for him I tell you if you know that them for the first twelve or fourteen years that was the most aggravating kid you have ever seen in your life hi my name is Adam fatty I'm from North Carolina and was it depends it depends on what day he was into everything just mischievous and just oh my gosh I can't even explain we all agreed that one of us were killing before he got to be 16 years old he would try to command and be the center of attention whether it was opening your present at Christmas time when you didn't get a chance to open it or doing something stupid or whatever it may be he was that kind of kid when I look back he never really got in bad trouble it was always just enough to make you mad at him well you wanted to just pinch his head off I think Adam told me one day he said I'm the future of pity and I bright eyes and I'm gonna start looking for a new job and and it was all in fun you know cause he was Lord he was such an honorary kid oh it was it was like the most miraculous transformation you've ever seen in your life he come in one day when he was like 14 or 15 years old said that's it I want to be a racecar driver in his mind there was a focus in his mind there was a purpose and he could see the end result on where he wanted to be seventeen years old just graduated from high school he's not he is winning his first anus a trace history being made tonight Wow and my mind we had got to a point where we more competitive as an organization and all of a sudden here was this 18 year old kid who could be the fireplug to kick-start penny enterprises [Music] Adam Betty look out for him he's a store into himself today Racing very well colors number 45 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] he was granted familiar I was getting familiar to you Kyle was too and I'm eating one Daytona 500 later on in his career it wouldn't have been any bigger win and about that tickly race with he's got tons of town man he's a lot better driver and I ever thought about being he may rival his grandfather at some point in time but it's good to know that somebody's gonna be winning some races that has the last time pay for a long time to come this is the Petty's future this is their future this boy is exactly like his granddaddy he's natured like his granddaddy he drives like his granddaddy this is the pity future and I just always looked at out I'm different than I looked at Kyle because Adam wanted to be a racecar driver he made that commitment that Adam was gonna be the thing that was when I probably began mentally to take myself out of a racecar and say okay it's time for me to get out of a racecar because this is this kid's town this is Adams time it was just the natural progression for me to become an owner and him to become a driver does your dad being his active in your career as he looks like he's been a ton he helps me more than anything in the world you know he's always there for me you know right now he's over there having problems with his Winston Cup team and he's over here helping us on the market stuff trying to get fast you know I got our Winnebago and he's got a motor Holman and half the time I never bring mine I just room with him and then stay with him and that's pretty neat with we're like I said we're like best friends from on the road and we share a lot together and have a lot of fun together it's another layer to our relationship I mean and it's a layer that I think I missed with my father I never remember leaving the house where my father would hug me and tell me that he loved me we weren't a huggy family and that's the difference in our relationship compared to the way I was raised Richard he doesn't pat you on the back and tell you compliments and that's part of I think Thailand Richard's problem because I think sometimes Cowell expects to have a pat on the back or his daddy to tell him he's done something good but Richard just doesn't pass out the praise is very often myself were never as close as what both of this morning but we didn't have time I didn't have time then cowlick said and says it didn't happen with me my dear but it is gonna happen with me and my son [Music] I don't mean this in a bad way but my father and I are not close friends he's my father and and that's just the way that is with Adam I tried to say we're gonna be friends okay I'm always gonna be your father and I'm gonna be the guy that Spanky and I'm gonna be the guy to discipline G and I'm gonna be the guy that jumps on you when you do something wrong but at the same time you should be able to call me when something's happened in your life or you should be able to talk to me about this or talk about that every young kid wants to be just like their father and I've grown up seeing em race and something that I've always wanted to do and I really can't believe it's happening when I'm 19 trying to make my first Winston Cup race but if we do succeed tomorrow and qualifying and we do make the race it'll be something very very special in April 2000 the keys to the family kingdom were passed to a new generation of petty in his first attempt he qualified for his first Cup Series race by making the field Adam made history I think he was proud to be the first fourth-generation professional sports man in the whole world he was going to do everything he could hold that name the thousands of thousands of people that have played anything sports professionally and we were the first family to do something for four generations I mean unheard of I think he was handling it good it wasn't about I'm a race car driver I'm gonna be a big race car girl make lots of money he was natured more like Richard and he was like I just want to race like granddaddy I just want a race