RACING’S ROYAL FAMILY – PART 3
For 1971 Petty Enterprises faced a
situation where the sport now offered more money, but it also offered a bigger
technical challenge. The wing cars of 1970 were so severely handicapped by
NASCAR as to be essentially unraceable. NASCAR had also implemented restrictor
plates for the superspeedway races, with different sized plates for different
type engines. Wedge head engines had the most air. "The problem was that no
one was using the Wedge engines, except some of the independents, and it cost a
ton of money to start switching (engines)," Petty wrote.
Petty Enterprises stayed a two-car team
with Petty running for the title in a Plymouth and the second car running a
limited schedule, but for 1971 the second car would be a Dodge. Moreover, at
Chrysler’s behest Pete Hamilton was let go from the team despite his three wins
in the 1970 season. Buddy Baker was tabbed to drive PE’s Dodge.
After falling out of the series opener at
Riverside, Petty and Baker entered Daytona and took a back seat to A.J. Foyt,
driving the Wood Brothers’ Mercury. A.J. won the 500 pole while Bobby Isaac
timed second. The ensuing 500 was thus listed as a Foyt favorite. But the race
itself showcased a new competitiveness within NASCAR – the lead changed hands 47
times among 11 drivers, and Petty wound up leading the most laps. Foyt ran out
of gas while leading with 39 laps to go, and after swapping the lead several
more times Petty and Baker ultimately finished 1-2.
Thus began Winston’s inaugural season as
sponsor of NASCAR’s Grand National circuit. Petty went on to win seven races in
the season’s first third, while Buddy Baker added a win at Darlington for the
team. Petty handily held the point lead, but in May a challenger managed to
burst forth. Bobby Allison had parked his independent Dodges due to lack of
funds, but at the same time David Pearson was released from Holman-Moody in a
dispute over allocation of winnings and deal money. With solid backing from Coca
Cola, Bobby jumped into the Holman-Moody Mercury and finished second at
Talladega in May. He then went on a tear, winning five consecutive races. The
success of Allison’s Mercury led to protests from the Chrysler camp, since the
Mercury engine, being less powerful than the Boss motors used previously, was
given a larger restrictor plate.
Chrysler fought back in July. After a
costly and time-consuming switch to Wedge head engines, Mopars entered the
Firecracker at Daytona and cleaned house. Bobby Isaac, an 11th-hour entrant,
started 21st but whipped the field, with Petty, Baker, and Pete Hamilton behind
him.
Petty then went on his own tear, winning
three short track races and the Northern 300 at Trenton, before he and Bobby
Allison squared off in Atlanta’s Dixie 500. "It was a huge battle between
Bobby Allison and our Plymouth, and I finally pulled ahead to win by two car
lengths," Petty wrote. In so doing he became the first NASCAR driver to
reach $1 million in career earnings.
As the 1971 season wound down, NASCAR’s
rising popularity led to a ceremony at the White House. President Nixon welcomed
several NASCAR drivers led by Petty, and on the White House front lawn stood one
of Petty’s Plymouths. The recognition granted motorsports showed how effective
Winston’s backing of NASCAR had become.
The building Allison-Petty feud exploded
at Talladega in August. "Bobby, Pete Hamilton, and I had a great battle
there," Petty wrote, "and in the final lap Pete and I collided"
after they went three wide through Three and Four and Allison sideswiped Petty
into Hamilton. Pete wound up into the inside wall and Petty was livid about the
situation. "There’s an awful lot of red paint on my car," Petty said
afterward.
The final race of the season was the Texas
500 won by Petty, his 21st win of the year, 140th of his career, and a fitting
end to his third title, "and it brought an end to a year that had been
marked by one crisis after another." During the Texas weekend "this
guy walked into our pit at Texas and introduced himself. I’d seen him before,
kissing and hugging Mario Andretti in victory lane after a win."
From this introduction came an additional
meeting in Chicago, and Petty and Andy Granatelli hammered out a deal for
sponsorship of Petty’s machines for 1972. The deal, though, was almost derailed
in a spat over the color of the car – Petty had always raced Petty blue cars and
Granatelli had always sponsored red cars. Petty was ready to call it off when
Granatelli, who’d doodled a scheme on a piece of paper, offered a compromise
that helped make STP sponsorship of Petty Enterprises the longest such
relationship in racing history.
