Richard & Kyle Petty Great Racing Legends

[Music] one of the most well known names in racing is petit first of all let's take a look back at the Petit Legacy then sit back relax and enjoy a conversation with cow and the king our story begins where route 220 crosses Branson Mill Road this wide spot in the road known as level cross North Carolina is home to one of races most celebrated families it all began in 1928 when 16 year-old Lee petty traded his bicycle for a Model T the first thing he did was strip it down soup it up and race it around the countryside in 1947 he and brother Julie took a 1937 Plymouth coupe up to a dirt track in Danville Virginia and won the very first race they entered [Music] during his 14-year career Lee made it to the top of the grand national ranks winning three national championships and the very first Daytona 500 when he retired in 1962 he left racing more than his name and his records he left his son [Music] it was clear early on that the driver of number 43 was no ordinary racer during the record shatter in 1967 season he won 27 races including 10 consecutive victories most records in those days were held by his father and Richard made almost a hobby out of breaking him he broke please record for the most victories by winning his 55th race at Darlington in 1967 and he bested dad's three national championships winning his seventh in 1979 while he wasn't allowed to start drive until age 21 he's now running almost 1200 races and won and untouchable 200 the king is probably the most recognized stock car racer in the world Richard's other lifelong love is his family the former Linda Owens who Lee married in 1959 and their four children Sharon Gleason Rebecca Hancock kagra much like his father spending a lot of time at racetracks with his three sisters at age 19 Kyle too was bitten by the bug to race in 1979 calcloud behind the wheel and entered the ARCA 200 mile stock car race in Daytona he took the race of the world by storm and just like his grandfather Lee petty Kyle won the very first race he entered NASCAR's first third-generation driver then hit a dry spell it would be 1986 7 long years later before he again would visit the winner's circle also in 1979 Kyle married former Miss Winston Patti Huffman they moved 10 miles down the road from level cross to hop on North kana to raise her three children adam austin and montgomery lee in his third year with sabko racing and with a new sponsor many thought Kyle was poised for great success in 1991 he won the pole and the race for the second straight year at Rockingham but then came Talladega in May cow suffered a broken left leg in the nineteen car pileup and spent most of the season in therapy working to regain strength and mobility the Petty's have endured Racing's roughest times but with almost 260 victories and ten national championships this family has also been to the top of the mountain how was you when you started going the restaurant oh yeah twelve years old when did his first started he was twelve what did you think when your daddy gonna race girl well he had run a little bit before that I'm hitting myself here like in 47 or something like that him and his brother had a modified car and they've run like I think they've run three races with it they're going first second and third and lost money with it so they finally abandoned it to do but the first first race I remember going with him was with a modified car he had a like a 38 Plymouth or something and we went to Lynchburg Virginia had a little third of a mile dirt track or something there I think we run the race track after the asphalt but they was running at dirt at that time and that's the first memory of me going to a restaurant and you went with Lee as you grew older while using ice did you go all the races or did he went home some basically when he first started with Winston cut deel Grand Nationals at that time we just worked on the car at home but you didn't do that much work on the court he changed the wall and just made sure everything was tied on the car and all this kind of stuff and like so what but twelve years old so he didn't let me do much except sweep up and clean up and you know get ready to go and at that time they didn't run but probably you know 12 or 15 races so they wasn't really gone that much when you know the first year too and so I I guess in 49 I probably didn't go with him very much in 50 I think we spent all summer with it and you know we helped him on the car whatever little you know 12 or 13 year old could do and then as time progressed then racing got more complicated we got more involved in it because my brother myself got older and we got had to do more to the race car and then as that went along with jollier in the summer we'd go any race around close we could go if we had time to get back to the scoop anything that we couldn't get back and go to schools and mother would let us go so we didn't get to go on you know if you went though high or something we'll get back to you know the next day some were you know we couldn't go but we went to all the races that we could get back and still go to school what you figure out you own the drive now didn't me when did you figure out you want to drive well really I never thought a whole lot about designing I worked on the core and I was just just tickled to death to be around the car and work on the car and stuff and you know being my father was my hero then you know I just didn't ever think about him not not driving from now on and I just kept working on the car and we went through high school and got out of school and still just worked on the core never really thought that much about driving but everywhere you'd go people come up and said you know when you're gonna start driving no no you know just just went along with it and didn't think that much about it and then when I guess I I guess when I did get to be 18 years old I said you know I might like try this so again I asked I asked him about it and he said no I said you know you you're not old enough you know you you learn a lot at the time you from 18 to 21 said come back when you're 21 and basically those the words of youth and I said okay so I just forgot about didn't even think of thing