it all started with Lee petty and then went to Richard and and my dad and then me there's four generations of us and we're all still alive and we've all done the same thing in a 50-year period of time [Music] three days after nineteen year old Adams first Cup Series start the patriarch of the Petit Family passed away and just five weeks after Lee's death the name petit would again be etched in stone in New Hampshire today fourth-generation member of stock car racing most famous family was killed today in an accident on the track the 19 year old petty died of head injuries after he crashed during practice for a race tomorrow at the New Hampshire International Speedway Adam petty was the son of current driver Kyle Petty grandson of Richard and the great-grandson of NASCAR pioneer Lee petty I was here in the body shop somebody came and got me and said hey somebody needs you on telephone and Hilton had called and said Adam just had a horrible accident said it don't look good [Music] he came in and when he did he said he looked over there at me and I said Adams gone and he went down on his knees and he started crying and he said he should not even thought this but he said maybe I should have just been a farmer we were just really close you know and we just you know we used to joke about being we used to joke about being a father in southern Ben's friend it was a lot true [Music] and all the things you do in life I would hope and pray no one ever loses a child that that has to be the worst thing that could ever happen and what I mean by that is this you have a grandfather you have a father you're a father and then you have a child well the way it's supposed to be is the older generation passes first so when it gets out of order then you begin to question okay what else in life is not right so the darkness comes from the profound loss of losing someone that you truly love and it was a party but the darkness also comes from being thrust into a whole new world we don't know what the rules are I wish I could give you a magical mystical miraculous answer to how you deal with the loss but there isn't everybody deals with it differently and unfortunately when you go through what we've been through you wake up in the morning and you still have to get up and you don't want to it's very hard but you have to make a choice then you have to work very very hard at choosing to be powerful instead of pitiful [Music] initially I blamed myself and then blamed blamed our life then one day hopefully I got a little note from some lady and little note said you know you never put a question mark where God's put a period and that was just that was after I lifted everything off for me I mean I said okay you know it was meant to be I didn't have that much control over and we would just have to pick up everything from here there was a fork in the road and we could go either way we could look at it and be incredibly bitter because we had lost a son or we could look at it and say we were very blessed to have Adam for these 19 years don't say it's over that's the worst news I could hear I swear that I will do my best to be here just the way you like it even though it's hard I push my feelings on side I will rearrange my plans and change for you I think he looked at it the same way that his I did that the last thing in the world Adam would have wanted to happen is for us to change our lifestyle [Music] new hand when I would go to the racetrack and get in his car and get in his seat I never put my seat in the car I always drove in his seat I felt closer to him in that car then I felt anywhere else if I could go back that's the first thing I would do I swear that I would do my best to follow through come up with a master plan I'm running a winning stand guarantee and not a promise that I never let your love I can't say I was ever angry and I can answer that very fast this sport we choose to do this this is not something we have to do and and this ports been incredible to us I mean I look at what my grandfather's done while my father did the life I've led the years that Adam drove a car and what he did and and how he reacted to it look at the joy it brought at him look at the way it did this look at the way it did that so for me there's no reason to be angry I think he was a blessing and everything about his life was a blessing [Music] once there was a race shot alive with horsepower and manpower filled with championship dreams that came to life but by 2009 Petty Enterprises was no more after 60 years the family business closed its doors it was just a situation we didn't need to be you've got to be so dedicated to do this kind of work just to see the Hollywood halls being empty is real heartbreaking maybe we failed keeping it alive kind of look back and say what could we have done different to save it I guess the money just went away like droppable egg and I just busted that's it if you had told me fifty years ago this shop would be closed everything gone all our people gone I'd have said no way we're gonna be here forever this is all day and gone and that's terrible way to feel about it but it is it's dead and gone [Music] only the name was left not Patty Richard Petty the king took his name to a new team but the family business was gone at Richard Petty Motorsports there was no room for Kyle Petty that was very very very hard because it was you know hit him upside the head and said we don't need you and it won that I didn't need him I just couldn't afford to keep him I know everybody thinks why did he do that to his son 4 and he didn't do it on purpose he's told me over a thousand times I would never done anything to hurt my son but there was no port for him to go and there's not many