Despite all that, STP introduced Petty as
its newest member early in 1972 at an elaborate news conference – "everyone
knows what a showman Andy is," Petty wrote. Petty then went out and won at
Riverside in January of ’72. It was the first race of a paired-down schedule –
gone were the 100-150 milers on short tracks, which were switched to the
short-lived NASCAR Grand National East tour. Also debuting that year was a new
point system, which not only counted finishing positions, but completed miles.
It was also the debut year of NASCAR’s
newest president. Big Bill France had stepped down and Bill France Jr. now had
the reigns of the sport. Also gone were restrictor plates, replaced by carburetor
sleeves of different sizes for different engines. Said Petty, "With nearly
a dozen engines eligible for use, you can imagine the nightmare that
became."
Also back was Bobby Allison, now driving
Junior Johnson’s new Chevrolet team fielded by Charlotte Motor Speedway chief
Richard Howard. The feud of 1971 picked up where it had left off, and in April
the two dominators of the sport were joined by David Pearson, now driving for
the Wood Brothers and resuming the winning ways he’d shown in the ’60s.
With these teams evenly matched, the
intensity built as the season went on. "When we arrived at Richmond (in
September)," Petty wrote, "there were just seven races left in the
season, and…..I knew he and Junior Johnson weren’t about to give us the
championship."
At Richmond, Allison tagged Petty into
Buddy Baker. Petty got drop-kicked by Baker and rode backwards on top of the
guardrail in Turns Three and Four. Despite this spectacular ride, Petty never
lost the lead and won by almost a lap.
Then at Martinsville Allison led 432 laps
and at one point Petty cut a tire and had to fight hard to stay on the lead lap.
A later yellow saved Petty and the two hammered each other until Petty won by
three seconds.
But it was at North Wilkesboro on October
1 that the feud erupted into all-out warfare. "We built mini-roll-cages
under the fenders to keep the sheet metal from being bent back into the
tires," Petty wrote. It proved fortuitous. Petty and Allison put the field
six laps down, and the final 39 laps saw the two contenders swap the lead eleven
times, but in the final five laps Allison, trying to squeeze between Petty and
the lapped car of Vic Parsons, slammed into Petty and both hit the guardrail.
Petty roared back and the two slammed the guardrail again, and Petty finally won
with a last-lap pass into the guardrail yet again. "Neither of us could
hardly see," Petty wrote, "and somehow I got to the line about two car
lengths ahead of him."
Despite clutch wins at Charlotte and
Rockingham, Allison could not overcome Petty’s point lead. Petty completed more
miles than Allison, and that proved to be the difference in the championship.
For 1973 the point system was tweaked to
increase the value of winning races. Also changing was the Richard Howard/Junior
Johnson team – Bobby Allison formed his own team while Cale Yarborough got the
seat in Howard’s Chevy.
The headlines, though, came from David
Pearson. After DNFs at Riverside and Daytona, Pearson won his next five starts.
Petty, meanwhile, won the Daytona 500 after Buddy Baker blew with six to go. He
then won at Richmond despite ramming the back of Neil Castles’ car and losing
two laps. But when Pearson took over on the superspeedways, Petty started
breaking with surprising frequency. As 1973 went on, breakage on Petty’s Dodges
continued, until Petty had DNFed in nearly a dozen of the season’s 28 races.
And when the season ended racing faced its
gravest crisis yet – the international oil embargo. The government implemented
serious fuel restrictions, and NASCAR had to shave ten percent of its race
distances to keep running. A limit of 30 gallons for practice and qualifying was
also implemented, which led to a lot of bartering in the garage area for extra
practice fuel.
On top of that, carb sleeves had been
replaced by plates again halfway through 1973, and a new point system was
implemented because of the fact that Benny Parsons had won the title with only
one race win. The new system tabulated basic prize winnings multiplied by season
starts divided by 1,000.
This, though, was just the beginning. Over
the course of 1974 no fewer than five rule changes were made that forced teams
to switch from 427 cubic inch engines to 358 engines. The rule benefited
Chevrolets, which by now comprised 70-plus percent of a typical starting field,
and hurt Dodges, which didn’t have a race-ready small block to fall back on.
The Daytona 500 was the second race of the
year, and the first to receive substantial live TV coverage – ABC Sports signed
up to broadcast the second half of the 500 live. The ensuing 500 proved to be
the most competitive ever – 60 lead changes among 15 drivers, both records that
stood through 2000. Petty got into a stirring battle with Donnie Allison and
appeared beaten when he cut a tire with 20 to go, but with ten to go Bob Burcham
blew his engine ahead of Donnie and the debris blew out both of Donnie’s front
tires. The win was Petty’s fifth in the 500.
