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The NASCAR family has a near-endless capacity for forgiveness. Junior Johnson served hard time for moonshining, then returned from a federal prison in Ohio to become one of stock car racing's most beloved stars. And with few exceptions, fans are quick to overlook a driver's personal transgressions, even when they spill onto the front pages of newspapers. That willingness to forgive and forget even extended to the sport's all-time most popular driver. By 1983, Richard Petty had been revered figure for almost 20 years. In the eyes of many fans, he was a man who could do no wrong. He already had seven Winston Cup championship trophies, had won 197 races, and was generally considered a gentleman and a sportsman in every respect. Not even a clear-cut episode of cheating that helped him win a 500-mile race was going to change that. On October 9, 1983, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Petty took the checkered flag ahead of Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parson, Terry Labonte, and Tim Richmond in the Miller High Life 500. Driving his familiar red and blue No. 43 Pontiac, he started 20th, and led only the final 13 laps of the 334-lap event. His margin of victory over Waltrip was an unusually comfortable four seconds. Nobody thought anything was unusual until NASCAR's technical inspectors began speaking in whispered tones and huddling over their engine-measuring tools. Red flags went up when Petty was clled out of the post-race interview and asked to go to the inspection station. There, officials told him the engine in his car was oversized and that the last set of tires he'd used were improperly mounted. the tires were a minor point; the oversized engine wasn't. After hours of agonizing debate and endless meetings, NASCAR announced that the victory would stand. It's not right, they reasoned, for fans to watch a race in person, then discover on late-night TV or in the next day's newspaper that what they'd seen wasn't really what they'd seen after all. No matter how he gets it, they explained, the winner is always the winner. So the victory would stand-it was Petty's 198th-but his team would lose 104 championship points and $25,000 from what would have been a payoff of $65,000. Later, it was learned that Maurice Petty had built an oversized engine in hopes of beating teams he suspected of using illegal engines to beat his brother. As for the impact it had on Richard's career-it was merely a blip on the radar screen of fan adoration. Less than a year later, after getting No 199 at Dover, Delaware, in June, Petty got his 200th and last victory at Daytona Beach. And who was there to greet him like a long-lost pal? None other than President Ronald Reagan, a man who had skirted the rules a time or two himself.
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