News Article

Richard Petty Motorsports honors "The King" at Dover with a throwback paint scheme on the No. 43

May 16, 2010
Brian Smith

When Richard Petty heard that NASCAR was getting ready to establish a Hall of Fame, he initially didn’t think he should be part of the inaugural class, a notion almost as ridiculous as suggesting NASCAR run this weekend’s race without tires on the cars.

Richard Petty Photo by Dave Chambers

But it’s that kind of humility that makes “The King” the king, and why he’s still revered in the NASCAR community almost 18 years after he last sat behind the wheel in a race. His continued connection and interaction with NASCAR fans has endeared him to young and old, even to a generation of fans who never saw him race.

“For the first 15 or 20 years of NASCAR there were no sponsors,” Petty said. “The fans were the ones sponsoring because they bought the tickets. Back then, the fans were the ones you had to play to because they were the ones supporting it. They realized that without the fans there wouldn’t be any racing.”

The fans will have a great chance to salute Petty this weekend, a week before he is enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame along with Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson. He’s the Grand Marshal for this weekend’s “Autism Speaks 400 presented by HERSHEY’S Milk & Milkshakes,” and will give the command to start engines on Sunday afternoon.

Petty told reporters on Saturday in the media center at Dover that his skepticism towards the Hall of Fame came from the simple fact that he thinks there were others who did more for the sport in its infancy.

“I feel like there were people more important in getting NASCAR started than Richard Petty,” he said. “I’m a big believer in Lee Petty from the standpoint that he ran the very first race. He was the first driver that said he could make a living driving a car and owning a car. Junior Johnson is a good one. He transcended the sport. My part of it was just the driving part. I know we won a bunch of races, but that is just part of the overall show.”

While Petty’s sentiments may be true, winning races is the most visible part to fans, and he was the best at it during the period of time that NASCAR started gaining popularity outside of the South and began to grow into what it is today. One of those races was the 1979 Daytona 500, which aired on CBS during an East Coast blizzard that held people in their homes and thus provided a captive audience for the telecast.

Allmendinger's No. 43 NASCAR Hall of Fame Ford Photo by Getty Images

“Daytona kept getting a little bit bigger each year,” Petty said. “In 1972, I got the first major sponsor with STP. It took all of that to get CBS interested in a flag-to-flag race. To the general public and most of the nation, that was a big step. It wound up that race was an exciting one and it let the rest of the world know that we had a good sport down here in the South.”

As part of the weekend, Richard Petty Motorsports driver A.J. Allmendinger is running a special No. 43 throwback paint scheme to honor The King’s induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The bright blue and red colors take you back to the yesteryears of the sport with just one quick look.

There’s no doubt that the Richard Petty Motorsports crew would like to kickoff their Hall of Fame celebrations by taking the No. 43 Ford to Victory Lane on Sunday afternoon at the Monster Mile.