May 24, 2008
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600
May 10, 2008
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Dodge Challenger 500
September 14, 2007
September 14, 2007
Kyle Eugene Petty (born June 2, 1960 in Randleman,
North Carolina) is an American NASCAR driver, the
son and grandson of racing legends Richard Petty and
Lee Petty, respectively. He drives the #45 Marathon
Petroleum Company Dodge Charger for Petty
Enterprises. The Marathon Petroleum Company
announced the sponsorship on August 8, 2006.
Petty decided to follow in his father's footsteps
and he won his first stock car race, the ARCA 200
event at Daytona International Speedway in 1979
using a retired (but refurbished) 1978 Dodge Magnum
race car that his father campaigned the previous
year. He then tried to enter the Winston Cup soon
after that, but crashed during qualifying in March,
May, and just before the July 4th Daytona races.
Using one of the few remaining Magnums (the others
were wrecked beyond repair), Petty qualified for the
August '79 Talladega race and finished a very
respectable 9th place. The following year, when
spare cars were available, Kyle raced as often as he
could, but did not have a successful year, driving
as a teammate to his father at Petty Enterprises. He
left his father's team in 1985 to drive for the Wood
Brothers team. His first Winston Cup win came the
following year at Richmond International Raceway.
Petty formed his own team in partnership with Petty
Enterprises, known as PE2, in 1997. This later
merged into Petty Enterprises and Kyle is now CEO of
that team.
Petty's son Adam Petty had begun a promising career
in racing as well, but was killed in 2000 in a
practice accident at New Hampshire International
Speedway. Upon his son's death, Petty finished the
2000 season racing his son's car in the Busch
Series. Petty is active in many charitable causes,
such as the Victory Junction Gang Camp for
terminally-ill children, which he established to
honor his late son, as well as an annual charity
motorcycle ride across the country.
He appeared in the 1983 Burt Reynolds movie Stroker
Ace.
At the 1996 Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis Kyle Petty
had an extremely hard crash on the 39th lap. Rescue
workers had to remove him from his car and put him
on a stretcher. Petty roared in pain when the rescue
tried to lift him from the ground. The safety
workers asked Petty "what's hurting?, is it your leg
or your neck?" "No" Petty said "someone's been
standing on my ponytail while y'all trying to pick
me up".