about it and and didn't even when I got close to the 21st birthday I wasn't jumping up and down getting excited about you know I'm gonna get the drive and just come in one day and I said okay I'm 21 he said okay there's a car over there get ready and go and that's the way we're done so when you started when Kyle was born when did he start hanging around when Kyle was born I think he was born in June and then in February I don't know if he'd been to any race or not but in paper where we stood at Daytona for three weeks right so we showed him in the car and third all the stuff in the way we will go down the road and we we had a truck and it had a automatic transmission in it we got down about Orangeburg South Carolina about probably about nine o'clock eight and nine o'clock that morning so we'd let through and the transformation come out Linda and and Morris's wife had she had a girl I think in Kyle they set on the side of the road till about six o'clock at night time we got the transformation out took it in town got the thing fixed brought it back put it in the truck and got ready to go and so that was his inauguration Hinda into going to the races but he's always went and then when the rest of them come along we just throw him in the truck or the car and the way they went so he'd been around and racing all the time you know he he played with Dale Jarrett he played with the Allison boys all of that crowd you know I mean and they they'd go off well you know buddy Baker's kids and stuff I mean we've all be out racing each other they all be in there playing football or hide-and-seek in the infield or whatever they done and so he's been he was just racing always laughs I guess let's see you were born in one year 1960 and Richard your father started driving in 58 58 so as long as you remember the race has been a part of your life forever that's exactly my mother says that I was born in June of 1960 and we started going to the races about two weeks later and I've been I've gone the Daytona that's what I always tell everybody I've been coming to Daytona every year since 1961 twice a year except where my father didn't go in 65 so I've been going to Daytona forever but you know it's is every time Richard Petty went to the racetrack we went to the racetrack right along with him when I was young when you when did you realize that your father was a someone special okay not until I was probably not until early 70s I thought I was 11 or 12 years old and you know because even up till that time I thought everybody's father had a garage beside their house I thought everybody's father had race cars you know I mean they didn't race everywhere we race but I felt like everybody had race cars and it wasn't until I was 10 or 11 years old that I realized when we would be out in public and somebody would come up and want his autograph when we were having dinner and I would have a friend with me and and you know the friends Joe would just drop open you know they just couldn't believe somebody would come up and want autographs and stuff and it kind of amazed them and I started looking at it and it looked different to me then you know it had been normal up till that time and then I noticed that it was a little odd after I started hanging around with normal people I guess but uh it was probably the early 70s when he you know after he won his 100th race and then begin to win more and more and and everything got to be so much bigger and bigger than you begin to take a little bit more notice did he um did he believe in sparing the rod and spoiling a child as you were growing up No and what was amazing is he told my mother never spare the rod that was the bad part but we'd be in trouble and if we if it was just minor trouble then my mother would take care of it but we knew we were in big trouble when she'd say we're just gonna wait till your father gets home and a lot of times he was gone for four or five days and that four or five day waiting period until he got home was twice as bad as the punishment that he dished out whenever he finally did get home and believe me I just can't imagine the King sitting down and talking to a child and spanking him on the butt I just can't imagine that well we did some things that we deserved spanking thought they were building some some buildings that pay the enterprise and this was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday and they poured all this my father and grandfather and everybody was there and they poured all this nice new concrete and they must have poured I don't know five thousand square feet of and I'm in a real nice place it was gonna take you know a day or so forth to try it and they were going to the racetrack as soon as they drove out the driveway we got all the dogs and put them in the way we've run up through the wet concrete and wouldn't let them out of the wet concrete and I'm gonna tell you when it did dry it looked like somebody drove through it's a tractor and I think that caused a pretty good amount of money for him to come back and fix and that was I think that was one of those extended punishments that lasted for years remember the time you were building the shop over there and you've poured the cement floor and Kyle I'm a racist kids got the dogs that threw him on the new floor and hemmed them up and just ran back and forth it back at all it was beautiful man that's that's kids fool yeah I mean that that's not a deal we you get mad about it at the time and then when it's over with he's what a life about it but you know it's just a deal that they was creative okay even with a creative art they said with tourneys dogs leave here and we'll get all this done but but the other deal on that was was did he was always bad about the cement to you if we lay a little cement he goes and slips around like everybody puts his name in and puts the bait on the thing so I guess they get seen and their granddaddy do it so they said well now grandini can do it we're gonna do our we're gonna leave our mark so they left there more that was a herd of dogs the best bet on that I'm gonna tell you this to tell you okay the cow was about probably five years old and he had a little sister that was four years old well I bought him one of