“I remember Bill France Jr. telling me it would change the sport forever.” Long-time Cup driver Jimmy Spencer said in a 2023 interview recollecting a forgotten time when tobacco fueled NASCAR races. The sport’s 76-year history was brightened by the presence of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and its popular Winston cigarette brand. Although restrictions are multifold about tobacco consumption at present, how can we forget NASCAR’s golden era?

Richard Petty was an integral part of that time. He worked on his uncle’s tobacco farm when he was a boy and chewed tobacco, dipped snuff, and smoked cigars in his prime. But what is more important, tobacco helped make him rich and famous – as he ran the Winston Cup Series and accumulated bountiful victories.

Richard Petty narrates a ‘smoking’ story

Although NASCAR debuted in 1949, for the next two decades, its Grand National Schedule was frozen at another time. The 48-race schedule was too unwieldy and tied to shorter, smaller tracks with little or no national impact. But the sport’s fate changed after federal legislation derailed cigarette advertising on television. RJR shifted its advertising to the racetrack, helping grow stock car racing from a regional curiosity into a national phenomenon. From 1971 to 2003, the NASCAR-RJR nexus presented the most powerful sponsorship deal. And icons like Richard Petty benefited from it.

So, in a recent recollection of past times, the King talked about that historic signing in a NASCAR video. “They said, we just got off TV and we’ve got millions of dollars that we want to spend. Junior Johnson sent them to Bill France, to NASCAR, and they sat down and they cut a deal.” Those millions quickly saw results.

Purses at Cup tracks grew, and incentives came like the Winston Million, a $1 million prize offered to a driver who could clinch three of the marquee events – Daytona 500, Winston 500 (at Talladega), Coca-Cola 600, and Southern 500. So Richard Petty added with a smile: “We definitely looked at it as a good thing because when they came in, they started paying more money.”

RJR also revolutionized the sport – cutting down 48 races to 31 in 1972. It dumped millions into speedway improvements and wanted to branch out of traditional tracks. “Up to that time, we ran Rockingham, we ran Charlotte, Martinsville, Wilkesboro. They said well, no need of us advertising to the same people…With this much money, we want to go to California, we want to go to New York. We want to make a national sport out of it because we’re spending all this money.” 

Richard Petty compared this financial boom to earlier times when racers’ ambitions were low. “We were just working out behind the house. Everybody had a little shop where they worked on cars. People didn’t really look at the money if they had enough to get to the next race, they were just happy as June bugs.”

Although since 1998 the Master Settlement Agreement restricted tobacco brands in their advertising scope, NASCAR’s tobacco association will always be legendary. Another prominent Cup veteran recalled the Winston brand’s contribution to growing the sport.

The “biggest” moment in NASCAR

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As Richard Petty said, RJR’s entry into NASCAR brought money to the sport. And that financial capital was used to grow stock car racing in varied ways. The tobacco brand invested millions in widespread and business-smart promotion of NASCAR in terms of – public relations and communications presence. The resulting professionalism and thoroughness were rarely seen before. Printing NASCAR media guides, holding the Winston Cup preview, and conducting autograph-signing events were all part of the plan. RJR also moved NASCAR’s annual Cup Series end-of-season awards banquet to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

So Richard Childress, owning a 117-time Cup race-winning team, chimed with Richard Petty’s take. He told NBC Sports in a 2023 interview: “I’ve been in this sport 50-plus years, and there have been some big moments. R.J. Reynolds coming in was certainly one of the biggest. They brought in paint and built buildings and brought in media from all over the United States. And the billboards. I remember going to North Wilkesboro, and there was a big billboard about Winston and the race. That was a big deal back in the day – stuff that we never had before.”

Evidently, the Winston tobacco brand is forever etched in NASCAR history. Richard Petty and his compatriots shot to fame and popularity largely due to RJR’s efforts.