Despite Regular Controversy, Richard Petty Divulges an 8-Word Reason Behind Loving New Tracks in NASCAR

Richard Petty was nicknamed “The King” for good reason. Snagging a staggering number of 200 wins and 7 championships, Petty laid the legacy for a lot of firsts in the motorsport. He was a star driver at a time when cars lacked the safety features and technical advancement that current Cup cars have.

Since Petty’s career began, cars and tracks have advanced way more. Yet tracks regularly face controversy with issues like missing pylons, faulty compounds, and others. But Petty had a unique trait that helped him face all adversity, which was rampant back in his day. Recently he spilled the beans on this.

Richard Petty reveals his passion for the “new”

When Richard Petty entered the Grand National Series, now called the Cup Series, he was only 20 years old. In 1959 he attained nine top-ten finishes and also Rookie of the Year honors. Petty began winning in 1960 when he won a Charlotte race. Over 65 years have passed since, and 86-year-old Petty still appears on podcasts with a broad smile to analyze races or tell treasured racing stories. Talk about pacing with the times!

Richard Petty’s penchant for trying new things played out in races. Recently in a NASCAR interview, he expanded on why an untouched race track fascinated him. “I always looked forward to the new track, ’cause I felt like if nobody’s been there, I had as much experience as they did”. Then he dropped an 8-word reason behind his love for novel tracks: I always thought I was a fast learner.

His quick learning process was always facilitated by a hands-on team. Lee Petty Engineering was housed in a small facility. Only eight men worked there, refurbishing cars during the week and pitting them at races. However, their work was unparalleled. For example, they transformed the 1966 Plymouth car, and it worked wonders.

Petty would let his curiosity and car’s ability run wild when testing a new track, as he shared, “Nobody’d ever been on that race track, so where’s the groove? So you go out and basically, you let the car tell you where the groove’s at. You go down and turn it, this is where it winds up so that’s where the groove is.” 

Along with his pursuits, Richard Petty’s team also harbored a unique strategy to make a continuous winning streak possible.

His car was pulled apart after every race

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Richard Petty’s team may be small, but it worked hard and smart. 1967 is considered Petty’s landmark year, as he laid a record that may never be broken. He won an astonishing 27 races, and more remarkably, won 10 of them in a row. The only way he could come close to this bonanza of a season was because of dedicated teamwork. Dale Inman, Petty’s crew chief, said the aim was to keep the car functional for 10 races straight.

Inman further let in on a team strategy: they disassembled the ‘66 Plymouth after every race. “We were one of the first teams to take a car completely apart after every race,” he said. “We had a table where we rebuilt the whole front end. We disassembled the chassis and did body work if needed.”

This ensured that Richard Petty had a smooth ride that could host his driving skills flawlessly at every race.