It set the stage for a very troubled
season. Maurice Petty hand-built a small block Mopar and Petty promptly won with
it at North Wilkesboro. The expense of building the small block meant
"We’re still in the red right now," Petty said after the race. Though
rumors floated around that a boycott of the World 600 would occur, the race ran
with a full field of cars. Petty, Pearson, and Cale Yarborough battled over the
entirety of the 540-mile race, and after Cale crashed Pearson edged Petty by two
lengths. It was the pattern of the year – Buddy Baker in Bud Moore’s Ford, the
Allisons (notably Bobby after he joined Roger Penske’s Matador team in July), sophomore
Darrell Waltrip, defending champ Benny Parsons, Charlie Glotzbach, and Bobby
Isaac all led and compiled good finishes, but only Bobby Allison had won a race
other than the top three entering the Firecracker 400, and ultimately only one
other driver won a race – Canadian rookie Earl Ross.
The racing itself, though, was among the
most exciting the sport ever saw, and no finish was more audacious than the
Firecracker 400. The lead changed hands 45 times, and on the final lap David
Pearson suddenly slowed out of the tri-oval ahead of Petty. Petty shot into the
lead, but Pearson simply caught Petty’s draft and fired underneath in Four.
Petty tried to crowd him off, both got sideways, but Pearson cleared him at the
stripe. So angry was Petty that he confronted Pearson in the pressbox after the
race – their argument was transcribed by The Charlotte Observer and printed in
the paper’s July 5, 1974 edition.
Petty got even with Pearson a month later
at Talladega. Pearson gunned past on a late restart, then Petty stormed past on
the final lap. "He didn’t just go by me," Pearson said to author Bill
Libby, "he SCRAPED by me. But I’ll tell you, I’d rather rub fenders with
Richard than compete clean with some of the other cats, who are crazy at
times."
The weakness of the point system became apparent
in September and October. Petty fell out at Darlington and Martinsville, yet he
gained more points than Cale, who won Darlington and finished 11th at
Martinsville, simply because Petty had won more money. When it was all over,
Petty had his fifth title and ten wins. He was also voted Most Popular Driver
for the fifth time. And one positive from the 1974 season was the growing influx
of sponsors spurred by the increase in television coverage.
For 1975 another new point system was
implemented, co-created by statistician and PR expert Bob Latford. This system,
still in use in the year 2000, encouraged teams to run all the races (the same
intent as all previous point systems) but emphasized greater consistency. Also
debuting for 1975 was the Awards & Achievement Program, basically up-front
deal money to entice teams to run the full schedule – a program later changed to
the present Winner’s Circle Program.
1975 saw a unique act of sportsmanship by
Petty. At the Daytona 500 Petty completely dominated the first half but was
victimized by a cracked cylinder head. The Dodge overheated and Petty made stop
after stop for water in the radiator. With ten laps to go David Pearson had a
commanding lead, and Benny Parsons, on the verge of quitting racing despite
being the 1973 Winston Cup champion, was a distant second. Petty maneuvered
ahead of Parsons and began pulling him in his draft, and the two-car draft had
all but erased the gap with four to go. Pearson moved to pass the slower cars of
Cale Yarborough and Richie Panch when Cale inexplicably hooked Pearson. David
spun down the backstretch and Parsons suddenly had the lead. Overjoyed in
victory lane, Parsons thanked Petty for helping him grab the biggest win of his
career: "I don’t know what I’d have done without him," Parsons said.
To this Pearson replied, "He’d have lost, that’s what."
Petty won five of the first nine races and
had a commanding point lead. Ultimately Petty would win thirteen races – a
modern era record tied in 1998 – and had clinched the title by early October.
But the season lost its luster at Talladega in May. While battling for the lead
in the Winston 500 Petty’s left front wheel bearing caught fire. He pitted and
his brother-in-law Randy Owens, a crewmember since about 1970, fitted a hose to
a pressurized water tank for use on the fire. The tank exploded, killing Owens
and nearly landing on top of Petty and others; shrapnel injured Gary Rogers of
Benny Parsons’ crew.
"Randy had two small boys. It was a
nightmare of the worst order for our crew and the entire Petty family. I could
barely talk about the whole thing with reporters," Petty wrote.
The team basically ran on autopilot at
Nashville and Dover – there Petty crashed into a spinning Dean Dalton, a wreck
he acknowledged he should have missed – then they pulled off a career first –
winning the World 600 at Charlotte. The #43 lost two laps early but erased them,
put the entire field a lap down, and led the final 200 laps.
