COMMENTARY : Getting a Piece of King Richard Makes Dents in Petty Cash Fund

Richard Petty is a walking, talking marketing machine.

This is his last season on the Winston Cup circuit as a driver--his Fan Appreciation Tour. And there is no doubt King Richard is appreciated, judging by the way fans and sponsors are spending their money.

At Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in March, fans and crew members stood in a downpour for more than a half-hour to buy collectible dye-cast race cars displaying the Petty logo.

The cars sold for about $2 a year ago. They’re now selling for $12.50. Each track is allotted 43,000 that display the track’s logo. And they are selling out.

Collectors are paying even more. In Richmond, there were collectors standing beside the sales stand offering to pay $20 for every car just purchased at $12.50. At Pit Stop, a racing souvenirs store Catonsville, Md., the Petty dye-cast car is selling for $35.

It is nothing short of phenomenal. Standing in the lines in Richmond, among the souvenir-seeking fans, were driver Sterling Marlin, Davey Allison’s crew chief Larry McReynolds and car owner James Hylton. Speedway general manager Paul Sawyer got a call from a fan who wanted to buy 10,000 of those cars. Sawyer said no.

“Those cars are being produced as souvenirs for the fans,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it would be totally unethical to make that kind of sale.”

Two weeks ago in Dover, Del., track management limited the sale of the cars to one per ticket, and the fan had to show his ticket to buy the car.

Sunday, at the Champion Spark Plug 500 in Long Pond, Pa., each ticket holder was allowed to buy two.

Beyond the dye-cast race cars, Petty has a three-year deal with Yates’ Ham and a five-year deal with Gwaltney, which is making a King Richard hot dog. Those are a couple of the big deals, about $200,000 apiece, Petty said. Then there are a lot of little deals, with companies such as Reebok, Kleenex and Kodak. All together there are 22 major and associate deals in the works.

“Every deal I make will help my race team,” Petty said. “If I can make four or five $200,000 deals, then that’s another $1 million for my race team. . . . It’s hard in this economy to just walk into one man’s office and get $1 million. But we’re finding a lot of companies want to do a little something in racing.

“Sure, I’m greedy,” Petty said with a smile, “but every new company that comes in this sport benefits everyone in this sport. I may not get all the benefits myself from these new companies. Once they see what this sport is all about, maybe they’ll get interested in sponsoring someone else’s team.”

Everyone seems to want a piece of the King, and getting a piece of Petty costs more than petty cash.

“I’ve always sold Richard Petty stuff pretty well,” said Sharon Knecht, who owns Pit Stop in Catonsville. “But this year it seems everyone wants something of him to remember.”

That’s because this is Petty’s last season as a driver. Unlike A.J. Foyt, Petty said that he will retire from driving only once, and this is it.

Want Petty to sign autographs for an hour? It’s $10,000. He is averaging eight shots per week.

“A lot of the money we’re making will go to charities,” Petty said. “We’re trying to set a percentage right now. The deal is, a lot of this money has just fallen out of the sky. Now I’m not a philanthropist, but why not give that money to charity? I’m making my living on racing, but this is extra.”

Before the Firecracker 400 on July 5 in Daytona, Fla., Petty will make a special appearance at a charity event for handicapped children. That benefit is expected to raise $40,000.

Food Lion is selling a different package of Petty racing cars (four for 99 cents) each week during the 29-race Winston Cup season. Then there will be another set of Petty racing cars sold at each of the 29 races. Each track will get 15,000 cars. Pepsi is distributing “The Petty Legend Collection,” a set of eight old-fashioned, long-necked bottles sold in a special carton.

His Daytona 500 car will be cut up into 4,300 pieces and sold sometime after his last appearance at Daytona International Speedway on July 5.

“Heck, you skin these cars anyway,” Petty said. “So we’ll just cut this one up and sell it in two-inch squares.”

All of it builds up to the last race of the season in Atlanta, on Nov. 15. There Petty will join his fans for one of the biggest private parties ever. It will be in the new Georgia Dome, where up to 55,000 are expected.

It’s to be an old-fashioned hoedown, with the group Alabama providing much of the musical entertainment. Admission? Free, through various sponsor promotions that will be announced in the next 60 days.