The Most American Thing: NASCAR and Richard Petty

People say that the most American things are baseball and apple pie. But newsflash homie! Apple pie was actually invented in England, and baseball is boring. So, what's the most American thing? Freaking NASCAR man! The most winningest man of them all, the king himself, Richard Petty.

NASCAR is one of America's oldest racing series, and stock cars are America's largest contribution to motor sports worldwide. This sport is undeniably American. We invented ovals so fans could watch an entire race. Over NASCAR's 70-year history, there's one driver who stands tall above the rest. Even if you've never seen a race, you've seen this guy and you know his name. Richard Petty, AKA The King.

Won the NASCAR championship seven times, a feat shared by only two other drivers, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. What separates Petty from those guys though is his astonishing 200-win record. The next closest driver, David Pearson has 105. Richard Petty is one of the most respected drivers in the world, and was one of the first drivers inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

You cannot talk about racing, let alone stock car racing, without talking about Richard Petty. Richard Petty was born on July 2nd, 1937, in Level Cross, North Carolina. His dad was Lee Petty, a dude who really loved racing. Lee's first win came at Heidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh, and that was just the beginning.

In 1959 he drove in the very first Daytona 500. On the last lap, Lee and two other drivers crossed the finish line at the same time, with Lee judged as coming in second. But Lee saw it differently; he claimed he was two feet in front of the winner and demanded that NASCAR review the footage. It took three days, but Lee was finally declared the real winner.

Lee won three NASCAR championships over his career, earning the Petty family a place in the NASCAR pantheon of greats. If it wasn't clear by now, racing was in Petty's blood, and that included young Richard. Richard had been helping his dad out with the race team, driving parts and cars wherever they needed to go.

Kinda like how I make Nolan deliver me a case of sparkling water to my desk whenever I get thirsty, and boy do I get thirsty. Anyway, Richard was getting a little antsy. He was tired of doing the legwork and wanted to get behind the wheel. Lee said, okay, but Richard would have to promise to wait until he was 21.

Then, they would see. Because he wasn't yet racing, the young Richard had time to cruise around town in his '56 Dodge that he'd lowered and strapped on some big wheels and tires. Under the hood, rumbled a '57 Oldsmobile Engine, with three carburetors! And that, fed into an exhaust with no muffler.

This guy was doing muffler deletes before the term muffler delete was a thing. These big old cars used to come with bench seats, good for smooching, not good for driving. So, Richard tore that bench out and dropped in a bucket seat, but he never got around to setting up one for the passenger.

Not exactly the best configuration for a young eligible bachelor. This was when he met the love of his life, Linda Owens. She fell quickly for the tall, charming Petty and the two were married in 1958. When Richard turned 21 in 1958, his dad gave him one of his cars from the previous season, a 1957 Oldsmobile convertible.

Side note, at that time NASCAR had two top-tier divisions, one for hardtops and one for convertibles. Also, these cars were pretty much stock, hence the name stock cars. They got tuned up and modified to perform better on primitive dirt ovals. But for the most part, the cars you saw racing at the fairgrounds were the same ones that you could buy at the dealership.

What wins on Sunday sells on Monday, you ever heard that before? Have you, huh? Richard Petty was stuck on the 40 numbers with his brother Maurice. They were about to put on a new coat of paint when Maurice discovered,

