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CUP: Petty ‘Everywhere’ In Hall
Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard Petty has a heavy presence in the NASCAR Hall of Fame...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted May 11, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Richard Petty is one of the first five inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Richard Petty will not only be “in” the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but he also will be “of” the Hall of Fame.

PHOTOS > CUP: NASCAR Hall of Fame Grand Opening

Beyond Petty’s inclusion in the hall’s inaugural class and the prominent spot he will have in the facility’s Hall of Honor, Petty’s presence and his singular impact on the history of the sport can be seen in many of the building’s exhibits.

This is no surprise for a driver who scored 200 wins and seven championships and a team principal who nurtured an organization that once dominated the sport. But, even for a man who knows virtually everything about the history of stock car racing (and one who wrote much of it), the displays in the hall brought back some memories sleeping in the background.

“I walked through there, and it jogs my memory,” Petty said Tuesday at the hall’s opening ceremony. “I thought, ‘Hey, I remember this or that, or getting caught with that piece over there.’ It rejuvenates me from that standpoint.

“It gives our new fans and would-be fans the history of where we started and what has been able to be accomplished.

“NASCAR is just 60 years old. It took a while to accomplish some history. If we had had one 25 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a lot to put in it.”
Richard Petty’s impact on the history of NASCAR can be seen through many of the exhibits in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. (Photo: Tom Jensen/SPEED.com)

Petty has been inducted into a long list of halls of fame over the years but said the NASCAR Hall will be the ultimate.

“This is THE hall of fame,” he said. “From NASCAR’s standpoint and Sprint Cup racing and any kind of NASCAR racing this is THE hall. You can be in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame or the North Carolina Motorsports Hall of Fame or the International Hall of Fame, and that’s great. It’s really great to be recognized there, but when you’re recognized with your own peers, it just makes it that much more special.”

Petty said he hasn’t worked on his speech for the May 23 induction ceremony.

“Me and Junior [Johnson] were talking about it,” he said with a smile. “I said, ‘You write me one, and I’ll write you one.’ ”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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