these mini bikes that was one of many bike deals it'll be tricycle dealer on the bicycle deal with a motor so I've went out and went out in the front yard here and I said okay now here's you know you get on this and this is what makes it go and here's the brakes and you go ride you know so he goes out and he rides around the big front yard and it he's a rise and rise and so I said well you know he's got this down pretty good so I go back in the shop about ten minutes later I said I told him not to run that thing that face go out there and my four-year-old girl is on her hair blowing back about two foot she's wide cotton-picking open he ain't told her nothing didn't tell her how to stop it I think she's out there just I mean running through the cars and up around his shop instead of being out in the field she doesn't got up in here somehow so I had to run out there and grab her as it went by because she didn't know to let off on it slowed it down she didn't know where the brakes was or nothing now he got a whippin for that what did the Richard say when you walked in and or did you ever in voice your intentions to be a racecar driver to Richard oh yeah moist them over a lot of years over a lot of years really from the time I was 15 already started you know saying when I start driving or what about this or maybe I can get a car and go to Carraway or maybe we can do this and it's no 21 I didn't get starts allow us 21 you don't get to start here 21 and you know we went through all this stage and then finally about the time I got out when when graduation was coming from high school you know and we sat down and we talked about it again and I told him I said here's the deal just let me try you know I mean I'm 18 give me a shot and we'll try it for six months or we'll try it for a year and if I see that I don't like it or if I think in my mind that I can't do it then I'll go to college you know I won't be but a year behind or six months behind the people that I've grown up with and school and stuff and that won't be a major problem but just let me try it right now so finally he said yeah you know we will try it so then we told mom and she said no so then we had to give her the same speech all over again so that took another six or seven months so it took a while to get it all everybody coordinated and into the right way of thinking but it was it wasn't an overnight deal when did you discover the cow you thought was gonna be a racecar driver well here come a kind of a surprise you know he'd been going all these races and on all these years and everybody asked him the same thing asked me when you're gonna drive and he said ah you know don't worry about it and you know he went through high school he played football basketball whatever else was going on and he I never thought he was that interest even though in the summer and he got worried with dealing them and travel with them you know do the races and he'd come and come in and shop started working in the shop learned to wield and you know work on the race car and all this stuff but he never really showed a whole lot of enthusiasm about you know wanting to follow that and then when he got to be a senior in school would you know kept trying to get him to make up his mind you know when he'd go to college and all this stuff and he kept putting me off and and then one day come in he said he said tell you I said I'll trade something off with you he said you know you're gonna spend your money for me to go to college for four years he says why don't we just and I said when I get through said I want to drive a racecar and he said why don't we just take those four years spend your money and put me on a racecar and let me use those four years as my college and I said well I can't really argue with it you know we're the principle of the thing so what he did basically to get the ball rolling was he went over there and he talked to the a lemon and Wade Thornburg they was the ones that looked back to my car so he kept just picking at them and talking to them worked on about probably a month or two trying to convince them to help him work on a car before he ever said anything to meet his mother and so they finally said yeah you know you donkey deity in the run and we'll work on the Corporal we will help you so then he come to me he said okay said I've got me some help over here said all I need is a car now so you know they we sit down and have a big talk about it and then I said okay I said I I can do that I said no how you gonna convince you mother I said that's gonna be the big deal and he said well you gonna have to help me that's really you know that's really sits up the late birth so did did Richard help you talk Linda into it or did you do it no no he figured he was gonna have to live with this woman the rest yeah so he didn't talk he didn't try to talk her into anything it was her it was first it was myself talking my father into it and then it was like okay I got the okay from from him and then it was like now you got a good okay you know how you are when you're when you want to spend a night with somebody and your mother says go ask your father if I was to go ask your mother well it's the same way so and this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life was driving race car and they were batting it back and forth and it's your mother had seen Richard in a few crashes that was pretty severe darlton I recollect Darlington in 1970 so I'm sure that she has some apprehensions about her baby boy getting in a race car my mother had a lot of apprehension for a lot of different reasons you know she had grown up she was married to my father when my grandfather wrecked in the early sixties and had his bad accident so she knew what that was like she'd see my father and a lot of bad wrecks she'd seen him with with broken arms and broken ribs and you know a lot of bad stuff my mother's only brother was killed in a pit crew accident at Talladega so you know she had she knew the good sides and the bad sides racing and that's the one way that she looked at it and and she probably explained it to me almost better than my father could dad you know if you do choose this lifestyle and if this is what you really want to do then