TNN The Great Drivers - Richard Petty

hi I'm Brock Yates and this is level across North Carolina the stomping grounds of the legendary petty dynasty today we're going to give you a special treat a look inside the home of the king of stock car racing Richard Petty join me today on the great drivers [Music] from the moment Richard Petty climbed behind the wheel of a grand national stock car his career has spiraled upward to a point where his records may never be surpassed 26 years later is recorded to 198 victories including no less than seven wins in the famed Daytona 500 he's been the NASCAR Grand National Champion seven times and has repeatedly been cited as the sport's most popular driver the son of Stock Car champion lead petty Richards footsteps are now being followed by his own son Kyle Petty racing dynasties third generation driver he lives on a splendid rural estate in level cross North Carolina next to the home where he spent his childhood Richard is the kind of home base in it it's just where everything kind of settles down and Adam and grandkids and everybody can kind of show up and just hang out with you well this is where it all started and you know we've never really wanted to go anywhere else I started here and my family's here my friends were here everything I knows you know no matter what what would the top waste over a period of time then we're satisfied would be in rival we started them it's it's it's a special thing in a lot of ways with an American family splitting up so much these days everybody going in different directions it must be kind of satisfying to know that the petty family really is is stuck together and kind of there's some some substance there well I tell you I guess it's the way we were brought up you know our family has always been close family and the idea of keeping your family close I think everybody would really like to have it that way sometimes it just doesn't work that way but we've been real fortunate that you know Collins and his family right here right close my oldest daughter's married oh she lives right down the road so you know and then we've got two girls that still live at home and you know the father and brother also they they live you know who they we brought up about a mile mile a half so everybody eventually is still settling in the same place and everybody likes it you see a race driver here and and Adam I don't know if you like a race car driver or a ball player but he's got this go card in his little racecar so you know he's like all kids right now he's he's a big racer we wait and seeing about 15 years yeah Richard you have you must have to really work your schedule around to spend as much time here as you do I mean with the tan of life that are that a professional racecar driver leads today I suppose you could be gone as much as you're away if well I really do have to work your schedule you know county commissioner I have to spend time with with doing some of the political end of the deal you know he sponsors with with different things with STP they want you to go here and do things here Goodyear or pony a core racetracks you gotta make appearances for them and you know over a period of time I've drifted away from from being petty enterprises are working on the racecar into more of a celebrity or whatever you want to want to say and this year I've been tchard out with us I can spend more time doing the sponsor deal because as time progressed the money and stuff has has come from outside of racing as much as its come from the inside racing and you've got to do a little bit of everything but to make the show work and it's the complexity of the race and they've just changed so much in the last four or five years that it's hard to keep up with how much time and can you in terms of percentages can you devote to life here as a normal citizen of a level across North Carolina and how much you have to devote percentage-wise to Richard Petty the race driver and Richard Petty the celebrity well I would say probably two-thirds of what I do or is business-related race related commercial related or whatever and then you know they're the third from time to time you can enjoy yourself and do some of the stuff that you want to do so I sort of enjoyed as I go along but as far as just saying okay you know I'm gonna work three weeks and take off a week and don't work every Richard I can see why you and Linda needed a house this big because you're both collectors I mean you really are seriously collecting stuff in this how do we collect the she collects dolls and a bunch of other stuff and I collect a little bit of everything now tell me about this piano this is a beautiful piece yeah this is this is when Linda came up with when she was in the antique business and it was just black all over when she brought it in and she said she wanted it fixed itself player and we got a little motor on where you don't have to pump it you know yeah and I took it apart every piece apart except the main keys and cleaned it up myself and fixed it up it come out real good you try to get me to do some other stuff but I just love it on that belt buckles I can't believe this collection I collect all kinds of stuff I got a bunch of knives and stuff here a bunch of different things over a period of time but the belt buckles and stuff I got collecting a long time ago with with different companies STP your Goodyear Union bill helmet you know all the people that we did business with most of them come up with that belt buckle from time to time so I just didn't really buy many at my trade off a bunch but in him we just collect them over a period of time and we just got you know gobs of them made some championship belt buckles and stuff like that naturally and this may be the biggest of all when they dissing for me it's a stainless steel made it out of pipe and stuff and weld the thing all up and made the wires and then all the stuff and any better thing I don't I guess the Jolly Green Zac at work but a little heavy for me Richard tell me real quickly about how we know 43 is your number but your dad's number was 42 Kyle's numbers 40 super where did where did 42 come from well the 42 came about like 19 people 48 or 49 where did he first started they didn't have any number for the car so they said you know we need a number and they went out in the car that they were running they took the first number in the last number of the license plate I said hey that looks like a good number when it's called it 42 and then when I come along I just went one better I went 43 and then Kyle went when he'd come along he went 42 until he got was said my lemon naturally scream number seven I see but 43 was just a one bigger one one more kind of want to do the 44 but somebody already had the number so he had the backdrop to these granddaddy's man cars holy cats well these these are just a collection of totally cars some