Petty, Lee

Lee Petty, (born March 14, 1914, Randleman, North Carolina, U.S.—died April 5, 2000, Greensboro, North Carolina), American stock-car driver who won three National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) championships (1954, 1958, and 1959). One of the most famous names in NASCAR is Petty, and, while that is largely due to the achievements of seven-time champion Richard Petty, it is Lee, Richard’s father, who deserves much of the credit for making NASCAR a national sport in the United States.

Petty was a jack-of-all-trades early in life: he farmed, drove everything from trucks to taxis, and repaired cars. He did not become involved in racing until 1949, when he heard of a race at the Charlotte (North Carolina) fairgrounds being put on by a new organization called NASCAR. Petty entered the family’s car, a Buick, in the race, and he proceeded to roll the car four times.

But the wreck only inspired Petty. He purchased a Plymouth and, with the help of his sons Richard and Maurice, began racing professionally. He would go on to win three titles, never finishing lower than sixth in NASCAR’s standings. His crowning year was 1959, a season that he began by winning the inaugural Daytona 500. He and fellow driver Johnny Beauchamp finished so closely together that it took three days of news footage examination to declare Petty the winner. He would go on to win 11 more races that season and the third of his three championships.

Two years later, during a qualifying race at Daytona, Petty and Beauchamp again drove into history, but for a far less auspicious reason. Their cars collided and sailed together through a guard rail into the parking lot outside the track. Sustaining a head injury, a punctured lung, chest fractures, and multiple other injuries in the wreck, Petty was hospitalized for four months. Although he would run a few more competitions in later years, his racing days were effectively over. Petty won 54 races in 427 career starts in what is now NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

After retiring from racing, Petty turned his energies to the business side of the sport. Together with his sons, he established Petty Enterprises, a racing team which would become one of NASCAR’s winningest organizations. The team was founded in 1949 and went on to win 10 NASCAR championships over the following three decades. The team merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2009 to form Richard Petty Motorsports.

One of the most-decorated drivers in motor sports history, Petty became a member of virtually every major racing hall of fame. In 1998 he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers of all time, and in 2011 he was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.