The Rolex 24 at Daytona is an iconic IMSA event that saw several full-time NASCAR drivers participate this year. However, it’s not the only time that has happened. Former Cup Series driver Kyle Petty also took part in the event in 2001. But he did not make too many people happy when he inadvertently ruined one of the event’s important traditions back in the day. It had everything to do with a literal photo finish to the race.

The races were not a close affair back then, especially towards the end. Reliability issues plagued a lot of cars and the gap between cars in successive positions was quite substantial. Therefore, the organizers at the time had decided that all the cars would bunch up and cross the finish line together for a photo finish.

All Kyle Petty wanted to do was to cross the finish line

The same happened in 2001 when Kyle Petty did not realize what was going on. At that year’s 24-hour race, Petty did not see the checkered flag so he raced until the end, fighting for position. This messed up the photo finish that the organizers had planned and no one was happy.

In that race, Petty was fighting for a P4 finish, which is quite an incredible result in a race that goes around the clock for a whole day. So it’s no wonder that the former NASCAR Cup Series racer did not want to let the opportunity go. In the end, he did finish P4 in what was a memorable day for the 63-year-old.

“What happened was we raced ourselves into the back of the pack and these guys were racing for a photo. This is me coming up on the inside, I’m still racing for fourth place. I didn’t know you could ruin the photo. It was incredible because I come under everybody, I ended up fourth and ended up being a lap ahead of who I was racing at the time because I got credited with that lap and he got hung on the outside behind in the pack, but it was a funny deal. When I crossed, Leo and all the guys from Grand America were like, “What are you doing? You ruined the photo’,” and I’m like, “I was racing, I didn’t see the checkered flag yet’,” he said about the event.

That’s a pretty funny story. Now, speaking of laughter-inducing stories, this is not the only time the world came face-to-face with the adventures of the Petty clan. Back in the day, a nasty rumor started flying around about Kyle Petty’s grandfather Lee Petty. Though the rumor ultimately turned out to be untrue, the hilarity of the situation didn’t dampen at all! 

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Kyle Petty debunks a ridiculous rumor about his grandfather Lee

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While fame is rewarding, it also comes with its own set of issues. The same thing happened to the iconic patriarch of the Petty clan, Lee Petty, when one of the most popular rumors that were flying around in the media was that Lee Petty had an infamous massage parlor at one of his warehouses in Charlotte. Obviously, the rumor turned out to be completely untrue but it made for an interesting story as Kyle explained how it came about.

“So he had these warehouses over there and he would just go the mailbox and get the cheque, that’s what it was, he didn’t have a clue what was over there and then it came out in the paper that Lee Petty had a warehouse at Charlotte at the airport that they had a massage parlor in,” he said.

The Pettys usually have a lot of stories that capture the imagination of motorsports fans. Three generations of the family have spent their whole lives in racing they are perhaps the first people fans think of while looking for historical references and tales in NASCAR.

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