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Sprint Cup
CUP: Lee Petty – Champion And Team Patriarch
Lee Petty built a team that became a NASCAR icon…
After Lee Petty retired as a NASCAR driver and his sons, Richard and Maurice, took over most of the responsibilities at Petty Enterprises, the golf course was a favorite retreat for the team’s founder.
For the last couple of decades of his life, before poor health intervened, Petty was an avid golfer. Visitors to the Petty shop often saw him chipping balls in the front yard of the Petty home next door.
Petty also was a frequent player in golf tournaments that were linked to race weekends. It was on one of those occasions that this brief conversation took place as Petty and others waited in a food line prior to going to the tournament’s opening hole:
Reporter: “Hey, Lee, whatever happened to the original trophy from the 1959 Daytona 500?”
Petty: “I guess that damn [Johnny] Beauchamp took it to hell with him.”
End of interview.
Beauchamp and Petty were principals in one of the most famous finishes in NASCAR history. They were door to door at the end of the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, and NASCAR founder and track builder Bill France Sr. originally proclaimed Beauchamp the race winner.
NASCAR did not have sophisticated finish-line photography or technology in those days, but photos of the finish – in particular one shot by long-time racing photographer T. Taylor Warren – appeared to show Petty beating Beauchamp to the line. And Petty was convinced that his car had won the race.
France and his officials studied photographs and film of the finish of the race for three days before he reversed the decision and awarded the win to Petty. Petty didn’t get the traditional victory lane celebration.
But he got the check.
And that was the most important thing for Lee Petty, former farmer, truck driver and biscuit salesman and the man who established the template for development of a stock car racing team in the 1950s. First and foremost, racing was a business for Petty. It put food on his table.
For that success (and, oh by the way, 54 Sprint Cup victories and three championships along the way), Petty, who died in 2000, will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Monday, along with David Pearson, Bud Moore, Bobby Allison and Ned Jarrett.
As patriarch of one of motorsports’ grand families, Petty set the stage for his son, Richard, to become NASCAR’s all-time victory leader and a seven-time champion, and his legacy was carried on by grandson Kyle Petty and great-grandson Adam Petty, who died in a racing crash six weeks after Lee in 2000.
Although Petty’s greatest accomplishment will be starting a racing team from his farm reaper shed and building it into one of the most fruitful organizations in international motorsports, he also is remembered as a great driver.
Petty had an inauspicious start, however. He entered the very first Sprint Cup (then Strictly Stock) race in Charlotte, NC in 1949, convinced he was tough and smart enough to drive fast cars as well as anyone. However, when a part broke on a lumbering Buick Roadmaster he had borrowed from a friend to drive in the race, Petty crashed and destroyed the car, and in the process produced the first of thousands of caution flags in the Cup series.
It got better.
Petty had done his accounting homework and figured this racing thing could produce more money than driving a truck or a tractor. He attacked it with the thinking of a bottom-line businessman and made it work.
“That’s how he made his living,” said Maurice Petty, who became the team’s engine builder after he made an early run at driving and figured it wasn’t for him. “He was all business. The best quote I ever heard him say was, ‘What’s it pay? If it don’t pay nothing, I don’t have the time.’ ”
How important was the paycheck to Petty? This important: In June 1959, Richard apparently had scored his first Cup victory in a race at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta. He took the checkered flag first. But there was a protest. It was by the second-place driver, Lee Petty. He claimed to have passed his son twice, and officials later agreed. Although a win by Richard also would have resulted in a paycheck for Petty Enterprises that day, a win by Lee meant $400 extra because he received a bonus for driving a newer automobile.
No offense, Richard. It was business.
Lee Petty was 35 years old when he entered that first Strictly Stock race in Charlotte. Some drivers have retired younger than his starting age. But he had a knack for driving and driving hard, and his toughness took him to three national championships in the 1950s (’54, ’58 and ’59). He was the first driver to win three titles.
“There might have been more colorful drivers, but when it came down to winning the race, he had as much as I’ve ever seen,” said Glen Wood, who raced against Petty. “He was one of the toughest competitors there was at the time.”
