“Just sucks.” “That stings.” These words came from William Byron and Ryan Blaney, the two more than eligible suitors whom the ‘Lady in Black’ rejected. Byron led a race-high 243 laps, never letting go of his lead before a fatal green flag cycle. Blaney on the other hand, had the fastest car with which he toppled Tyler Reddick’s charge in the waning laps. That was until Kyle Larson’s late-race caution butted in and produced a wild climactic twist. This may have enthralled Denny Hamlin, but not Richard Petty.

The No. 11 Toyota driver was lurking behind the race leaders when the final caution was called. Immediately, his star pit crew got to work and beat everybody else on pit road, sealing the others’ fates. Although Hamlin won, Richard Petty questioned how much he worked to get it.

Well, the seven-time Cup Series champion has a solid record in Darlington himself. Richard Petty clinched three victories at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval – one in 1966 and twice in 1967. He is well aware of the formidable challenge that the track offers. From being the ragged edge of velocity and bravery to its ‘stripes’ on the outside retaining walls, Darlington can be tough. So Petty had his eyes on the drivers struggling at the back of the field as well, besides the race leaders. For instance, Kyle Busch snapped a streak of three consecutive finishes of 17th or worse with a tenth-place finish. Then Ty Gibbs finished 9th, which marks his best finish so far this season.

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin took advantage of Kyle Larson’s second caution, beating Ryan Blaney and William Byron on pit road. To Richard Petty, this achievement seemed little in the face of what the backbenchers put up with on Sunday. Sitting down with his long-time crew chief Dale Inman, the Cup Series veteran minced no words in watering down his verdict on Hamlin’s win. “It was good for the #11 car, okay? As far as just pure racing (is concerned), it’s hard to say. Okay, because there was a lot of racing going on in the back of the field, not at the front. So if you were judging it, you would say it really was not a really good race.”

In a way, Hamlin agreed with him, as seen from his comments post-race. “There’s two people I really love right now: My pit crew and Kyle Larson. So had a little assist there so thank you. The pit crew just did an amazing job. They won it last week. They won it this week. It’s all about them.” 

Moreover, Richard Petty was also unhappy with the broadcast booth. We all know the widespread criticism fans have hounded FOX Sports with since last year. The “King” joined the FOX booth with his son Kyle Petty last Sunday, and was brutally honest about his opinion. Petty told Mike Joy and Co. how they did not spotlight the rear-runners of the Darlington race. “The big deal is when I’m sitting here and see what I see on TV and the race is really back about 15th or 20th. Them guys — they drive their fanny off every lap. I mean, they’re really racing back there, but you know, if you’re here you can see that. You can’t see it on TV.”

Clearly, the 200-time Cup Series race winner was not very pleased with the Darlington showdown. When he was in his prime, Richard Petty dominated the track – but also narrowly escaped tragedy.

When Petty’s mother changed NASCAR

Since the early 2000s, NASCAR has placed the highest emphasis on safety. Ranging from SAFER barriers to mandatory HANS (Head And Neck Safety) devices, the sport has diligently monitored drivers’ security. That is because of the trail of tragedies and near-fatal accidents that marked its history. Richard Petty happened to come close to such an accident at Darlington Raceway. In a 1970 race at the track ‘Too Tough to Tame’, Petty’s steering failed. The No. 43 Plymouth slammed nose-first into the frontstretch wall. It came to a stop upside down with Petty himself hanging out the left side of the car. This jaw-dropping accident left Petty’s mother Elizabeth rattled, and she determined to introduce a crucial change in the sport.

Richard Petty recalled to CBS Sports recently about how his mother introduced the window net in NASCAR. “She made us a window net. We only ran the window nets in California at Riverside, but it wasn’t mandatory anywhere else. Once we did that, my mother said, ‘This is going to work.’ NASCAR then [made the window net mandatory]. Now, every race and every organization in the world, there’s window nets. It took something like that — a spectacular idea — to really sink into the safety feature…We had some stuff that was fireproof. She cut the things and sewed them up herself.”

After scraping with danger at Darlington Raceway, the King is bound to hold a critical lens at races that happen there today. Let us see how Richard Petty reacts to the upcoming races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.