Petty Power

Richard Pini don't believe in jinxes so I know it wasn't a jinx only just because I had never won it there's no sign of James because look at all the the hundreds of people that have run and hadn't won and they don't call it a jinx for them Richard hit by most expert standards is the greatest stock car driver of all time in his 18-year career he has won almost twice the number of races as his closest competitor in fact he is one on every Grand National Division track in the country except two and one of those is in his own backyard the Charlotte Motor Speedway the nearest thing to a blemish on the otherwise remarkable career of an old country boy that race fans have come to worship as king may 22nd 1975 Charlotte North Carolina a whopping crowd of over 20,000 fans have gathered to watch their heroes qualify for the 16th running of the longest race on the NASCAR circuit the world 600 what better omen could any driver ask for but Richard Petty superstar of the STP racing team doesn't believe in omens Richard Petty believes only in himself in his skill as a driver today he is surrounded by the greatest specialists in his field winners like Cale Yama who is on his way to qualify for what will become the fifth starting position in Sunday's marathon keel has won at Charlotte once before but he's never had a world 600 victory Buddy Baker a Charlotte native who in a few minutes will qualify his blue and white board for the 4th starting position holds the record for the most world 600 victories with three he has an overall total of four wins on the hometown track the bud Moore built car is coming off a big win at Talladega this month and will have to be considered a favorite Donnie Allison will earn the seventh starting position today has two victories here one in a national five hundred and one in a world 600 he is winless in 1975 but is always a threat on any track Darrell Waltrip the new kid in town will soon qualify for the 6th starting position with his first grand national win coming only the future looks bright for this 28 year-old youngster then there's David Pearson the grandad of modern racing and winner of last year's national 500 and world's 600 races his Wood Brothers mercury will claim its usual place on the pole for Sunday's Audi but now it's Richards turn to sizzle his two laps around the mile and a half asphalt track that has defied his efforts to win for the last 15 years he will qualify today for the third starting position an excellent place to start off a place especially in a year like 1975 that has offered some of the best competition the racing world has seen in many years while most of the country is buried in snow a hundred thousand racing fans are basking in the brilliant Florida Sun of Daytona Beach the Daytona 500 is the first symptom of a disease known throughout the south as spring racing fever the fans greet petty warm as they always do if any man can be said to own Daytona it is Richard Petty he is one five Daytona 500s for more than any other driver competition is as stiff for the beauty contestants as it is for the drivers pretty girls are at a premium in this world famous vacation life and they all want to be seen on the front stretch of NASCAR's richest and most glamorous Winston Cup race forty men and machines begin their slow circle of this monstrous two-and-a-half mile oval that once almost wiped out the petty racing dynasty in two separate accidents on the same day Richard and father Lee penny both took trips over the wall completely demolishing their cars Richard walked away from his accident but Lee's injuries finally led to his retirement since then son richard has attacked a track with a vengeance defeating its highly banked turns and incredible speeds time the green flag Falls for pole sitter Donnie Allison as Petty and Yarborough quickly jump around second and third place qualifiers Pearson and Bobby Allison as the red white and blue Matador begins to fade into the field it appears to be a but Donnie's died guard machine is forced to make way for both the penny STD Josh and Yarborough Chevrolet dropping Donnie to a third place battle with David Pearson there's an accident in the third turn is five cars careened dangerously close to the press area only the incredible skill of these drivers prevents what could have been a major disaster Petty's crew anxiously a wait to see if there are has been involved but petty is safe and heads for the pits to take advantage of the days first caution flag he gets a fresh set of tires but to stop appears a little more serious something is wrong with the cooling system in the big Dodge luckily Petty won't lose any ground on this lengthy stop the slow caution laps I'll attract this size offer a crew several minutes to make adjustments they normally would have to do in a few seconds but overheating is a serious problem in racing for the drivers and the spectators the green flag binds the versatile Texan AJ Foyt in the lead closely followed by Petty and Donnie Allison the USAC champion most he can drive any track from nd today Tony and has a previous win here to prove it a spin out in the fourth turn takes another car out of competition and once again brings out the caution flag but it soon becomes obvious Petty's problems have just begun you know I could run real fast and run and catch up with everybody and then the car would run hot we'd have to come in and put water in it every time we put water in it and I could go back out and run again well that made best of the heat on it and the water kept kept running out so we had to keep it cooled off a fierce competitor to the end he will nurse his car to a seventh place finish while Benny Parsons captures his first Super Speedway truck March provided a chilly welcome for Richard Petty in Rockingham North Carolina for the 10th annual Carolina 500 but to the petty crew this may be a blessing in disguise if thousands of hours of work and analysis have not cured the dodges heating problems perhaps the 39 degree weather will Richard is fresh off a win at a short track in Japan as eagerly awaiting his first Super Speedway win of 1975 Rockingham is a perfect track for race fans a little more than a mile in length it's big enough to be considered a Super Speedway yet small enough to allow easy viewing Buddy Baker has grabbed his first pole position of the year the