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- People say the most American thingsare baseball and apple pie.(popping into existence)Well newsflash homie!Apple pie was invented inEngland and baseball is boring.So what is the most American thing?Freaking NASCAR man!- This is Get Up ToSpeed, you gonna find outeverything you don't wannaknow about Richard Petty.- The most winningest man of them all,the king himself,Richard Petty!(arcade music)NASCAR is one of America'soldest racing series,and stock cars are America'slargest contributionto motor sports worldwide.This sport is undeniably American.We invented ovals so fanscould watch an entire race.Over NASCAR's 70-yearhistory, there's one driverwho stands tall above the rest.Even if you've never seen a race,you've seen this guyand you know his name.Richard Petty, AKA The King.Won the NASCAR championship seven times,a feat shared by only two other drivers,Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson.What separates Pettyfrom those guys though,is his astonishing 200-win record.The next closest driver,David Pearson has 105.Richard Petty is one of the mostrespected drivers in the world,and was one of the first driversinducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.You cannot talk about racing,let alone stock car racingwithout talking about Richard Petty.Richard Petty was born on July 2nd 1937in Level Cross, North Cackalacky.His dad was Lee Petty, adude who really loved racing.Lee's first win came atHeidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh,and that was just the beginning.In 1959 he drove in thevery first Daytona 500.On the last lap, Lee and two other driverscrossed the finish line at the same time,with Lee judged as coming in second.But Lee saw it differently, he claimedhe was two feet in front of the winterand demanded that NASCARreview the footage.It took three days,but Lee was finallydeclared the real winner.Lee won three NASCARchampionships over his career,earning the Petty family a placein the NASCAR pantheon of greats.If it wasn't clear by now,racing was in Petty's blood,and that included young Richard.Richard had been helping hisdad out with the race team,driving parts and carswherever they needed to go.Kinda like how I make Nolan deliver mea case of sparkling water tomy desk whenever I get thirsty,and boy do I get thirsty.Anyway, Richard wasgetting a little antsy.He was tired of doin' the legworkand wanted to get behind the wheel.Lee said, okay.But Richard would have topromise to wait until he was 21.Then, they would see.Because he wasn't yet racing,the young Richard hadtime to cruise around townin his '56 Dodge that he'd loweredand strapped on some big wheels and tires.Under the hood, rumbleda '57 Oldsmobile Engine,with three carburetors!And that, fed into anexhaust with no muffler.This guy was doing muffler deletesbefore the term mufflerdelete was a thing.These big old cars usedto come with bench seats,good for smooching, not good for driving.So, Richard tore that bench outand dropped in a bucket seat,but he never got around tosetting up one for the passenger.Not exactly the best configurationfor a young eligible bachelor.(chuckles)This was when he met the loveof his life, Linda Owens.She fell quickly forthe tall, charming Pettyand the two were married in 1958.When Richard turned 21 in 1958,his dad gave him one of hiscars from the previous season,a 1957 Oldsmobile convertible.Side note, at that time NASCARhad two top tier divisions,one for hardtops and one for convertibles.Also, these cars were pretty much stock,hence the name stock cars.They got tuned up and modifiedto perform better on primitive dirt ovals.But for the most part,the cars you saw racingat the fairgrounds,were the same ones that youcould buy at the dealership.What wins on Sunday sells on Monday,you ever heard that before?Have you, huh?Richard and his brother Mauricegot the Oldsmobilerace-ready and drove it outto Columbia, South Carolina for a race.That weekend Richard finished sixthand earned a prize of 200 bones.Little did the crowdand the competition knowthat young Richard Petty from Level Crosshad just begun his journeyto NASCAR super-stardom.From then on Petty raced withthe now iconic number 43.But with so many numbers to choose fromhow could he possibly choose that one?There has to be some legendarystory explaining why.- Well, the 43 numbercomes after the 42, okay?The 42 number was my father's number.He started with the 42,I think he picked it off ofa license plate or something,and just said, okay that's the number.And I came along and I used the 43.So, we just got stuck on the 40 numbers.- The next year Richardwas racing a lot more,entering 21 races.Late in the season, Richard and Maurice,his brother, remember?Were at the shop, fixingup one of their dad'sPlymouth Fury race cars.They were about to puton a new coat of paintwhen Maurice discovered,"Ugh, there wasn't enoughwhite to cover the whole car.""Hold on, I got an idea."(spit hitting spittoon)Richard found a can of navy blue paintand the bros mixed the two togetherthen sprayed it on the car.When it dried, they couldn't believewhat a majestic hue they had created.It was as blue as the sky andhis bright as their future,a future so bright, healways wears shades."Well, I hope Dad likes it."Lee did like it, and he liked it so muchthat Petty Enterprisestrademarked the color.Petty blue was here to stay,and would be on every Petty car, forever.Richard finished fourthin the convertible division that seasonand 15th in the GrandNational Championship,14 places behind his dad.