Richard Petty, with a record 200 Cup Series wins, seven season championships and membership in the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 2010, is considered the greatest driver in stock car racing history.
He is spending this season celebrating 75 years of NASCAR participation by his famous family — basically since the inception of the stock car series in 1948 — and reflecting on the legacy that will be left behind.
As he approached his 87th birthday, celebrated Tuesday ahead of this weekend’s Cup Series race in Chicago, Petty has realized that his family should be hailed for something far bigger than anything it did in NASCAR. He pointed to the Victory Junction Gang Camp, which was opened in 2004 for chronically ill children as a way to honor his late grandson.
Adam Petty was 19 when he was killed on May 12, 2000, in a crash while practicing for a NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Not too many years before, Adam had made a motorcycle visit to Paul Newman’s Camp Boggy Creek and became interested in creating a similar setup in North Carolina.
Petty said the family following through on Adam’s dream will be their lasting legacy.