Forty-two of his 54 wins (a series record until it was broken by Richard) came on dirt tracks.
His driving career basically ended in February 1961 when he endured a horrific crash in a Daytona 500 qualifying race, ironically involving Johnny Beauchamp, the other driver in the controversial 1959 Daytona finish.
Petty and Beauchamp were racing for position the final lap of the second qualifying race when their cars hooked up and sailing through the fourth-turn fence, sending both tumbling down the bank on the outside of the track. Petty suffered a punctured lung and several fractures and was hospitalized for weeks.
Ironically, Richard’s car also flew out of the track that same day – in the first qualifying race. He suffered only an ankle injury.
Lee Petty drove in several more races after that accident, but he was no longer a serious victory threat. He retired from driving in 1964.
“He got his health back, but his leg was so stiff he couldn’t bend it well,” Maurice said. “But he played golf, worked in the garden, did everything he wanted to do. I guess I took after him. He was hard-headed. He was going to do just what he wanted to do. He was ornery.”
Although Richard and Maurice handled most of the management details at Petty Enterprises after Lee quit driving, but the patriarch remained a definite presence in the shop.
“Richard and I took over the business and ran it as good as we could,” Maurice said. “When he got home from the hospital, he wasn’t that big a part of it, but, by golly, if he came through and said this or said that, you better be hustling to get it done.”
The Petty racing family continued on a strong footing, with Richard eventually winning seven championships and Kyle, the third generation, scoring race victories. Adam was to be the fourth-generation star but sadly lost his life in a crash during practice at Loudon, NH.
Before Adam’s death, Lee was convinced – grudgingly – to pose with the other three generations for a series of racing family portraits.
Eight years later, the story that was Petty Enterprises came to a sad end as the operation, once one of the capitals of NASCAR, closed. Battling sponsorship and financial problems (and admittedly behind the times in technology), Petty moved his name to another operation. The Petty team had moved from its original location in Level Cross, N.C. to Mooresville the year before.
The last victory by a Petty Enterprises car was scored by John Andretti in April 1999 at Martinsville Speedway.
Ironically, that’s where Lee Petty ran one of his final races.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
For the last couple of decades of his life, before poor health intervened, Petty was an avid golfer. Visitors to the Petty shop often saw him chipping balls in the front yard of the Petty home next door.
Petty also was a frequent player in golf tournaments that were linked to race weekends. It was on one of those occasions that this brief conversation took place as Petty and others waited in a food line prior to going to the tournament’s opening hole:
Reporter: “Hey, Lee, whatever happened to the original trophy from the 1959 Daytona 500?”
Petty: “I guess that damn [Johnny] Beauchamp took it to hell with him.”
End of interview.
Beauchamp and Petty were principals in one of the most famous finishes in NASCAR history. They were door to door at the end of the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, and NASCAR founder and track builder Bill France Sr. originally proclaimed Beauchamp the race winner.
NASCAR did not have sophisticated finish-line photography or technology in those days, but photos of the finish – in particular one shot by long-time racing photographer T. Taylor Warren – appeared to show Petty beating Beauchamp to the line. And Petty was convinced that his car had won the race.
France and his officials studied photographs and film of the finish of the race for three days before he reversed the decision and awarded the win to Petty. Petty didn’t get the traditional victory lane celebration.
But he got the check.
And that was the most important thing for Lee Petty, former farmer, truck driver and biscuit salesman and the man who established the template for development of a stock car racing team in the 1950s. First and foremost, racing was a business for Petty. It put food on his table.
For that success (and, oh by the way, 54 Sprint Cup victories and three championships along the way), Petty, who died in 2000, will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Monday, along with David Pearson, Bud Moore, Bobby Allison and Ned Jarrett.
As patriarch of one of motorsports’ grand families, Petty set the stage for his son, Richard, to become NASCAR’s all-time victory leader and a seven-time champion, and his legacy was carried on by grandson Kyle Petty and great-grandson Adam Petty, who died in a racing crash six weeks after Lee in 2000.