(grunts angrily)I know how that feels,my dad would make me sitat least 14 rows behind himwhenever he had me on theweekend and we went to a movie.Lee won his third and finalchampionship that year.Richard had a lot of catching up to do.Two years later in 1961,both Lee and Richardwere entered in the Daytona 500.During the first 40-lapqualification race,Richard's car got tangled upwith the Pontiac of Junior Johnson.Jr. Johnson, I've said itbefore and I'll say it again,race car drivers have the best names.Richard and Junior Johnson hit each other,which sent Richard overthe outside guard railand into the parking lot.He was lucky, only getting asmall cut and a twisted ankle.He went back to the pit to recover.Then, Lee went out forhis second qualifier.On the 37th lap, Lee gotinto a wreck of his own,flying off the track, overthe turn-four guard rail.Track officials rushedLee to the hospital,which was good because thatmeant he was still alive.Lee swung in and out ofconsciousness but he held on,surviving his unbelievable crash.After spending fourmonths in the hospital,Lee Petty decided that would behis last year behind the wheel,and hung up his racinggloves, Lee was done.But he didn't want thePetty name to stop racing,Petty Enterprises would continue on,this time with Richardand Maurice in control.In 1964, Plymouth had a new enginefor the boys to play with.The 426 Hemi's hemisphericalcombustion chambermade for super efficientburning of fuel, which meantmore power!The 426 was also really really really big,measuring seven liters.When Plymouth handed out toHemis to their NASCAR teams,they explicitly informed themnot to test them at full bore.The Hemi was so much more powerfulthat the other manufacturerswould immediately knowthat something was up.Plymouth told 'em, "Ifyou must go full throttle,"do it would only in a race."The reason for the secrecywas that technically,the 426 Hemi wasn't a production engine.So technically, it wasn't race legal.But hey, in the worldof NASCAR, "technically"buys a lot of leeway,and Plymouth figured theycould get away with it.And they were right,the Petty team arrivedto the Daytona 500 with the monstrous millunder the hood of Richard's Plymouth.The green flag droppedand the race was underway,but not long after, the Hemi-powered carsstarted coming into the pits.Ruh-roh.What the heck is goin' on?Would Petty be next?It turned out that the Hemiswere sucking so much airthat trash was startingto block the intakeson some of the cars.Lucky for Richard, he wasn't afflicted,and he cruised to the front of the pack.A few hundred miles later,Richard took the checkered flag,marking the first of hisseven Daytona 500 wins.Richard rocketed to thetop of the standingsand won his first championship that year,and the wins just kept on coming.And by 1967, Richardwas on top of his game,Petty piloted his PlymouthBelvedere to 27 wins that season,including an insane winningstreak of 10 in a row.With that many wins,Richard easily clinchedthe championship for the second time.No one has even come closeto touching that win streakand likely never will.And at this point,Richard was still decades from retirement.'67 was the year he gothis well-deserved nickname,The King.Unfortunately for Plymouth,Petty's luck wouldn't beso good the next season.Ford debuted their Torino, a totally(whooshing)aerodynamic design,that cut through the airlike a knife through butter.Richard's Plymouth RoadRunner was a littleblocky, by comparison.Richard really wanted a better car.He wanted Plymouth to help himmake the Roadrunner better.But Chrysler, Plymouth's parent companydidn't give them any money to do that.Chrysler was busy helpingDodge upgrade their car,the Charger.After getting beaten by Fords all season,Petty announced that he wasleaving Plymouth for a new team,Ford.Petty hopped into aTorino for the first raceof the '69 season at RiversideRaceway, and guess what,he freaking won!I'm not surprised, this guyis pretty much the best.And he was in the bestcar, how could he lose?The dude spun out twice andthat didn't even matter.This guy's a God, there'sno way he could ever lose.Well, he could lose.Because later that year,Dodge, his old Bay,debuted their answer to theTorino menace, the Daytona.They're all like it,"Hey, what's up Richard?"You look nice, hope you're doing good."Oh, have you met my new car, the Daytona?"Yeah, it's really really aerodynamic."Oh, how's the Torino?"Oh, yeah I remember, yeah,it's prettier aerodynamic."It doesn't look asaerodynamic as it used to,"now that I put it next to the Daytona."Okay cool, I'm glad you're well."No, it's great seeing you."All right, later."If you wanna know more about the Daytonacheck out our video.Plymouth gave the Daytonaa brother the next yearwith the Superbird, whichwas pretty much the samebut a little bit different.Petty saw that Superbird and thought,"Yum-yum, Petty like."So he went back to Plymouth in 1970for a brand-new Petty-blue Superbird,and the King won fivefreaking races with it,and 13 more with his Plymouth Road Runner.They only ran the Superbirdat the longer superspeedwayswhere the aerodynamicswould be most beneficial.The next year, he stayed with Plymouthand won his third championship.That is super.Fast forward a few years to again,Daytona, 1976 baby.Richard was now driving a Dodge Chargerpainted in his Petty-blue and STP-red.Why blue and red, you ask?Well, here we go.When the engine lubricant company STPapproached Petty to sponsors his team,they wanted the car to be theirday-glow red, Petty refused.He wanted the car to be blue,like it had always been,come on, which STP refused.Petty made for the door,but the STP rep stopped himand offered him a compromise."How about we make the carhalf red and half blue?""Hmm, that might work."Turns out the two bold colorscomplement each other just fine,and