Petty then pulled a career first when he
won the Firecracker at Daytona. Despite a car than never got above 180 MPH where
others were in the 185 bracket, and despite losing a lap with an early tire
vibration, Petty passed Buddy Baker with thirteen laps to go for the win.
One that got away came in the Purolator
500 at Pocono. During the race weekend a fan club benefit raised money for Randy
Owens’ widow and children. In the race the lead changed hands 43 times, and
David Pearson took over with fourteen to go. But in the final ten laps he
trailed smoke out the back of his Mercury, and it steadily increased and made
finding the groove difficult. By Lap 198 he was lapping his own smoke, and Dale
Inman protested loudly to both NASCAR and the Wood Brothers. NASCAR black
flagged Pearson with two to go, but since the rules stipulated a three to four
lap grace period to obey a black flag, the timing rendered it irrelevant.
"They sure didn’t need the STP car to win the Purolator race two years in a
row," Petty said.
And it happened again a week later at
Talladega. "I didn’t want to go to Talladega, because of Randy and
all," Petty said. But the nightmare of May was recreated in August in a
savage multi-car crash that killed veteran Tiny Lund. Later Dick Brooks tumbled
down the back straight into Three. The race lead changed hands 60 times among 17
drivers, and in the final few laps Buddy Baker’s Ford began losing oil, which
would up on Petty’s windshield – "Those oil-dropping Fords don’t want me to
win," Petty said afterward. On the last lap Petty dove under Baker entering
the tri-oval, but Baker swerved hard left and cut him off.
Petty finally got even with the Fords at
Michigan, swapping the lead four times with Pearson in the final four laps
before taking the win on the last lap. In his next win, controversy erupted. At
Dover Petty put the field two laps down when Elmo Langley’s blown engine snapped
a tie rod, and cost Petty eight laps with 150 to go. Though now six laps down to
the field, Petty went to work. "We was flat flyin’," he said
afterward. He erased the gap, helped when Lennie Pond broke and Cale Yarborough
lost power, and got back on the lead lap with fifteen to go. But he had no time
to make up one more lap – until Buddy Arrington stopped with nine to go and the
yellow had to fly. Petty had no trouble winning in the final sprint, and the
others were mad at Arrington. "I guess Arrington needed that truck paid
for," Dick Brooks steamed, a reference to the fact Arrington had recently
purchased a transporter from Petty Enterprises.
Petty won Charlotte and Bristol, and ended
the season with 13 wins and his sixth title. As part of his awards, he received
several firearms, which prompted Bobby Allison to "apologize for everything
I ever said about him – now that he has those things."
But Petty acknowledged that he’d give up
all of it to have Randy Owens back.
And for Richard himself, the 1975 season
was one of pain. A routine checkup in late 1975 turned into a two-week hospital
stay and surgery on his ulcerous stomach. Despite all that, he ran the 1976
season opener at Riverside, though he fell out of that with engine failure.
Still weakened from his surgery, Petty
entered the Daytona 500 and it came down to another showdown with David Pearson.
Petty took the lead with 13 to go and Pearson drafted, until he stormed past on
the backstretch on the final lap. Petty cut back underneath in Four, but with
ABC TV televising the finish live, Petty clipped Pearson and both cars hit the
wall off Four. Pearson clipped the lapped car of Joe Frasson and this helped him
keep his engine running. Petty came to a stop fifty feet from the stripe, but
the fan was lodged in the radiator. Pearson got going and crossed the line at 20
MPH, his nose crushed in.
The incredible finish caught the attention
of the country, and Petty became forever linked with a Daytona 500 he didn’t
win.
It also proved to be a harbinger for the
season. After cleaning house at Rockingham he finished second at Richmond on
seven cylinders, then crashed hard at Bristol. NASCAR then mandated smaller carburetors
to slow speeds, and Petty blew engines at Atlanta and Darlington. He broke again
at Daytona, and entering the Purolator 500 at Pocono he’d not won in five months
while David Pearson had seven wins and Cale Yarborough had four wins. For Pocono
NASCAR allowed teams to revert to bigger carbs, and suddenly Petty’s Dodge was
more competitive. The race itself was a torrid affair, as the lead changed hands
44 times in the first 124 laps. Pearson then took over and Petty "was all
geared up for second." But in the Tunnel Turn with two to go Pearson’s
right rear tire shredded, and Petty stormed to a popular 24-second win. "It
sure felt good to beat David up here," he said. "It really did."
