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Note: Richard Petty became the first driver inducted in
Goodyear’s ‘Legends of Daytona’ Hall of Fame exhibit in the
infield Fan Zone of the Daytona International Speedway.
Richard Petty –
“When you look at me, you’re looking at NASCAR history. I was at
the very first race that NASCAR ever had as far as Cup racing,
called the Grand National, in 1949 with my father in Charlotte.
And I’ve been to the majority of races since then. Goodyear, at
that time there was nobody involved in racing. You just took
your car, you went out, you ran and you went home. That was it.
Along about 1955 and 1956, somebody talked Goodyear into trying
to do some racing tires and stuff. I think my father was one of
the first ones that in the winter of ’55 or ’56, they went to
somewhere in Florida and did some tests. It was the first time
that Goodyear had ever really done tests on a racetrack. So
we’ve been in and out with Goodyear – mostly in – all the years.
They were the ones that really, when you really look down to it,
without a company like Goodyear, there’s no way we could go out
and run 190 and 200 miles an hour on a regular tire. So, they
have been a really, really big part of NASCAR and Cup growth.
We’d still be running short tracks and stuff on stock tires if
Goodyear hadn’t have put the investment into our racing deals. I
want to thank Goodyear from that standpoint.
“I grew up with Daytona. When I
came to Daytona the very first year in 1959 there was nothing in
the infield. And as a 21-year-old kid… Hey man, I didn’t know
any difference. It looked good to me. Johnny Bruner was the
official flagman, and he said, ‘Okay, everybody go out on the
track – being that it’s new – and run around the flats for four
or five laps before you ever get out up the bank.’ So, I go out
and I lead here, and I come down the frontstretch, and I said,
‘Hmmm… That’s okay.’ So, I go up on the bank. I’m the first one
that got black flagged at Daytona Beach. Anyhow, that was my
start here. We were fortunate. My father won the very first race
here on the Goodyear tires in 1959. Then we came back and won
the race in 1964 and 1966. But it’s just been phenomenal. My
career and Daytona Beach grew up together. In the first two or
three years, it was just another race. Darlington was our big
race at that time. But over a period of time, as I got a little
bit older and started winning some races, Daytona kept getting
bigger and bigger and bigger. Now, if you can win Daytona,
you’ve had a good year. Forget what happens after that – that
win lasts all year long. If you win the last race of the year,
in two or three weeks nobody remembers that. But Daytona, if
you win that, that is the race. Again, we’ve been really
fortunate to win. In fact, in Petty Enterprises, my father won
the first race and Pete Hamilton won in 1970. So, I think
that’s nine races that Petty Enterprises has won. The only
thing is it’s been 20 years since we won anything. But, we feel
like this year we have as good a chance as we’ve had in the last
four or five years. So, we’re looking forward to the race part
of it.
“I’ve got two or three good
memories, bad memories about Daytona. The ’76 race, which I lost
– I think more people remember that race than the ’77 that I
won. In ’88 I had a really bad wreck here. That was pretty bad
looking. I was fortunate nothing happened to me. But really, the
thing I guess I really remember about Daytona is winning the 200th
race in front of the president of the United States on the last
green-flag lap, July 4th, all of the hullabaloo. Of
course that was the last race I won, so naturally that’s the
last one I remember.
“I appreciate being inducted into
this deal. Being number one, being chosen No. 1, or being the
first one to do something is always great, and I really
appreciate the honor. Thank-you.
“(Goodyear) came down here in the
winter of 1965, I think. Darrell Derringer, had been doing most
of their testing. He had done some of it. So, he was down here
doing a regular tire test. And he said, ‘Hey, by the way, while
you’re here let’s check out these dudes.” And I said, ‘Okay.’
So they went out on the backstretch, and that had these two or
three little deals about two inches, I guess – they had them
really short. They set them over on the inside of the track,
and they said, ‘Okay, go out and run, get up to speed and then
run across these and blow a tire.’ I go out, I pull around and
I come running down through there and I’m headed for that thing
and just as I get there, ‘Whoops! Uh oh, I missed it.’ You know
what I mean? I think I made three laps before I had guts enough
to run over that thing. But it worked, and then it was no
trouble. Once you got by the first fear of the thing, then the
rest of them was good. Then they had that dude set up, and
Darrell was blowing them going into the corner. I told them,
‘No way for me, buddy.’ That was when they were developing the
deal, and that was probably – we’re always looking at safety
features – that was probably one of the biggest safety features
that anybody has come up with. I busted a bunch of dadgum walls
before they had that inner lining and it’s saved a bunch of cars
and a lot of people in a lot of years. We appreciate that. There
again was Goodyear’s involvement, trying to make things better
and it made it better for everybody.”
What’s changed since your racing days?
“The technology has changed
everything. We used to run down here and run Goodyear tires
that were about this wide, they had grooves in them and had
about that much rubber on the ground. No spoilers on the car –
all this kind of stuff and at 200 miles an hour… But the
technology has brought the cars closer and closer together. And
the technology is used by NASCAR to get the cars closer
together. I won’t say that the racing is better from a racer’s
standpoint, because you’ve just got a bunch of cars running
together as far as I’m concerned. But the racing is completely
different. If you stopped where we’re at right now and went back
to the old way, it wouldn’t work because the people like to see
a lot of cars, see a lot of action and all that stuff. The
technology has changed everything. The cars are more technical.
The specs are more technical. The tires are more technical.