there's gonna be some really really high points because there's gonna be some really really low points too and you've got to take both you know you can't just say I want the wins I want the victories I want all this stuff and and disregard all the crashes and all the times that you don't have a ride and all the times that you aren't winning races and aren't making any money so she understood that it was gonna be up and down and she wasn't you know she didn't really want that for for her son I guess and I mean there's a lot of people didn't want that for there for anybody you know but you know after we talked and we sat down and and had a pretty long talk about it then she realized that that's what I wanted to try so finally she said yeah you know you can take a car and go to Daytona and test and if it works out it works out if it doesn't it doesn't will you ever forget that first trip to Daytona when you said the racing world on its ear you know that don't you I'll never forget it I'm with of all the times I've ever been that they don't like we talked earlier I've been going down there since I was born we went through that tunnel and a pickup truck with a race car on a flatbed trailer behind it and it was my race car and I was gonna get to drive around this place for the first time and all of a sudden this place took on a totally different life a totally different meaning and it was a big running joke at around the race shop at our race shop that the first time I got in a race car that I wouldn't run 150 miles an hour around Daytona well they were running 190 195 something like that and I said we shoot anybody 150 miles now around this place and so I went out and got in a car and my father took it out and he shook it down and he said we you're not gonna get hurt any you know it's gonna be pretty safe I was real fortunate for two things I mean preface this with this they had just repaved the racetrack and Goodyear had just came out with a new tire and it was a little bit softer tire so I mean anything stuck on the racetrack it wasn't a major problem with the car being real loose or anything and so he had it pretty much when you go in the corner and just smoke the right-front it pushed so bad and uh the first couple of laps I think the first lap I ran I think I ran a hundred and fifty point one or something just a tick over a hundred and fifty next laugh was about a hundred thirty-five but I was gonna get that 150 mile an hour laughing but you know it amazed me that I couldn't tell where I was in I couldn't tell whether I was on the straightaway I couldn't tell where I was in the corner because I've never even driven any short tracks and I didn't know anything about racing so uh you know we went down there and and it took four days before I ever got to where I was real comfortable with it and got up to speed and got to where I could run and I started getting faster and faster and faster and finally they said put it on the trailer before you crash it or we're not gonna be able to come back and race so we loaded it up and then we're fortunate to go back and race and won the race down there when your first race I don't know how I said in one that races but everybody would go back and Apple has that race I shouldn't there were a couple of cars that were really faster and a lot of drivers that were a whole lot better but I had a good car I didn't have any brain in my head and I was 18 years old so I was crazy so that that that was on my side and I had a lot of luck because the guys that were running faster and that were better a couple of them had trouble and it left it to a two-car race between me and one other guy and I was just fortunate enough to beat him at the end of the race but that was all equipment that wasn't any driver that was an all equipment win when he went to Daytona that first time and won the race what that make you feel like well you know it made you feel good you know leading up to that we went down and we did some testing with our car and we took Kyle down for a couple days to test him so you know I went out running around in the car make sure the car was good went out told Kyle I said you follow me you know I mean I'll show you would have been and all that so we went out and played around with that so I said okay now it's your turn so he goes out and he he runs a little bit and I think first a second laughing runner in a lot bike 170 mile honor you know he just warming up okay and you know he finally got up to 178 the first day I said that's fine I said bring him in he don't need to run no more you know no faster so then we went back out the next day and I think he won 182 or 83 but he we got him to run a lot of laps and didn't want to come back for the race and stuff I think he qualified 191 or 92 is outside Pope anyway so I sit down for the race I said okay Kyle I said you've never been in a race and I saw we want you to do is finish the race I said miss everybody just take it easy I said when they throw the flag go down in the corner and so with you know get you a good griever and sort of let these cats that want to race you know sort of let them go behind and go on and you just settle down I said if you get finished in the first eight to ten I said it'd be great for your first race throw the green flag he goes down in the corner he's leading the race to what his did he tells Eve about what's doing led the racer in first and second all day wound up beating the boys last lap or two on the race so you know I felt good but I was up watching some of the things that he'd done and he got by with you know and I talked to him when the race was over and you know like I said we felt we were great because he wanted to race and stuff but the car was so much better than the rest of the cars all he had to do was miss everybody and they got lucky and done man yeah when the race was over and you know we talked about what he'd done what he'd done wrong and all that and you know he said he said I know I was just lucky he said and so I got a long way to go so it wasn't a deal that he thought he was any work you know I mean and then we'd say okay you know we know you got a lot of a lot of learning to do when that's running so what we did then when probably