Petty battled on and one and won at
Rockingham in October, but engine failure at Talladega, problems at Charlotte,
and engine failure at Atlanta sealed the title for Cale Yarborough amid a string
of five wins in six races.
Engine failures and a growing scarcity of
Mopar parts – a scarcity that had begun setting in during the 1974-5 title years
– caused Petty to begin looking at switching to Chevrolet. That August, NASCAR
announced that its model-year rule, requiring that Grand National body styles
could be no more than three model years old, would be amended, allowing 1974
bodies to run in 1977. The change allowed Petty to continue running his
1974-model Charger body, and he decided to give the ’74 Dodges one last season.
He got off to a sluggish start with engine
failure at Daytona, but he then cleaned house in a crash-torn Carolina 500 and
again in a tranquil Atlanta 500. His Dodges now showed a boost of power that
caught other teams somewhat by surprise – at Talladega Cale said, "Petty
had the fastest car here, no question," – and despite engine failure at the
Winston 500 Petty unleashed a whipping in the World 600, at Riverside, and then
at Daytona. When Petty finished second at Pocono, he had the point lead. But the
engine woes returned with a burned valve at Talladega and failure at Dover.
Petty crashed hard at Bristol and needed a relief driver at Darlington, then he
was sideswiped while lapping Bobby Allison and crashed at North Wilkesboro, then
the Dodge’s suspension collapsed while leading at Charlotte. Cale clinched the
title at Rockingham and Petty could only manage second in points and in the
season finale at Ontario.
The ’74 Charger had to be retired after
the 1978 Western 500 at Riverside. Petty now had to campaign the 1978 Dodge
Magnum. "It was as big as this house," he said years later, and parts
for the Dodge engine were becoming scarcer and scarcer. Nonetheless, entering
the Daytona 500 "Richard Petty has the fastest car here," said Darrell
Waltrip. Petty took the lead and led most of the first 60 laps, but in Turn Four
a tire blew and Petty was drop-kicked by Waltrip and David Pearson. All three
smacked the wall.
From then on it was one frustrating race
after another. At Charlotte Petty could not get the car through inspection.
"I seriously gave thought to not running this race," he said,
"but I have too many commitments to the fans and this sport." Finally,
after falling out at Pocono, Petty announced he was abandoning the Dodge Magnum
and switching to Chevrolet. The last race for the Magnum was the Talladega 500,
where Petty led six laps and finished seventh, a lap down.
Petty’s first race in a Chevy was the
Yankee 400 a Michigan International. While running fifth in the final laps Petty
slammed the backstretch guardrail. He struggled for several races and then
opened up at Charlotte, leading over 100 laps before falling out with ignition
failure.
Then came the supreme embarrassment of the
season. In the wild scramble in the final laps of the Dixie 500 Donnie Allison
passed Petty and Dave Marcis, but Donnie was being scored a lap down. Petty and
Marcis battled and hit the stripe door to door. The photo finish showed Petty
the winner by a foot, but then came word that Donnie was in fact on the lead
lap. As Donnie was being interviewed in the pressbox word came that a scoring
recheck showed Petty in fact had won. "They need Richard Petty to win a lot
more than they do me," Donnie steamed. But Earl Sappenfield of NASCAR felt
something still was wrong. Another scoring recheck was made, and it showed
conclusively that Donnie had won. "We need to wipe the egg off our
face," Bill France Jr said as he announced the final results. As for Petty,
"I’m going home to celebrate second place," he sarcastically said.
That, though, was the least of Richard’s
worries.
During the Firecracker weekend Richard was
watching a TV interview. "It wasn’t unusual for the son of a race driver to
be interviewed. What followed WAS unusual."
"’Well, Ken, Kyle answered, ‘I’m
going to be a race driver.’"
When Lynda saw the interview, "The
hairbrush dropped to the floor. ‘Oh Lord,’ she said, ‘not another one.’"
Richard, for his part, didn’t want to just
let Kyle off in racing. "I wanted to DISCUSS the matter…..I felt a whole
lot of concern." The clincher came when Kyle said, "’As quick as I
would get out of school, I’d be racing anyway, so why put it off?’
"There wasn’t much of an answer to
that," Richard acknowledged. "’It’s not the driving part,’ I said. ‘I
gotta go tell your mother. That’s the hard part.’" When he did, the two of
them could do nothing but shrug and hope for the best.