second spot going to petty a couple of the newer faces in NASCAR Darrell Waltrip and Lenny pond have grabbed the third and fourth positions away from veterans like Yamato and Pearson who start further back in the field than youthful Baker guns the big Ford into the lead as the green flag bans the Chile marching as the field comes off the second term penny stays right on Baker's buffer and the duo begins to pull away from the rest of the pack but Walter has different ideas and quickly nudges his Chevrolet into the battle to make it an early freeway race young Walter takes the lead as Baker unable to keep the face he helped set fades into third coming off the third turn Petty's back in break loose but he quickly brings it under control and heads for the pits valuable seconds go by as the crew replaces a bad right-side tire in an attempt to solve his handling problems but Waltrip is not far behind as it becomes evident tire wear may take its toll among the leaders the to return to battle only to find yo bro is now in command Keo has never won the Carolina 500 before and with for second place finishes he's a little tired of playing bridesmaid to mr. petty in spite of this Richard is running hard and quickly slices into the lead with Waltrip right behind him yet the petty crew seems anxious something else is wrong with a Dodge could it be heating problems again that would be a cruel joke four feet to play on such a bitterly cold day and then all of a sudden I looked down and the heat gauges gone clean out of the world on it and it's running 250 degrees and so here I come into the pits again and they start pouring water and must have been about 10 to 15 degrees at the racetrack and poor boys was putting in water and I was pretty hard under the collar IDs and you know just because we'd had had trouble at Daytona and we did think it we had it fixed and we did think he was running real real good at Rockingham and we felt like we should have been a winner and being that I was sitting in the pits getting water again it was really a very disappointing Betty moves his patched-up machine back off of the track and soon passes David Pearson in an attempt to make up his lost laps despite the heating problems his car is still running good but in state onna all over again and petty pits once more his chances for a win gone you'll have to settle for third place finishing behind winner Cale Yarborough a bad omen for Richard as the Charlotte race looms ahead it may have been cold in Rockingham but man is in Georgia and a beautiful day for the Atlanta 500 Richard Petty has made an unusual gesture for this race by taking the pole position away from the usual Chargers like Bobby Allison Buddy Baker David Pearson and Donnie Allison we're starting in the second through fifth positions actually qualified last is one or two days in a race last forever so the race is way more important to me than qualified and if I get in the first four or five and qualified and I feel like that I'm in the race in other words I'm I'm up there with the fast cars and I can run with that's the main funny but richard has a reason for trying harder of all the tracks where NASCAR holds Winston Cup Graham national races Atlanta is the closest in size shape and potential speed to the Charlotte Motor Speedway the only real difference is that extra 100 miles miles which have cost petty a number of victories over the last 15 years but like Charlotte Atlanta has also been a tough nut for King Richard even though he's won the Dixie 500 here four times in the last nine years he has never captured an Atlanta 500 victory around the track for the first of three hundred twenty eight laps Bobby Allison looking for a second win of the Year passes petty and takes the lead while brother Donnie takes fourth place away from Baker the Ellison machine is setting a torrid pace Pearson anxious to keep up passes petty and is quickly followed by Danny Allison is petty having problems or is he merely lying back within striking distance saving the best for last there's trouble in the front stretch as leader Bobby Allison and another car lose control an alert track official quickly waves the caution flag to warn the others for Bobby Allison it's an early end to a promising afternoon three star fines Pearson Emily with petit breathing down his tailpipe the two are putting on our real show for the fans as King Richard decides to assert a little Authority and takes the lead from Pearson Johnny Rutherford bulls attire and slams into another car there's a lot of bent sheet metal but thanks to NASCAR's safety regulations no one is injured Betty takes advantage of the situation to pit just as an added precaution a crew member points his hose at the radiator while another scrubs debris from the grill after two disappointments this year there is no reason to take chances cars dodge everywhere as another driver loses control on the front stretch those fans in the grandstands are really getting their money's worth today after three and a half hours of racing it looks like it may be Petty's day a costly pit stop as dropped Pearson alive and a half down and only Baker's Ford stands in the way of a shorter victory but Baker is also a lap down and with only eight laps to go it will take a miracle to get him into contention then justice Baker prepares to get back into the same lab car number 64 blows an engine and spins out before the yellow flag can be dropped another car hits the oil and loses control the caution period allows Baker to advance all the way around the track what was more than a lap lead a couple of minutes ago is now only a few car lengths and a faster car prevail on the super speedway Richard Petty takes the checkered flag to be crowned king of the 1975 Atlanta 500 the quarters divided this victory in Petty's war with the jinx what some will forget is that he's now with an easy striking distance of becoming Racing's first two million-dollar winner today he takes all over $17,000 not bad for less than four hours work if there's one place in the world where Richard Peddie can truly be crowned king it's in North Wilkesboro North Carolina where he has 11 wins in the last 13 years one of the oldest tracks on the NASCAR circuit it offers many fond memories of battles with the superstars of yesteryear but today Richard faces a new challenge from a new star Darrell