a couple three weeks after they had or whatever might have been a month or two yeah we wanted to Charlotte was going to running it maybe later in Charlotte so we took him over there and took him out and shoot him in the run he run about four or five laps and running the wall so we brought it home we worked on the car went back the next day we're gonna about five or six more laps and just wiped the core out so okay time out you know we have to approach this thing a little bit different so then you know it was just a matter of learning and stuff work you know I don't know that we did it that we did it like it should have been doing it because we might should have started him off on the short tracks and and kept him out of the Winston Cup deal even though we did by a short shot corn let him run some of them we never really pursued it but enough to really give him the experience so all his experience he was learning with the big boys but I felt like it by doing that my strategy was that if you learn from good people then you're gonna be good if you learn from people it's not quite so good you're gonna have to relearn when you get with the good people so you know we just looked at a little bit different than other people would you been better off to finish about ten that first race I've been better off not that we even gone today you know hindsight's 20/20 but I would have probably been better off to go and just start racing you know at caraway or at a local short track or run some dirt and stuff and and I'll give you a story here I went to Daytona and ran that race and won that race and I was eighteen years old and my head went from being this big to being this big and I was convinced I could drive a race car I mean it was no problem so we came over to Charlotte and and that was in February we came to Charlotte the first part of mrs. Gillian March I guess in the March and was gonna do some testing over here so daddy took the car out and he tested and you know it run pretty good say he said now you get at it well I wasn't paying any attention to him out there right and I knew how to drive a race car I didn't have to listen to Richard bang so he pulls the car in he parks it and I get in it and I go out and I warm up a couple laps first lap I go down in the corner first corner and I've barrel in I hit the white line not turn and I'm still on it I hit the wall coming out of to just flat side of the car so I coming in and they all standing there and Daddy standing there nice and warm you know what happened and I said I don't know what y'all did to this car but it won't turn and I'll never forget it they Lymon looked at me and he said you don't ride this car long time and I said I don't have any idea and he said because you didn't let up off the gas you've got to let up off the gas and I said you mean you can't drive around Charlotte wide open and he said nobody ever has I said if I'd have made it off - I'll have it I have two shot at it you'd have been a hero been a hero for a little I didn't know you couldn't drive around every racetrack wide open that's how smart I was I thought you could go everywhere you went and run wide open but I tore up a few cars over Charlotte before those three days of testing were over then you found out your head went from this big back down to back down the run off but I don't want to come out in public for a while at Sears Point Richard hit the wall hard then it turn one I was down there and in two or three minutes you was there on crutches did the fact that just about a month prior to that you'd broken your leg do you have a better understanding just how much hard it hurts when a race car hits the wall er or you can get hurt now you look like that Kyle Petty I'd never seen before stammers out his car serious point that was you know that that was a weird deal we were I just happen to be in that corner and a Mobil 1 hospitality tent that was over there and we were watching the race and he came through and as you know the car skidded off but the way it hit an angle it hit and the suddenness of how he had been a hit and stopped real quick and you know I was across the racetrack and he wasn't really moving and I remember when I hit and got hit in the door and drove over then the car stopped but everything just went they had all of a sudden you know you didn't know whether anybody was coming you didn't know what was gonna happen so I was in a hurry to get over there to see what was going on and see how he was I knew that he'd hit really hard that was of all the you know how it is when you're driving and you see a car that's that's wrecked you can tell how hard it's hit you know I mean and I knew this car had hit a ton and I had some guys and they lifted me up over a six-foot chain-link fence and dropped me down on the other side because I couldn't bend my leg I was still on crutches and came down the hill and across the racetrack and you know by the time I got over there it knocked the breath out of him but he was he was bruised up really bad you could tell if he already had a big swollen place on his cheek his leg was already swollen real big and his uniform and stuff and he wasn't moving his right leg together but he can move his move his arms and stuff and move around and I knew he was awake and he's hard-headed enough that he's gonna get out on his own no matter what and so I you know I'm used all right but it it gives you a different appreciation I guess it when you after you've been in a wreck and you've been hurt I think we all drivers you know you think you're pretty much invincible because you just drive driving you wreck and you flip and you hit and you blow tires and you get out and you walk away and you're a little sore but you're not really hurt by it but once you you have a wreck and you have to set out awhile it gives you a different different outlook on what a wreck really is I memory crash one time early I guess back in the early 80s coming off turn four at Daytona he got in the crash and what you do go down and jump the fence there's nothing to get to that was in one 125 mile 125 mile races he's on top of the trucks and and they crashed coming off the pool and I was about ten or twelve fence so I don't know how I