Although Petty’s greatest accomplishment will be starting a racing team from his farm reaper shed and building it into one of the most fruitful organizations in international motorsports, he also is remembered as a great driver.
Petty had an inauspicious start, however. He entered the very first Sprint Cup (then Strictly Stock) race in Charlotte, NC in 1949, convinced he was tough and smart enough to drive fast cars as well as anyone. However, when a part broke on a lumbering Buick Roadmaster he had borrowed from a friend to drive in the race, Petty crashed and destroyed the car, and in the process produced the first of thousands of caution flags in the Cup series.
It got better.
Petty had done his accounting homework and figured this racing thing could produce more money than driving a truck or a tractor. He attacked it with the thinking of a bottom-line businessman and made it work.
“That’s how he made his living,” said Maurice Petty, who became the team’s engine builder after he made an early run at driving and figured it wasn’t for him. “He was all business. The best quote I ever heard him say was, ‘What’s it pay? If it don’t pay nothing, I don’t have the time.’ ”
How important was the paycheck to Petty? This important: In June 1959, Richard apparently had scored his first Cup victory in a race at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta. He took the checkered flag first. But there was a protest. It was by the second-place driver, Lee Petty. He claimed to have passed his son twice, and officials later agreed. Although a win by Richard also would have resulted in a paycheck for Petty Enterprises that day, a win by Lee meant $400 extra because he received a bonus for driving a newer automobile.
No offense, Richard. It was business.
Lee Petty was 35 years old when he entered that first Strictly Stock race in Charlotte. Some drivers have retired younger than his starting age. But he had a knack for driving and driving hard, and his toughness took him to three national championships in the 1950s (’54, ’58 and ’59). He was the first driver to win three titles.
“There might have been more colorful drivers, but when it came down to winning the race, he had as much as I’ve ever seen,” said Glen Wood, who raced against Petty. “He was one of the toughest competitors there was at the time.”
Forty-two of his 54 wins (a series record until it was broken by Richard) came on dirt tracks.
His driving career basically ended in February 1961 when he endured a horrific crash in a Daytona 500 qualifying race, ironically involving Johnny Beauchamp, the other driver in the controversial 1959 Daytona finish.
Petty and Beauchamp were racing for position the final lap of the second qualifying race when their cars hooked up and sailing through the fourth-turn fence, sending both tumbling down the bank on the outside of the track. Petty suffered a punctured lung and several fractures and was hospitalized for weeks.
Ironically, Richard’s car also flew out of the track that same day – in the first qualifying race. He suffered only an ankle injury.
Lee Petty drove in several more races after that accident, but he was no longer a serious victory threat. He retired from driving in 1964.
“He got his health back, but his leg was so stiff he couldn’t bend it well,” Maurice said. “But he played golf, worked in the garden, did everything he wanted to do. I guess I took after him. He was hard-headed. He was going to do just what he wanted to do. He was ornery.”
Although Richard and Maurice handled most of the management details at Petty Enterprises after Lee quit driving, but the patriarch remained a definite presence in the shop.
“Richard and I took over the business and ran it as good as we could,” Maurice said. “When he got home from the hospital, he wasn’t that big a part of it, but, by golly, if he came through and said this or said that, you better be hustling to get it done.”
The Petty racing family continued on a strong footing, with Richard eventually winning seven championships and Kyle, the third generation, scoring race victories. Adam was to be the fourth-generation star but sadly lost his life in a crash during practice at Loudon, NH.
Before Adam’s death, Lee was convinced – grudgingly – to pose with the other three generations for a series of racing family portraits.
Eight years later, the story that was Petty Enterprises came to a sad end as the operation, once one of the capitals of NASCAR, closed. Battling sponsorship and financial problems (and admittedly behind the times in technology), Petty moved his name to another operation. The Petty team had moved from its original location in Level Cross, N.C. to Mooresville the year before.
The last victory by a Petty Enterprises car was scored by John Andretti in April 1999 at Martinsville Speedway.
Ironically, that’s where Lee Petty ran one of his final races.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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