“We Were Going Somewhere”: Richard Petty Relives NASCAR’s First Step Towards Becoming a Major League Sport

Growing up, Richard Petty did not have much. His family lived in the countryside and often suffered due to a lack of water or electricity. What they had in abundance was a passion for motorsports and it all started with his father, Lee Petty. Richard may be the greatest NASCAR driver ever but had it not been for Lee, ‘The King’ would have never existed.

Racing changed everything for the Pettys and the first time Richard realized it was way back in 1949 when he was only 11 years old. His father drove a 1937 Plymouth with a straight-eight Buick motor which could go as fast as 110 mph at the time. Lee raced occasionally but people would gather to see him do what he does best in a time when NASCAR was not even in the picture.

In 1949, he took part in the first NASCAR race in Charlotte. He entered the race in the family Buick and impressed everyone with his skills. Racing opened up a whole new avenue for the Pettys to make some money and have some fun in the process. Rarely does one get to make a living through his passion and Lee grabbed the opportunity.

Richard could feel things getting big after the Charlotte race. But what he might not have expected was that he would arguably become the greatest race car driver the sport has ever seen. He reminisced in a recent video for NASCAR, “They read in the paper that Bill France was going to have a stock car race in Charlotte. So all of a sudden we were going somewhere.”

“That was the first time I had ever been to Charlotte. When Dad did start racing, the whole world opened up. I remember we stood in the pit area or the infield, there were a lot of people there.” The race was won by Glenn Dunaway with Jim Roper finishing runner-up. The post-race inspection showed that Dunaway’s car had illegal bootlegger springs and was disqualified from the event.

Roper was handed the winner’s cheque. The owner of Dunaway’s car, Hubert Westmoreland, sued Bill France for $10,000 and lost the case. The rules back then were blurry but that’s understandable. There are parts of NASCAR’s rulebook that not many people understand even today.

Regardless, the 1949 race proved to be a launchpad not just for NASCAR but for one of the greatest motorsports families the world has ever seen. Lee Petty ended up winning 54 races and three Cup Series championships and ended his career as one of the greats.