Richard Petty relives first Daytona 500 in 1959 as NASCAR begins milestone year

It was February 1959. Petty was only 21 years old. He’d watched his father, Lee, race a bunch at Darlington Raceway, home of NASCAR’s biggest race at the time, but Darlington didn’t have such high-banking turns and long straightaways.

“It looked so humongous for a 21-year-old kid to see,” Petty said Tuesday. “And I know it was for the pros, too, the guys who had already been racing.”

He added: “Nobody had ever been there, so I was no more of a rookie than they were.”

As NASCAR kicks off its 75th year this weekend — a weekend of racing highlighted by the 64th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on FOX — some more drivers will inevitably have their breath stolen upon arrival.

This race, after all, is home to NASCAR’s most defining moments: It’s where Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough fought in 1979, the first time the race was nationally televised, and delivered NASCAR its “first big moment.” It’s where legends are born. Where legends are made. It’s where Dale Earnhardt, perhaps NASCAR’s most transcendent character, slowed the world to a tragic stop after he died in a wreck in 2001. It’s where a 20-year-old rookie named Trevor Bayne shocked the world with a win in 2011.

That first Daytona 500 is etched in NASCAR lore, too.

And Richard Petty, the 85-year-old all-time wins leader in the NASCAR Cup Series history whose seven Daytona 500s helped bolster his nickname (The King), remembers it well.

“When the race started, the hardtops (Grand National cars) were on the inside and the convertibles were on the outside,” Petty said.

He was running in a convertible, and in a qualifying race before the main event, he’d seen how big of an impact drafting could bring.

“So come the green flag,” he continued. “I jumped down to where the hardtops were. I jumped in and got behind one of those Thunderbirds and run for six, seven laps, keeping up with them because of the draft.

“And then the car — we had prepared for 130 mile-an-hour, and all of a sudden, we were running 140. So the motor didn’t make it very long. But I didn’t think anything about that part.”

After his motor blew, Petty said he stayed on pit road until the final few laps. He then walked over near the start-finish line.

“When it came across, I saw that my dad had won the race,” Petty said. “So man, we were jumping up and down, everybody was excited. Dad thought that he had run the race.”

Then unfolded what the first Great American Race will forever be known for: Bill France Sr., the CEO of NASCAR and owner of Daytona International Speedway, declared Johnny Beauchamp the winner. Lee Petty disputed it in the local papers. NASCAR put out advertisements asking the media present at the race to submit photos of the race’s finish to determine who truly won. The whole investigation took three days to complete and delivered three days of welcomed controversy.

Eventually, a photo clearly showed Lee Petty edging Beauchamp by two feet, and Lee Petty got his money, and the photo of the finish now hangs on a wall in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

It was about as delayed — and important — of a postrace spectacle that could’ve happened.

“I think it was a big PR stunt now that I look back,” Petty said with a chuckle, adding, “Daytona got on the map real quick because of that.”

Petty looks forward to the 2023 Daytona 500

Could the Daytona 500 add another bit of unique magic in 2023? Petty has reason to hope.

On Sunday, The King will see the 2023 debut of his race team that is sporting a new name — Legacy Motor Club — and has added some big names.

Among those big names: Noah Gragson, one of the best and well-known drivers in the Xfinity Series — and Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time Cup Series champion who bought ownership stake in the race team this fall.

Johnson’s return from retirement has been embraced by NASCAR. He’s made a bunch of public promos ahead of this race — and at least for Legacy Motor Club, he has made an immediate impact, Petty said.

“When we talked to Jimmie about coming in, about Petty GMS, and changing the name and all that stuff, we knew it was going to be a big deal,” Petty said. “It was going to be good for us as a team that we already had, but he can bring in a different segment of it.

“Everybody thinks a little bit different. We’ve had our way of doing things. Jimmie’s got his way of doing things. And if you take two different ways, maybe he can figure out the third way is going to be better. And I think that’s what is happening with Legacy right now. We’re trying to figure out: What do we keep? And what do we change? … Right now, it’s going pretty decent. Now, if we can get it done at the racetrack, then everything will come together for sure.”

This year’s Daytona 500 announced a complete sellout for an eighth straight year. And with all the story lines heading into the season debut, magic lurks: Can Kyle Busch win his first Daytona 500? Can Austin Cindric repeat? Can Johnson win again — and if he does, will the racing world explode?

“That would blow everybody out of the water, for sure,” Petty said in response to the latter question.

He said it with a knowing chuckle, letting on that he’d seen crazier things happen at Daytona before.