|
|
Lee Petty was generally accepted as one of the most refined and gentlemanly of the early stars of NASCAR racing. He played fair, so he expected everyone else to play fair, too. Beat him if you could, but you'd better be honest about it. He didn't take kindly to people trying to take away what was rightfully his. That extended all the way to his son too. Richard Petty had been racing for about a year when he took his first checkered flag. It was June 14, 1959 at Lakewood Speedway, a 1-mile dirt-track in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was a 150-lap race with a full field of 40 cars. Lee Petty drew 37th on the grid (rain forced race official to cancel time trials) and Richard drew 27th. Lee was in a hard-top Oldsmobile, Richard in an Oldsmobile convertible. Moments after Richard took what would have been his first victory, a call came that someone back in the pack had protested the scoring and demanded a through recheck. It turned out to be Lee Petty, and he was convinced that while his son had run a hard, clean, and fair race, he was also convinced that his son had finished second to him. Turns out he was right. It took an hour for officials to figure out that instead of finishing ahead of his father, Richard was behind him in second place. Buck Baker was third, Curtis Turner was fourth, and Tom Pistone fifth, the first driver two laps down. Instead of Richard getting his first career victory, Lee ended up with his 42nd. Years later, Richard spoke of the incident with not the slightest bit of rancor. "Daddy didn't want me to get anything that wasn't mine," he said. "I hadn't earned that win, so he was right, I shouldn't have gotten it. The most important thing was that the Petty team finished 1-2. It didn't matter which one was first and which one was second. Back then that's just the way it was."
Winston Cup and NASCAR are registered trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. This web site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NASCAR. see nascar.com |
