Richard Petty

Everything NASCAR starts with one name — Richard Petty.

He is the once, current, and future king of stock car racing, a man who established records that, no matter the talent of those who followed him and those yet to come, will never be broken.

More importantly, however, Petty, he of the piano-key smile, the cowboy hat, and the ever-present sunglasses, established a template for the ideal race car driver. Attending his father Lee's races as a kid, Petty quickly realized the importance of the race fan. And as he began his driving career, he made every effort to interact positively with as many fans as possible.

On many hot tough Saturday nights when he might have finished 10th in a field of 30 at some long-forgotten dirt track in the middle of Nowheresville, USA, Petty would sit and sign autographs until every interested fan had been accommodated. They all went home happy. And they were likely to return.

"It was amazing what he did," said Dale Inman, Petty's crew chief and cousin. "He did that so many times at so many places. There was always another fan waiting."

It is no overstatement to claim that the success of NASCAR in its early-growth years — from the start of the 1960s into the early 1970s — was built on Petty's strong back. There were other expert drivers, to be sure, but none carried the sizzle and pop of Petty and his winning smile. He became a cult hero.

By the late 1960s Petty had built a huge fan base, and his blue and red No. 43 race cars were among the most recognizable sights in the sports world — even among people who weren't racing fans. When Petty would travel and visit small towns, even without his racing garb, word would quickly spread that he was on Main Street, and crowds would gather.

At many NASCAR circuit stops, particularly in the 1960s when the schedule was much more crowded and teams hopscotched from one dirt track to another within a single week, the Petty Enterprises race car was a prohibitive favorite. The cars were immaculately prepared by Inman, the engines were expertly built by Maurice Petty (Richard's brother), and most in the field knew — barring mechanical collapse — that Petty would be the man to beat at race's end.

In a driving career that ran from 1958 to 1992, Petty basically wrote, designed, and numbered the NASCAR record book. He won 200 times, a Sprint Cup record that won't be touched in part because today's schedule — while still imposing with 36 races a year — can't compare with early NASCAR schedules that often had teams racing several times a week. Petty had many more chances to win — and he took a bunch of them. Inman has joked that if he had been a better crew chief, Petty would have won 400 times.

Second on the victory list is David Pearson with 105.

Despite the shine of Petty's career victory total, it is perhaps overshadowed by another of his records — 10 consecutive wins during the 1967 season, a mark that is about as likely to be duplicated in today's racing as a Ford is likely to be advertised by Chevrolet.

Petty's solid blue Plymouth was a ghost not to be caught during that remarkable year, one in which he posted 27 total wins. To think of one driver winning 10 straight races in today's NASCAR environment is to be labeled goofy. Petty's streak stretched from mid-August to early October that year, and it continues to get notice from drivers attempting to follow in his tire tracks today.

"The 10 in a row, that's tough," driver Ryan Newman said. "And he did it when it was pretty tough racing back in the day."

Among Petty's other NASCAR records are seven Daytona 500 victories, seven Sprint Cup championships (a record he shares with Dale Earnhardt Sr.), 1,185 starts, and 123 poles.

Twenty years after the end of his driving career, Petty, a first-round pick for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, remains the sport's grandest ambassador. He still appears at virtually every race, posing for photographs with fans, signing autographs, and simply being the King.

It's good to be the King.

Although he owns vacation homes and has any number of other interests — business and otherwise — calling for his time, Petty still wants...