from then on, Richard Pettyhad two iconic paint schemes to his name.Anyway, Daytona '76, Richardwas leading on the last lapwith rival David Pearson right behind him.Going down the backstretch,Pearson went lowand passed Richard on the inside.Petty tried to return the favorthrough the turn fourexit and he was so close,his fender right up against Pearson's car,Richard made it past but they touched!What happened next, boggles the mind.Both cars spun,and they were closeenough to the finish linethat it looked likeRichard could slide his caracross the line, but he didn't make it.As his crew pushed his car to the finish,David Pearson drove by,snatching the victory away from Richardin one of the most memorableNASCAR finishes ever,but that wasn't even the craziest one.Again, Daytona 500, 1979.Okay, I just wanna takea second and apologizethat all these stories are from Daytona.That's just how history worked out.He's the freaking kingof Daytona, so sue me.Richard was running in thirdplace, far behind the leaders,Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough.On the last lap, down the back straight,Yarbrough tried to passAllison on the insidebut Allison blocked him.The cars made contact andexcruciatingly hit one anotherthree more times beforehitting the wall at turn three.Both cars slid down to theinfield and came to a stop,it was then Richard's race to win.Darrell Waltrip wentway down to the curtainin the final turn, but Pettyheld his line and crossed the finish,winning his sixth Daytona 500.What happens next, shocked the world.Both Donnie Allison and Cale Yarboroughgot out of their carsand just started wailing on each other.This was the first fullytelevised Daytona 500 on live TV,and two drivers were just dukin' it outlike me and my brother Larsat the reading of my Meemaw's will.For so many people, thiswas their first exposureto the sport of stock car racing,and they freaking loved it.The 1979 Daytona 500 was a pivotal momentin the history of NASCARfor that very reason,it was the perfect first racefor the people around the world.Number 43 kept racing andwinning through the early 80sand he entered the 1984 Firecracker 400with a career 199 wins.The race was heated and close.In lap 158 of 160, RichardPetty and Cale Yarboroughhurtled through turn oneat the Daytona International Speedway.A spun-out car rests in the infield below.Indifferent to the unfortunatedriver beneath them,Petty and Yarbrough flyby at 200 miles per.With only a few lapsleft, every inch gainedmeans the differencebetween victory and defeat.As their cars devouredDaytona's backstretch,victory is within reach for both drivers.Yarbrough darts to the leftand passes Petty on theentrance to turn three.Because of that spun out car,the caution flag waves in the distance.Both men see the traffic ahead,Petty has just seconds to make a move.A win today would be his 200th victory,solidifying his place as a NASCAR legend.So the yellow caution flag I mentioned,nowadays that means you gotta slow down.But in the early 80s,NASCAR rules stated thateven though there wasa yellow caution flag,you didn't have to slow downuntil you crossed the finish line.Only then, did you have to stayin whatever position you were in.Even though there were three laps leftin the Firecracker 400,Yarborough and Pettywe're racing like it was the last lap,because effectively, itwas the last lap of racing.So Cale passed Richard, theywere coming up on traffic.With basically no timeleft, what was Petty to do?He threw it down on the inside,Richard Petty won the race by a bumperand achieved what no oneelse in NASCAR historyis even close to achieving, 200 victories.Making him the undisputedking of the oval.Petty raced for another eight more yearsand didn't win once, he wasa driver through and through.Richard Petty's last race wasin 1992, and coincidentally,it was the future champJeff Gordon's first race.Richard stepped down to run the Petty teamand has since opened up ashop to work on road carsand restore vintage NASCARs.But the number 43 stilladorns a Petty-blue carthat hurdles around the tracksin the NASCAR Cup Series today.It's piloted by my closestfriend, Bubba Wallace.- James, stop tellingpeople we're friends.- Hi Bubba, miss you buddy.Not only is the number 43 being drivenby a young, ambitious,very talented driver,but Bubba is the firstAfrican-American driver in 45 yearsto attempt to run thefull Cup Series schedule.A historic champions teammaking history again.Is there anything youwant to say to NASCAR?- Bye.(everyone laughs)Last race of 2018 is thisSunday at Homestead Miami,you don't wanna miss it,it all comes down to this.Me and Jesse are gonnabe there, come find us.This week's episode of Up To Speedis sponsored by Skillshare.What is Skillshare?Come on you already know, it'sthe online learning communitywhere you can learn aton of real-world skills,all on your own computer machine.Skillshare has tons of classeson a ton of different subjects,like social media marketing,search engine optimizationand digital filmmaking.You could learn how to do the stuffthat we do here at Donut,on your couch in your underwear.A premium Skillshare subscriptionis less than 10 bucks a month,but the first 500 people tohit the link in the descriptionwill get their first two months for free.So go to skl.sh/uptospeed,or hit the link and get a'learnin' today.Thank you NASCAR for inviting us outand giving us all info and access.Smash that subscribe buttonto make sure you don't missanything, hit the like button.Follow me on Instagram @jamespumphrey.Follow Donut on Instagram @donutmedia.We have our own subreddit now,check it out, r/DonutMedia.If you wanna see 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