got across that thing but I standing out there when all the cars got stopped and he's standing up on the wall looking around said what are you doing out here and the same thing happened when when I broke my leg out there in California Kyle's on two crutches and he some I don't know where he's at he's somewhere and here I'll crash on the racetrack on the far side away from everybody laid out there and when I reach up and pull the net down the first one see it's Kyle he's standing there on them two crutches and he got across a chain-link fence run across the racetrack and was there by the time I got my breath back and could undo the deal so I guess he was paying me back what I'd done for him that they told yes my fact masker told me I was out there by the where you hit the wall that rivers at serious point and NASCAR told me not to go on the racetrack but when I looked at sea and saw Kyle out there with two crutches I guess that that's that's the inner deal it could have been you I wouldn't jump to cross the finish the scene right that's really what I mean and it was just the father-son relationship but you know it's part Eddie suit you do extra things when when thought Mike it comes up you don't worry about Richard Petty on the racetrack but you worry about Kyle Petty don't you well yeah I always have to begin with it was really hard because see him yellow lights come on and the first thing you do you call on a radio you look around you know where's Kyle about halftime he was in whatever but that was a that was always a real concern and it's still a concern but it's it's a minimal deal now I mean it's just come you got where I feel like he's a lot more professional the better cars but he knows what's going on so I don't get all excited every time I see a caution flag when he's on the racetrack now before I did and as time progressed then I've got got the more confidence in the deal that you know that he wasn't part of it so it's still you you know you look around and see what's going on but and also makes a little bit different is now most time he's in front of me I could see me before he would buy and I couldn't sleep in racing we have the Petty's the Allison's wire is family such a big part of stock car racing you can answer it okay we go Parsons read the wall you know I think we've got I don't know what family you know I know why our family was is because we were brought up in it that's the only lifestyle we knew and I think it's the same way with with as far as Bobby and Davey you know that's all dating you because that's what Bobby did and that's what Donnie did and that's what what those guys did but we were you know my grandfather raced my father was exposed to it at an early age from the time he was eight or nine years old he grew up in race and grew up around racing people I think one reason that that really is pretty neat about stock car racing especially is that all the drivers get along good all the crews get along good drivers drive for this team but they might get along with that crew or they might get along with this guy on this crew and it's just even though there's four or five hundred people at the racetrack it's like an extended family so everybody just encompasses everybody else and you know you like growing up in that atmosphere when I used to go to the racetrack when I was little when I was nine ten years old and set in the back of my father's truck because Bill Gassaway wouldn't let you out into the garage air and stuff and David Pearson would come by and talk to you or Bobby Isaac would come by and talk to you and and you know Dave Marcus would come on the truck and eat a sandwich this long you know what I mean and you know and they'd stand there and talk to you and I mean you know how many other sports do you go into we're superstars of that statute talk to a nine or ten year old boy or 11 or 12 year old boy and you see your father do the same thing to talk to other kids and to talk to people and you know it's just it it just breeds it's a family type deal you know where you want to be involved in it you want to do what your father did and you want to carry on that tradition maybe it's what it is so uh you know that's I guess that's as good an answer as I have you know we've heard of the Hatfields and McCoys you know they got into a feud and they fought for years and years and years now the Allison's and the Petty's had some feuds going back in the 60s now did you did you think view the Allison's any differently than any of the other people no not really we didn't you know I'm sure my father and my uncle because they were racing against him but as far as us and it was amazing and we talked about this when when I first signed up with mellow yellow' this year with the coca-cola company I'll never forget when we were when Bobby was driving Virginia and driving the coca-cola car and they had all the coca-cola stuff and we all stayed at the same hotel and Daytona all the patties and all Alison's Donny and and his family Pam and all of them and Davey and Bonnie and his sisters everybody they had all the cool floats because every float they had had coca-cola they had coca-cola intertubes they had coca-cola this they had cocoa and we always wanted to play with them and you know it's like well we're not gonna let you play with him and then Bobby and them would come by and they'd say well we'll just bring you some so they just bring us a bunch of coca-cola clothes so then we were as cool as Allison's were so we were all right but you know it was one of those deals were the kids grew up and the kids never got involved in that part of it we knew our fathers raced against each other we knew they were competitors with each other but what went on on the racetrack didn't make any difference to what went on in the infielder or what went on after the race Bobby and myself had a heck of a feud going you know we'd argue and fight and run into each other and all that kids are still in there playing with each other they didn't they didn't get involved in it at all and I guess they knew it was happening but they wasn't concerned with the fact and you know Bobby's mother and deity and stuff every time we go to race we like said me and Bobby wouldn't be