BREAKING NEWS: NASCAR Legend Richard Petty Is Dead Read more Details 👇👇
Richard Petty is 86 years old now, and his seven NASCAR Cup championships and record 200 wins at the sport’s highest level came long ago.
But Petty is still going strong in Level Cross (pop. 3,694), which sits right in the middle of Charlotte and Raleigh. Petty still lives a stone’s throw from the house where he was born, and that house sits right next to the Richard Petty Museum, which houses an incredible amount of his stuff.
Nicknamed “The King” and a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Petty retired from racing in 1992. Long before that he had already developed a signature look that is all his own: cowboy hat, black sunglasses, oversized belt buckle and cowboy boots. He showed up wearing exactly that to our interview.
Honestly, I would have been a little disappointed if he hadn’t.
This interview with Petty serves as the Season 3 kickoff for the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” multimedia project. Petty and I sat inside his museum, on two high-back chairs, and talked about life, death, racing, autographs, Daytona, family and the time his own father took away his first race win.
After we were done, a spry Petty hopped off his chair and said: “You got my whole history, didn’t ya?”
Not quite, but we did hit a lot of the highlights. On the eve of the 2024 NASCAR season and the Daytona 500, there’s no better way to rev up the racing anticipation than a visit with “The King.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. A longer version of this interview is available on the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast. The Petty podcast episode is sponsored by Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates.
Scott Fowler: We’re sitting in Level Cross, which is your hometown. You’ve never really left this place, right?
Richard Petty: Right. I was born in the house right beside the museum here, my brother and myself. We moved around to a few houses, but all of it right around here. My daddy started racing in 1949 — so this is the 75th anniversary of the Pettys and racing.