We’re not running any faster because they cut all of the
horsepower back and all that stuff. We’re trying to go with
NASCAR to go to the next generation and the next generation. So,
just because us old-timers don’t like what’s going on, there’s
no sign that the new people who are coming in and don’t know
anything about us, they embrace what’s going on. So, if you
come back in 10 years, we’re history now. So, they’ll look back
at the good ‘ol days, but sometimes them good ‘ol days weren’t
so dadgum good, I’ll tell you that. I’ve been through some of
them. It’s just a trend of time. Everything changes, and
hopefully it changes for the better. And so far we’ve been
fortunate with NASCAR. Most of the changes have been for the
better.”
On
the discovery of drafting…
“We ran a convertible race the
first time here in 1959. I was out running. There were three or
four of us guys on up, and we got away from everybody. We
didn’t know nothing about drafting. We didn’t have any
aerodynamics on the car – we just ran. We ran about 130-135
miles-per-hour is about all the cars would run. And this one
little group of four went all the way around and we lapped
another group of about four or five. It was just like at short
tracks, you figured you’d pull out, you’d pass them and you go
on. Well, we did. We pulled out, passed them and went on. The
first thing you know they’re back up there passing us. I said,
‘Man, what in the world is going on here.’ We kept running and
finally got away from that crowd. Finally, I figured out that
if I could get back on in turns one and two, I could get a run
and start down the backstretch and pass everybody. So, that was
the draft part of it. I didn’t know what was causing it, but
that was it. So, sure enough on the last lap, man I’m sitting
back there, I’m getting back a little bit, maybe 20-30 yards. I
get a running start and I go tearing up the backstretch and I
pass everybody going in the third corner, leading the race. And
I said, ‘Man, this is easy.’ About that time they came back
around me because of the draft. Then I realized that, hey man,
something was going on here. I didn’t know what it was – nobody
knew what it was. And that was the first race, so we were the
first ones to get in on the draft.”
Did you think you’d ever see a “Fan Zone” in the infield of a
racetrack.
“No. When we first came here they
had like, what, 20-25,000 people? The place was full. I’d never
seen that many people in one place. We had been running
Saturday night races or Sunday races, and they might have, if it
was a big crowd, eight or nine, maybe 10,000 people. All of a
sudden you see 25,000 people, and that was humungous, man. But,
at that time they didn’t let fans down from the grandstands.
They did have fans in the infield, but they wouldn’t let them in
the garage area. It was strictly a business, business deal. Then
over a period of time, sponsors and somebody that knows somebody
that knows somebody gets in the garage area, and you get all the
people in there. Then you get 100,000 fans at a racetrack and
200,000 fans. They’re automatically going to get close to the
drivers whether they’re supposed to be there or not. And it’s
good. But if that’s going to happen we need to control it. And
this is the chance for fans to get close but not get in there
with them. From my standpoint, or from a drivers’ standpoint,
when they walk this close to a fence, and there’s 40 or 100
people back there, these people are like, ‘Sign, sign sign!’
It’s kind of hard to walk by, but if you ever stop you’re never
going to get gone. So, you have to sort of ignore that part of
it. One of the things that I think we have to look at from the
fans and the drivers, if you look at it from the drivers’
standpoint, just because they pay $20 or $30 to get into the
garage area or get in the pits or whatever, that’s not a ticket
to get an autograph. So, the fans should not be mad at the
drivers or owners for not stopping and signing because this is
our business. If we don’t do it at that particular time, we
don’t get it done. So, as long as the fans will work with the
drivers and stuff, the drivers will work with the fans.”
How long did it take for Daytona to become a big deal?
“Initially, Darlington was the No.
1 deal. It probably took, I would say, from a racer’s
standpoint, maybe a year. It didn’t take long to realize that
this was a big deal. I think the general public, it probably
took two or three, maybe four years for Daytona to really start
outshining Darlington. It was the very first race of the year.
Nobody had raced anywhere in the country for three months.
Everybody is cooped up, and they just can’t wait to get to the
next race. So, Daytona was the perfect spot. It was the only
place in the world that was running at this time of year. It
wound up being a worldwide draw just because of that. The
Daytona 500, as we know it, as a Super Bowl, would never work at
the end of the season. What’s so good about this race is that
you’ve got new sponsors, new drivers, new cars, new paintjobs
and you’ve got all of the anticipation of three months built up.
So, nobody knows who’s going to come out of the box being the
best that year. So, that just makes it that much better.”
What do you think about the young, aggressive drivers in the
sport today?
“It’s no different than it’s ever
been, from that standpoint. Sometimes it’s aggressiveness, and
sometimes it’s just people who just don’t know what they’re
doing. But I think over a period of time, and the way things
have happened with the sponsors, owners get a lot of young
drivers coming in who get a lot of pressure on them really,
really quick. In their mind they’ve got to get the job done
today, this lap. They don’t have the patience it takes. When
you get a little bit older, you get a little bit more patience,
I guess. A lot of these guys figure if they don’t prove
themselves in the first race or in the first situation they get
into, then they’re not going to be here very long. It used to be
that we would recycle drivers. Drivers would come in and last
here 20 to 30 years. They’d go to five, six or seven different
cars. You’re not going to see that in the future. You’re going
to see these guys coming in, they’re going to get one chance. If
they’re lucky they get two chances. Then they’re ‘outta here.
The demand is going to be so much more on the drivers. That’s
what we’re seeing today. These guys, if they had a bad race the
last race of the season, they’ve got to come out of the box and
really look good to keep everybody going. So, they get
overaggressive just because the pressure is put on them. A lot
of time it’s not put on them, they put it on themselves. So,
there’s no way to control that. It’s just the trend of time.” |