Waltrip who has won the pole position Betty pushes Waltrip out of the way on the first turn and takes the lead mr. penny is about to give the youngster his first lesson on some of the added skills it takes to handle the sharp turns and crowded conditions of a short track even those short track speeds are usually under a hundred miles an hour this track is extremely demanding on these machines and only the best prepared cars will be around for the end waltrip shows how fast he can learn by retaking the lead Hetty hasn't been around the youngster long enough to know what to expect from him but he does know how anxious Waltrip is to capture his first grand national win I started off driving mostly short tracks and it's a sort of a love affair that I have with short tracks and also were able to set the cars up really into affection as to the fun of really out running before you increase competition all the time on the short track your your passing somebody either down a straightaway or an end of the corner we're on a Super Speedway a lot of times you're just running with the same pack of cars and is really not that much passenger elmo Langley in car number 64 throws in the towel with a blown engine David Cisco and car number five spins out between the third and fourth turns that fourth turn appears to be a hot spot as Bruce Hill in number 47 also loses control during one of the incidents petty taptic are smashing in his left front fender and heads to the pits a hurried inspection shows only sheet metal damage if there's any internal damage it'll have to show up on the track the restart has put cale yarborough in the lead failure is one of the favorites at the track because his cars builder jr. Johnson makes his home here and jr. always likes to please his neighbors with a win but it takes more than smash defenders to halt the Fetty machine as he eases by Cale Yarborough Richard Peddie takes the checkered flag for the 12th time Richard is king at North Wilkesboro it's been a long hard day but it's paid off with roses and as small pot of gold for mr. petty but that's all history and with a lot of pretty girls around like this who wants to look at the past Richard Petty doesn't he looks only to the future and the future is only as far away as the next race and the next race is now by accepting the Sun dropped old trophy for being this year's fastest qualifier David Pearson signals the end of pre-race activities at the beginning of the 16th edition of the world 600 over 100,000 spectators sit back and wait wait for those last few seconds that seemed like hours before the start of a major race there's a certain excitement in the air his fans begin to realize they may see something more than just another race they may witness the crowning touch to a legend the largest crowd in Charlotte Motor Speedway history rises to its feet as David Pearson and Lenny pond lead Petit Baker Yarborough Walter and 34 other top contenders around the mile and a half asphalt over 1975 has been an unusually good year for these men and for NASCAR - although petty is 1/5 of 12 races no one has dominated the Super Speedway courses in six of these races there have been just as many different winners Benny Parsons in Daytona Cale Yarborough in Rockingham Richard Petty in Atlanta Bobby Allison in Darlington Buddy Baker in Talladega and David Pearson in Dover Delaware today one of these men or perhaps some other driver in the field will take home more than $27,000 the pace car drops off the track has 40 men gone 40 engines down the front stretch to take the green flag lynnie pon jumps into the early lead while Baker Street League Rocksteady to fourth place as the pack begins the first of their laps around the track the petty crew is worried something is wrong the big dodge is not handling right all those countless hours of preparation may be wasted if petty cannot pit soon the old track may beat him again but luck is riding with mr. petty today a spin out on the fourth turn has brought out the first caution flag with only a few laps gone petty charges down pit road as his crew readies a set of fresh tires in a matter of seconds the changes made and petty is on his way the restart has Pearson in the lead followed by Penn even though he's keeping up richard is still not pleased with his car's performance they told me he said from the PS I said this is this is a way of small handling you just go out to learn to drive it so you know I had still had 500 miles to go I felt like that you know they've been done all they could even it was after the drive and drive it he dies on lap 169 petit passes Pearson and takes the lead he finished second to the Wood Brothers car in both Sharma places last year each one decided on the final lap but he has no plans to do it again yet there are over 200 laps to go nearly three hours of racing and anything can happen a car spins out in the second turn as if to warn him to be careful Betty only throws caution to the wind this race means a lot to him and there's still not enough breathing room between the Dodge and the rest of the feet there's another spin out in the second turn and it seems as if the power of the old track is out to grab him but petty he should ride on charge for 18 years he has fought numerous hardships to set records that may never be surpassed over a hundred sixty NASCAR victories five grand national championships now nearly two million dollars in winnings this race is the highlight of a career the final stepping stone to total success the big one that has slipped away so many times wins the world 600 America's longest racing class long live the legend long live the king Richard Petty king of NASCAR racing you

Channel: Michael Barr Jr.

Views: 40,090

Rating: 4.8616352 out of 5

Keywords: Nascar, Richard Petty, Petty Power, CrossFire43, CrossFire043, Stockcar, Racing, 1975 World 600, Motorsports

Id: 2g21-QCMMFg

Length: 26min 51sec (1611 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/CrossFire43]

Ive been getting lazy and haven't uploaded much over the last 2 years...but this week I am determined to bring christmas joy with the sounds of burning rubber. This doc is about Petty finally capturing the World 600.

[u/spudgun040]

Great upload!

[u/redditing0210]

Thanks for uploading, my grandad was actually the director of this back in the 70's, I always loved watching it.