talking Linda go talk to them or they couldn't talk to that to Linda you know and he's old Betty Betty everything was was fine with them because they wasn't involved in the deal and then their sons and husbands would get out on the racetrack and run into each other but I can say while I was doing that the kids they wasn't involved in it either and they were still playing around no Kyle's got his career started he leaves home he gets married leave home and you adopt Michael Walker well we didn't mean to sort of happen what happened we built him a baby grand Court and so he had some bikers to do that so they sent him down so we see what was going on so we work on the car because they didn't have that many people so he worked on the car when he got your dental place to stay and I said well he's come over the house and stay well they were getting the baby grand core for a race of two and that deal so what he went away that Michael didn't go Michael found a home he stayed and I guess he stayed what 9 or 10 months and but what he do he'd go to the races with us he'd go do all the stuff but he was digging along digging along trying to get something going even though he was running some baby grands that he was trying to get something going in the Western pit and he figured if he was there every day aggravating enough people someday he'd get a chance and that's what he done he was really really persistent and he stayed with it and then once he got a got him a situation with some boys out of Stateville or somewhere then he come in moved up his little bag and away he went so you know like I say he stayed was pretty good wallet controlling him and Kyle was about the same Linda that Linda had to approach both of them just about the same deal Kyle moved out Michael moved in moved in Kyle's room left his clothes food on the floor just like Kyle and then it had a quick point it's like Kyle you know the whole deal so it was just the both of them or just just about them are trying to do their own thing and they're going in the same direction and both of them it looks like we're gonna be superstars miss business doesn't well they got a good chance you know they really determine people they're good racecar drivers they're good PR people so they've got a lot of both of them are good-looking boys they're young it you know they got a lot of stuff going for a minute they if both of them keep her nose clean and then go ahead and stay dedicated to what they want to do then then they gonna they're gonna be able to take over a lot of stuff all right now your oldest boy is how old her 11 just turned 11 he's 11 7 more years when he's 18 when he comes to you and says daddy I want to drive you remember that conversation that you talked about just a few moments ago that you have with Richard you don't tell me go see his mama granddaddy go see his grandmother since she owns the team now my father grabs for maybe I'll tell him that I don't know what I'm gonna tell him you know we're in a little bit different situation I wish we weren't but where when I was growing up then I had a race shop right next door to me and if I rode motorcycles or bicycles or whatever that broke I went right next door and we fixed it and I learned to work on my motorcycles when I was really young because I dragged my motorcycle in there and there being eight hundred pieces and days saying fix it you don't fix it you don't write it you know I mean and but we had the tools and had the equipment and had people that knew how to tell me what to do where you know my little boys right now are growing but we're separated from it to some extent you know if I had my own race shop they'd be right there and they'd understand a little bit more about it so I'm not really sure when the bugs gonna buy them or whether the bug will buy them you know because like I say there's a line in between them or they're separated from it a little bit when he when that day does come then you know I'm gonna approach it just like my father approached it and I think he approached it racing with me the same way he approached everything with my sisters and everything he always told us from a real early age whatever you decide to do in life do what's gonna make you happy and do what you're gonna have fun at and do what you're gonna enjoy because whatever you choose you're more than likely gonna have to do it for the rest of your life it's not something that you can switch around and change off and stuff and whatever you choose I'll be behind you 100% and I'll help you as much as I can in that direction and I had I decided to race had one sister to decide to be a teacher she went to college another sister got married and I have one sister that wants to be an artist right now and she's going to art school so he sent her off in that direction so he's helped all of us go off in the directions that we wanted to go off in and you know right now that's all I'm looking at whichever direction they want to go in then I hope that I can to can point him in that direction and send him off in that direction with a good start and with a little bit of a head start if he could but just let him do what they want to do so if he wants to be a musician or a racecar driver whichever direction he wants to go in that's the direction you let him that's the direction if we're gonna be going talking to Richard and get us some views on you growing up and and how he views the situation if you'd like to say one thing to Richard what would that be think back hard what one thing would you like to say to Richard oh I'm not sure that there's one thing that I could say to him that it's hard to explain that would express how I feel about all that he's done for me all that he and my mother both have done for me as far as as what I did when I was young for the way they brought me up for what they let me do when I was young to give me enough rope to go hang myself but driving me back in just before I did hang myself and you know there's there's so much that he's done with race cars off the racetrack on the racetrack to help me to where I'm felt like I'm beginning to get ahead and what I'm doing and and we're getting to get ahead in life a little bit that you know I could say to him or my