Daytona Had Petty Beginnings

By SHAV GLICK

Feb. 18, 2005 12 AM PT

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —

For 46 years, since the first Daytona 500 brought NASCAR racing in off the beach and into Daytona International Speedway in 1959, the two constants have been the France family and the Petty family.

Big Bill France built the place, and his family still runs it -- and everything else NASCAR-related -- but the Pettys, Lee, Richard and Kyle, helped supply the thrills and publicity needed to grow the 500 into “the Great American Race,” premier event of the Nextel Cup series.

Lee won the first one, Richard won seven of them and Kyle has driven in the last 23, after having won the first race he drove here when he was 18, the ARCA 200.

“Things have changed around here, even the racin’, but it’s still the greatest place to be,” Richard said reflectively during a chat about the difference between today’s corporate culture and yesteryear’s grass roots. He paused, took a pinch of smokeless tobacco, and continued.

“The first thing you notice is the money changing hands,” he said. “It took me winning more than a hundred races, a couple of 500s and a couple of championships before I made my first million. Last year, a young kid comes along, wins three races and a championship and comes away with 9 million bucks.

“If they’d a paid that kind of money in my day, I’d a had to hire a bunch of boys with Brink’s trucks to carry all the money, you know what I mean?”

When Petty drove a Plymouth to his first Daytona victory in 1964, he collected $33,000. By his seventh win in 1981 in a Buick, his winnings were up to $90,575. The winner on Sunday is expected to receive about $1.43 million.

You see what he means.

“Money ain’t the biggest deal, though,” he said. “It’s what’s happened to the driver. There’s so much technical stuff, computers and engineers that a driver has no way to express himself, to show what he can do on his own.

“Now I’m not sayin’ these guys today aren’t skilled. They really are, but they get too much help. When we first started using spotters, it was for safety purposes, to warn the driver of a wreck or something. Now they talk to the drivers and tell them where to go, where to pass, where everyone else is and when to block.

“There’s no seat-of-the-pants racin’ anymore. It used to be the driver, the crew chief and the mechanic sitting down, deciding what to do to make the car run better, and then go out and race. We was on our own out on the track.

“About the only thing they don’t have today is computers telling the drivers what do during the race. I don’t think NASCAR will ever let it get that far.

“One way I’m glad I’m not racin’ now is, I wouldn’t want any part of [restrictor]-plate racing. It evens up people so guys who aren’t supposed to be equal can get in line and run right along with guys who are really fast. It winds up not being a race but a parade. As long as you stay with the crowd, you get pulled along. I want no part of the plates.”

Daytona and Talladega are the only tracks where restrictor plates -- thin metal plates with four holes that restrict airflow from the carburetor into the engine -- are used to keep speeds down. How well it has worked is shown in Daytona track records. Before the plates, Bill Elliott qualified at 210 mph. With a plate on his carburetor, pole-sitter Dale Jarrett qualified at 188 last Sunday.

Petty, with his feather-covered cowboy hat, wraparound dark glasses and pinch in cheek, remains the most recognizable figure in Daytona and still -- despite the growing influence of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the younger generation -- the most revered.

“Boys these days have got so much else going on, it’s a wonder they can drive on Sundays,” he said. “When we was racin’, there wasn’t nothing else that mattered. My brother Maurice and my cousin Dale [Inman], me and my dad -- and then Kyle came along -- all we did was 100% nothing but racin’. Night and day, that was it.

“Now look at Kyle. He’s running Petty Enterprises with Jeff Green driving and he’s still trying to run his own race car, but he’s doing so much more. Me, I’m chairman of the board and the biggest stockholder, so I pay all the bills, but as far as the team is concerned, I’m just there. If Kyle or one of the boys wants to know something, I’ll tell them, but it’s Kyle’s call.”

All the Pettys are heavily involved in the family’s Victory Junction Gang, which is part of Paul Newman’s network of Hole in the Wall camps for terminally and chronically ill children. The Pettys started their camp in the memory of Kyle’s son, Adam, who was killed in a racing accident.

“It’s on 75 acres out behind our place in Level Cross [N.C.], and it’s wonderful for those kids who have spent all their life in hospitals,” Richard said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have four kids and 12 grandchildren and every one of them born healthy, so I feel like I should lend a hand to kids who weren’t so fortunate.

“We put up about 125 kids for 10 weeks or so at a time, and it don’t cost them or their families a penny.”

The complex, which includes a hospital called the Back Shop, cost $35 million to build and requires $5 million a year to operate.

“It takes a whole lot of people raising money to keep it going,” Petty said. “Kyle’s motorcycle ride across America each year brings in more than $1 million. Besides that, when we get to certain places, we stop and donate $25,000 or so to children’s hospitals. It’s all Kyle’s deal and it keeps him busy, lining up a couple hundred riders and finding places to eat, gas up, sleep and park their bikes. Takes a whole bunch of his time.”

The ride starts at Infineon Raceway, north of San Francisco, after the June Nextel Cup race and winds up in Level Cross. About 180 make the entire ride, but many simply ride stretches along the way.

“Y’all ought to come along and ride with us,” Richard said, flashing that familiar smile that was such a big part of NASCAR’s early popularity.

Southland Scene

Supercross will make its final appearance in Southern California on Saturday night when Ricky Carmichael goes for his sixth victory in a row this season at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium. The Suzuki rider won two of three races at Angel Stadium. Defending THQ AMA champion Chad Reed, winner of the last two San Diego races on a Yamaha, has yet to win in seven races this year.

Night racing will return to Perris Auto Speedway this week with a USAC/CRA sprint car main event Saturday night. Damion Gardner, winner of Perris’ day race two weeks ago, will be back trying to repeat under the lights.

This Week

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP

Daytona 500

* When: Sunday, race (Channel 11, coverage starts at 10 a.m.)

* Where: Daytona International Speedway (tri-oval, 2.5 miles, 31 degrees banking in turns, 18 degrees in tri-oval); Daytona Beach, Fla.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* 2004 winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

* Next race: Auto Club 500, Feb. 27, Fontana.

NASCAR BUSCH

Hershey’s Take 5 300

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, noon); Saturday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Daytona International Speedway.