of them are Kyle's bunch of these over here I just buy him when he was real small match but Tory corners and they went for a price of like a dollar 98 now they're like 20 or $25 so I just started collecting some old moon but most of these are herbal toys they make a lot of difference things for the race cars and stuff and they not only got Richard Petty Darrell Waltrip Cale Yarborough you know all of all the drivers and stuff so I just trying to collect a little bit all this now the serious stuff that this I had no idea you are a watch collector yeah this is what I get serious in a McLaren once I'm not too much about knowing what's for anything if I see one I think it's pretty then you know I try to work around to get it but I probably got a collection of probably 250 or 300 watches Richard where do you start how what prompt where to start these things I don't know about ten years ago somebody come by and pawned watch off on me we needed some money and I wound up with a watch and I liked it and the first thing you know you know somebody else comes by and I just thought he got into it and we just just like I get into everything else but I get one or two of them then I start collecting and I want to show you this one right here now this is a super duper old one it's probably made in the late sixteen hundreds early 1700 is that a magnifier its magnifying glass for that they can you can really see what's going got go hands and the whole deal but it's really a tricky watch I don't know how in the world that you'd ever take it out and do all the stuff but it's key Drive and all that but you get to looking at it here what's amazing about it is that they didn't have any - everything was hand there was no electricity no grinders anything I'd do it all by hammer and a chisel and the big deal on this one it's chain driven now you can imagine trying to go down in there and get you a chain and put the links together and put that thing on then line it up and then the hands go around so you know the workmanship on these these old ones or much better or you like to look at them then the newest because the new ones are stamped out and all this does it's a like I say I don't know if it's worth anything or not the believe the workmanship's worth something so that's why I wind up collecting a lot of this stuff and might not be as pretty or is expensive as some of the other people stuff but the workmanship on this old stuff is really something do you like to work with your hands well I always have you know I've always been creatively what's cool and stuff we just do a lot of drawing and I used to carve a lot of cars and you know different things like head and and then when I got to working on the racecar naturally you know you work with your hands because you're building the race car from scratch so yeah I like to see other things that people have done by working with their hands the the mechanical components then are these watches are as important to you as as the aesthetics the the beauty of them oh yeah naturally that's like what we're showing you this particular watch is that you know that everything on it was handmade nothing was drawn up in a with a computer and it stamped out or nothing they did everything every piece of that was was no molded or nothing they took a flat piece somewhere cut all the teeth in it did all the grinding all the etching and then all the figuring of how many of where the gears need to be to make sure that thing works and you know it was probably took them in maybe six months to make one like it and you know now people could make these and he'd probably take them six months but then you couldn't sell a thing for no twenty five thousand dollars there's nobody be interesting doing how about collecting cars you never got into really not really I guess really are the reason I've never got into collecting cars were a bit every time I ever got a call wound to work on the phone and I've never had lately with all the racing stuff I don't have the time to really expand on working with car I've got five or six different cars but I've never been able to go out and really work on them or enjoy them like this right here I'm sitting down looting these up and look at them why them you know clean them up a stuff and spend my time and enjoy doing it Richard that's an incredible collection and a side to you that I don't think a lot of people realize exists and and we'll be back with more with Richard Petty and the great drivers after this talk about collecting a lot of different things but you collected a lot of boats actually over the years as a commissioner of Randolph County how did that all transpire how did you get into politics well I've been involved on the outside I guess for a long time I've done a lot of campaigning for different people over the period of time and I don't know about seven eight years ago we were sitting around talking about it I guess and I end of the county of Randolph County what really wasn't represented it in which at that time we couldn't even figure out when the last time out part of the country's county had been represented who do you mean by a democrat or republican by anybody in other words cost at a time it was you know in the we're in a real rural area so they didn't have a lot of people politicking on there since then they broke it up now and we've got five different districts so every district around the county now is secure but at that time they didn't so nice a million I believe all this run so I ran and got on in there I guess 1978 and then we ran again a couple of years ago and got on again so I still got a couple of three more years later and you you attend every one of those meetings as much you've only missed a couple as I recall well we've done real good with it really they wound up having them on Monday and most of the races and stuff I can get back to from the races and most any of the spatial meetings and stuff before they called a meeting they call me to find out where I'm at and then we try to do it but most the time they try to do it like on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday and then well you know in town most of time first a week it's been a very rewarding thing I guess before I got out and found out a lot of stuff that naturally I didn't know and in find out how the mechanism of a lot of government works basically local government and I found out that the local government can't do a lot because the government from Washington send stuff to Raleigh and tells them what to do and the people from Raleigh sends it down to Randolph County and tells him what to do so you know sometimes you're handicapped and in the things you can do but again it's I've spent a lot of time doing it and I've spent a lot of time you know campaigning for them not only for myself but for a lot of other people over a period of time and you know in doing so and I