people out there now beating a door down for 50 year old drivers I will never say that I was as mad as I was disappointed in the process but it's part of life and this is a cruel business so let's meet let's be true about that time our sport has grown to the point that it can be a cold hard business it's sad to see an enterprise of that sort not be here anymore one that perhaps had more to do with the growth and image of the sport than any other [Music] [Music] I always thought that was a little bit better let's see the deal is blues real pleasing color someone get everybody in a pleasing mood he is not going to quit going to the race he loves the racing and that's so much a part of his life as long as he can get up be a part of a team I want him to I don't want him to come sit down at home and turn into an old man this is the environment that I feel comfortable in maybe I'm scared to try something else I don't know even though we've had heartbreaks and setbacks overall I don't know of anything that we could have accomplished anymore for the PT family [Music] in the wake of Adams death Kyle and Patti opened the Victory Junction Gang Camp a place where chronically ill children can come to laugh and smile just like Adam once did we lost one son but we've gained ten thousand children in the process because in the first five years that's about how many kids have come to camp so what you feel there and what you see in these children's faces or when they smile you see Adam smile I think you get that same smile and that same twinkle in these kids eyes because here they are doing something that maybe they never ever in their life dream they would ever be able to do [Music] it's an incredible place it's right down from the race shop where Petty Enterprises started it's the same dirt that we raised race cars on we're just changing children on that now I still hurt I still cry everyday I'm not over it how's my favorite so for us to look like we're some martyrs that we were able to deal with his loss and get past it and go on that's not so we have been very blessed that we've had an opportunity to be able to take that hurt and use it to the good when I see some of the things he's done and the in the strength and the courage he's had to go on I have to admire him for it because it would have been easy to throw in the towel and to go on and let his life fall apart [Music] I think when you look at my grandfather's career all the races that he won when you look at my father's career and the races and the Championships that they have won when you look at the races I've won and the things I did when you look at what Adam did and you put it in a pile it makes a pretty big pop but I think in the end when you look at the legacy of what this family has meant to this sport I don't think you'll look at that as much as you look at the camp and you'll look at that camp and you'll say look at what these kids have gone on to do some of these kids may going to be doctors and cured the disease that they have some of these kids may go on to be teachers some of these kids may go on to be some of the best parents and raise the future leaders of this country and I think when you look at it this and the scheme of life that I know now is a lot bigger than what I thought was life before Adams accident [Music] I don't know that Richard Peddie will ever be known is the greatest driver that ever lived that's in material and one thing he's always said was look at everything we've got we've got each other our children our home what more in this life would you ever want you know you look at it and you made a dent but it's such a small dent in in the world and so I always look at it from the standpoint that whether you remember the pity family and a good bad or indifferent at least you remember them so that's about all you can ask [Music] [Music] I think it's somebody offered him a ride tomorrow he would get out there but I would probably knock him upside the head first [Music] you've got to take this bag don't charge so he's carrying a purse can you say that a minute wait a minute beads on I steal the purse I don't care I told him I said I don't care who's in the winner's circle who you have to hug or kiss it's who you take home and that's me how's Linda there's gonna be other records she's on holiday then when I left this morning she'll harder when I get mad food he does wear sunglasses to jerk that's person he does not wear his camera you too sir that's because secretly I think his eyes closed sometime [Music] I know he's the king of NASCAR that's like his little nickname he's a NASCAR legend when you hear NASCAR that's who you should be thinking of cuz he's the one that started it all American icon we're also joined today by NASCAR's all-time greats the King Richard [Applause] [Music] I keep thinking wonder what my life would have been like if I could have married somebody that just led a normal life I could have had normal family done normal things and I wouldn't have all his stress and he tells me yeah but it wouldn't been near as entertaining [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Fence Armor

Views: 39,139

Rating: 4.8344827 out of 5

Keywords: Petty Movie, Richard Petty, Petty Blue, Richard Petty Story, Petty Family Story, Fence Armor, Fence Post Protection, NASCAR, Nascar Story, Petty Blue Movie, Documentary, Richard Petty's Childhood, How Richard Petty got into NASCAR, Lee Petty, Petty Family, Richard Petty's Family, post protection, post guard protection, bottom fence guard, fence guard protection, thad moffit, car 46, ARCA Racing Series, fence armor sponsorship

Id: rIY4LMPLujE

Length: 92min 32sec (5552 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2018