Richard Lee Petty is a former NASCAR driver who raced in the Strictly Stock/Grand National Era and the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He is most well-known for winning
the NASCAR Championship seven times, Dale Earnhardt is the only other driver to accomplish this feat, winning a record 200 races during his career, winning the
Daytona 500 a record seven times, and winning a record 27 races, ten of them consecutively, in the 1967 season alone. Petty is widely considered one of the
greatest NASCAR drivers of all time and is one of the most respected figures in
motorsports as a whole.
He also collected a record number of poles (127) and over 700 top-ten finishes in
his 1,185 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971–1989. Petty is a second generation driver. His father, Lee Petty, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was
also a 3 time NASCAR champion. Richard’s son, Kyle Petty is also a well-known
NASCAR driver. The Petty family still resides in Richard’s home town of Level
Cross, North Carolina and operates Richard Petty Motorsports.
This #43 Richard Petty STP Pontiac Grand Prix ran at Daytona and
Talladega in 1984.