have spent a lot of time probably more so than most of the regular race car drivers although they might endorse somebody from time to time I don't think they spent the the time you and you out and be in and day out that we have in politic is there any specific reason why why does Richard Petty get involved in local politics is it an obligation that you feel you have to feed back to the community or is it or do you aspire to a higher office or what do you want this I don't really know I got into the deal a little bit because I end of the county wasn't represented in in 1978 and I felt like it you know our poor the county needed representation and so I went ahead and ran for the for the office at that time and really never thought about doing a whole lot further not in right now I'm not thinking about doing a whole lot further in politics but you know another four or five years when I get out of racing or as things change you know I might decide that you know I want to go home further so from a standpoint it'd be a good round work as far as being able to to meet the people find out how the system works and you know which way you need to go to get the thing done and the last end point I'm glad that I've went into it and again it's been very educational whether you can do anything about it or not Richard these periodic Affairs that you open houses that you have for your fans they're unbelievably successful I know that some people estimate as many as 50,000 people showed up for the 25th anniversary why again this is do you do things that way well I got talked into this one again tea I've been talking there one of them the time before that I think it's very very good from the standpoint that the sponsors you know like I sponsored with STP or all the other people that's in racing has a chance to show what's been going on not just at the racetrack where it is people come to the racetrack they buy their tickets they go in they sit down they watch Racing they go away well when we have open house or something like this then everybody gets a chance to bring our stuff out and and the people come and stay three or four hours and they they don't really see the race they don't see a show they're just there and it's a good selling point for racing and you know after all that if I can't sell racing and I can't sell SDPO to sponsorship or anybody else before this concern so it's got to be a situation that what's made us has been the fan and you know without the fans there's no racing you know you're not interviewing me we're not on TV we've not got no sponsors and so it's a round-robin deal the moment we can help to the the fans the more they gonna help us and just I've just always got along good with the fans I don't know why that I spend a lot of time with them and I think this is something that when they come they show their lawyer you'll be me and when I have it I show my loyalty to them so it's sort of a trade-off do you like being a public figure well I don't know no it's good and bad I guess and everything I guess if I was not recognized then I'd feel bad about it sometimes I feel bad about because I am but it's it's good to be recognized to a certain extent and I'm I feel like I'm in a sort of middle plateau where people recognize you but they don't bother you enough that it really bugs you and I would imagine if they didn't bother me then it would really bug me but you can travel around Randleman level cross and be treated just as one of the folks right well yeah any time we're in level cross around than at home you know commissions meeting any of this kind of stuff in Randolph County and you're just one of the good old boys you was I was you know born here raised here went school you know most of the people so you just you know just one of the people now you know if you go to Charlotte or something and you go into place and they either go to Greensburg and you know you're you're an outsider and if people look at you a little bit different than they I guess I don't know yeah so they put you on a little pedestal when you're when you're at home your home folks and nobody pays that much pain to do Richard they're an awful lot of guys in Grand National stock car racing especially the more successful drivers who have remained close to their roots their families are strong and they're there very few divorces in them they're the families are tightly knit can you explain that any reason for that well I guess probably as much as anything is the background that these people come up through most of the people most of the drivers are not really that educated people know most of us went to high school we didn't probably have the facilities to go into college probably didn't wanna go on to college hard working background with our parents their parents were workers and all the boys grew up they had to work nobody there was nothing gived any of them they're hardworking people and a lot of church-going people and their morale and morals and all this kind of stuff that pretty even keep and I think that's one of the the backbones of NASCAR racin is that it is a close-knit deal not only the people that in the turnit these close-knit the each individual situation is close-knit even though we get mad at everybody and all this kind of stuff today you have family squabbles too but the overall situation is that the morals are the people or a search that they want to be poor family-oriented and they did they stick along to it pretty close sure though and it sure seems to work we'll be back with more from Richard Petty and the great drivers following this [Music] more surprises out of these cases and boxes guns this time well yeah we've got all kinds of guns to which we collect a little bit everything we got small derringer here and you know and then we'll go to the big stuff you know you can't run them off with that grand angel' sighs this is this is one when you really get serious you get this one that are you trying to tell me something well I'm telling you I didn't mistreat you long enough I think it's time you left I think today we're taking ahead I'll Richard we've got a little something to add to the collection here not as if you needed anything else but I think maybe you could use another belt buckle this is the belt buckles from the Nashville Network and it's our way of saying thank you for having us in your house today and showing us here hospitality thank you sir I'll put that right over with a risk then especially being it don't cost me anything I know man putting them this one's absolutely free thank you thanks again for being with us and thank you for being with us today with Richard Petty and the great drivers I'm Brock Yates [Music]

Channel: Calhoun98

Views: 6,272

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: NASCAR, Racing, Richard Petty

Id: KVdOrJblSwo

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 21 2018