mother both was as thank you and that I love you very much but uh you know I could never repay them for what they've done it's tough it has it's been tough for Kyle being the son of the king that's been an extra pressure put on him over the years hasn't well yeah I think it's a two-fold deal you know sometimes it's a up sometimes it's hurt it helped him a little bit to get him some recognition to begin with when he shouldn't have been having any recognition because he hadn't ever done anything but that that put him in a kind of a weird situation you know when I came along Winston Cup NASCAR racing was not a big deal so I come in and father my father's footsteps nobody pays any attention it's just you know because it's not that big a deal but Tom Kyle got here you know the Winston Cup Series had got into pretty big operations so everybody he became a focal point and and that put a lot of pressure on him there and also we probably put a lot of pressure on him because at the time we didn't give him probably as good of equipment as what he should have had we thought it was good the equipment was good as he was but a lot of times it what so that made it tough on him too but you know from the sponsor standpoint he was able to attract the sponsor a little bit better than just anybody coming out of the woods but then also they expected him to do more so that put pressure on him from that standpoint but I think after a while he decided to heck with it I'm Kyle Petty I'm not Richard Petty you know I've got to do my own thing I got to do it my own way and a lot of times I don't know that he looks at me and he sees what I do and he don't necessarily think that I'm doing it wrong he just wants to do it a little bit different so that it'll be what Kyle PD did not what Richard pitied you you've been watching Richard for 54 years now or for however 50 you were born in 60 so 31 years you've been watching Richard 54 I've been watching a picture and you said when you're 11 or 12 you started to realize that your father was a little bit different than everyone else's father do you still realize the impact that the petty name has with all over the country the older I get the more I realize it I don't think I think when I first started racing re you know when I realized who Richard Petty was when I was 11 or 12 then that was one thing and then to watch him win races and go on and win this and win that then that was different too and when I started racing and racing against him then you know I was just racing against my father I didn't I didn't really think a lot about it but the older you get and the more the harder I realized that is to race and to to achieve and racing and to win and the win championships and a win win races and stuff then you begin to look at everything that he's done and a totally different light and you begin to see what my grandfather did and you begin to see what my father's done and what Pete Hamilton the other tiny line and all the guys that drove you know for my father and enterprise and stuff you begin to see how much I guess how much history there is impeding enterprise and what this one a little place in level cross North Carolina has done to take stock car race and bring it out to to a bigger audience to the country and stuff and you know when you look at all the races that Pascal and tiny and daddy and Pete and my grandfather and all those guys won then you know you're looking at two or three hundred races and that's a lot of races over a lot of years and and you know it's there's a lot of history there and you know I don't drive there now I drop for somebody else but you know someday I'll end up driving back there I'm sure of that but you know it's you begin to look at things I think the older you get you you begin to see things a little bit different you begin to look at at what your father's done or what this person's done a little bit different and you begin to appreciate it more so yeah I think each day you have a new and stronger appreciation for what my grandfather and my father and for what the petty families done you know royalty keeps being passed down we have the king and the children are princes and princesses when you first started they did call you the the Prince of Reisen didn't they either that or the gesture the justice court jester ethic you know do you like that name no you don't like that no I don't you know and I look at it like this my father was is Richard Bay and you know and he's got to the point to where he's won so many races that I guess they just got tired of calling Richard Petty in the paper and they just started calling the king you know it's just everybody knew who Richard was so let's start something else to get somebody to read but yeah and it fits him just the way you know certain things fit certain people the way he wears that cowboy hat and those dark glasses in the way he moves where he talks to people the way he he moves to a crowd and stuff and it fits him you know being royalty or a king or a Princeton didn't fit me I'm not I'm not in that mode I don't think but you know certain people just they have that air about him and they carry carry their self a certain way and he carries himself that way well how about Richard Petty is carrying the title the King around does that put extra pressure on you well you you the one that's put it on the idea and put it on me you know what I mean I don't pay any attention to it I'm just I'm doing my own thing and you know I started 34 years ago doing my own thing I'm still doing my own thing and Richard anymore they say well yeah but I I sort of know who they're talking at so it makes you feel good you can't believe how good it makes you feel that that people recognize you in that in that vein but still yeah you know if somebody comes up and they want to autograph it since I'm signed Richard Pini then put King on it I throw my king spell it I expel Richard but I hadn't Han got quite far enough to be able to spell King you was that fun those guys are wonderful I sure hope you enjoyed it as much as I did [Music]

Channel: Ted Smith

Views: 4,660

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Id: 8Gqxq9VxX2Q

Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020