“Didn’t Like the Ladies” – Kenny Wallace Exposes Richard Petty as He Reveals Petty Enterprises’ Dark Secret

Celebrating its 75 glorious years of entertaining its massive fanbase is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing – NASCAR. Much like many of its competitors, the organization also had its highs and lows in the ever-changing times and NASCAR too wasn’t impervious to changes. While the organization has always stood by every driver irrespective of race, sex, or nationality, recently former driver, Kenny Wallace uncovered its King’s unmentioned secrets.

Despite being one of those sports where women were already at the forefront with Sara Christian being the sport’s first-ever women driver to race, veteran Wallace in his latest podcast, uncovered the seemless discrimination faced by female drivers.

Kenny Wallace unearths the harsh truth about Richard Petty

Long before Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher made it into the scene in the Cup Series & Indycar, NASCAR had its legendary female drivers even in 1949. Sounds too good to be true? Let us travel to the past and look at some names. Sara Christian is one such driver who competed way back in 1949 at Daytona.

Though the late driver’s career was brief and short, she is still remembered as the first driver ever to compete in NASCAR’s top-tier division. Using a Ford owned by her husband, she qualified 13th and finished the race 14th in a highly male-dominated division.

To this day she remains the only female driver in the sport’s history to rack a top 5 in Cup Series. However, not everything was going the ladies’ way. Even after such entries, NASCAR remained a male-dominated sport. At one point, women weren’t even allowed in the pit area or the garages.

Reflecting on this forgotten aspect of the sport, veteran Kenny Wallace broached a question as Kyle Petty joined him in “The Kenny Conversation.” Mentioning the days of “The King” when he ruled the tracks, Wallace said, “I’m going to broach this subject just because I feel like I grew up in this era. When I raced locally around St. Louis, so first of all, I never raced around St. Louis, I was with my dad, my brother Rusty (Wallace), you know Kenny Shrader, and ladies never were allowed in the pit area because that was a man’s world and it was thought of as too rough.” 

Mentioning how different the scenes were back in the day, the dirt racing fanatics continued. “The ladies are goddesses, let’s keep them out of harm’s way you know and I feel like here’s where the Kenny’s conversation comes in, I remember your father more so. And I dont want you to answer for him but I kind of remember you on this bandwagon too,” said Wallace. 

With Petty’s own son joining the veteran, he cooked up a more direct question, asking him, “Ladies in the pit area back in the day, Petty Enterprises wasn’t, you guys didn’t like the ladies in the garage and pit area.”

To this Kyle Petty gave a simple yet resounding answer. He said, “No, it’s never been. It never happened.” However, as we find out from Kyle himself, there was more to this story. 

WATCH THIS STORY: “I hate the racing” – Kyle Larson goes on a ballistic rant against NASCAR, supporting wife’s condemnation 

The plot thickens as the veterans unravel the organization’s dark secrets

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Yes, female drivers raced in NASCAR before they were allowed in the garage area. Kyle Petty details the true story vividly in the podcast. He said, “Listen, I remember and this is a true story, I remember being in Riverside California when Dick Brooks had a sponsor that had a female, this is back in late 70s maybe early 80s, had a female VP and she couldn’t get into the garage area to see a car her company was spending hundreds and thousands of on.” 

Astonished by the fact, Wallace suddenly pops up, saying, “Hold on, let me back up, NASCAR did not allow ladies?” Hearing this the NBC analyst also confirms it. He said, “NASCAR didn’t allow women in the garage area.” While Petty explained how the sport was back in the day, he also brought up an interview involving his father who was asked “What do you think about ladies and racing?” 

Relaying what the old-timer said, his son, Petty said, “My dad’s answer was, there are no ‘ladies’ in racing.” To keep things short and simple, Richard Petty believed there were no ‘ladies’ in racing but there were ‘women’ drivers. “A lady would drive a race car,” said Petty mentioning his father’s response to the interviewer.

READ MORE: Richard Petty Has One-Word Response to What Separates Him, Dale Earnhardt & Jimmie Johnson in the Elusive NASCAR Seven-Timer Club