It’s been a quarter of a century since Richard Petty won his record-setting 200th race as a stock car driver, but he can remember July 4, 1984 just like it was yesterday.
“Everything was perfect,” Petty said in a recent teleconference interview. “Come down to the last of the race and we just needed to win. But the main thing was we was prepared to do the best we could, and we was prepared for what the circumstances were and were able to beat the circumstances.”
The caution flag would come out on the final lap with Petty and Cale Yarborough battling for the lead. Yarborough was drafting off Petty early in the lap and actually took the lead on the backstretch. But coming into Turn 3, Petty was able to pull side-by-side with Yarborough, setting up all the drama of a Daytona race with Petty down on the inside of his rival.
Then, coming into the dogleg, Petty was able to use the shorter distance to pull ahead ever so slightly and hold on for the victory.
“You know, they was throwing the caution flag, and so we still had another lap to go, and Cale, I think, came down pit road the next time in thinking the race was over and we still had one lap to go,” Petty said. “Then when that was over, they had said for the winner to stop at the start/finish line and to up to the announcer’s booth because (then-President Ronald Reagan) was up in the announcer’s booth.”
It was the first time ever that a sitting President had ever been in attendance for NASCAR race, and Reagan, Petty and others were able to celebrate the win and the July 4 holiday in style with a picnic in the garage area after the race.
“It was a great, great day for us,” Petty remembers. “I think it was a great day for racing.”
The ending to that 1984 Firecracker 400 couldn’t have been a better fit for a guy like Petty, who brought NASCAR into the mainstream and has been the sport’s top ambassador for more than half a century.
Petty’s 200 trips to Victory Lane is a record that many believe will never be broken. The owner of seven points series championships (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979), Petty also holds records with 172 poles won, seven consecutive short-track victories at Richmond, 10 consecutive victories, 61 wins from the pole and 18 straight seasons with a victory.
And although he’s been out of the car since the end of the 1992 season, he can be seen regularly at the track as co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports.
What Petty has done for NASCAR can never be matched, and at a time when NASCAR is reaching new heights and drivers are becoming larger-than-life heroes with larger-than-life attitudes to boot, he is the calming force who never seems to be too good to sit down for an interview or sign autographs for fans.
It is only fitting then that NASCAR and Daytona track officials have chosen to honor Petty and celebrate the 25th anniversary of his 200th win in style, allowing him to pace the 43-car field prior to the start of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at the scene of the historic event and charging just $43 for certain tickets to the race.
Looking back, though, at his legendary win at Daytona, with all the hoopla surrounding the day, the holiday and the presidential appearance at the track, Petty can now truly enjoy his special moment.
“I think it took (NASCAR) another notch up,” he said. “I always figure that we went upstairs and are still going upstairs. Sometimes you took two steps at a time and stayed one step. I think this was a two-stepper from the standpoint that it was July 4, the President is running for the President of the United States, and so naturally, you’ve got worldwide press, and then he comes to the race, and that’s a big deal.
“Then he comes and we win our 200th race, which was a big deal from the race deal, and I told him, some of the guys, you know, we got the President of the United States on the sports page, and the President of the United States got us on the front page. So it was a pretty good tradeoff.”
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2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Points Standings
Rank…Driver … Points … Behind
1. … Tony Stewart … 2524 … ---
2. … Jeff Gordon … 2455 … 69
3. … Jimmie Johnson … 2355 … 169
4. … Kurt Busch … 2254 … 270
5. … Carl Edwards … 2157 … 367
6. … Denny Hamlin … 2132 … 392
7. … Ryan Newman … 2127 … 397
8. … Kyle Busch … 2108 … 416
9. … Greg Biffle … 2106 … 418
10. … Matt Kenseth … 2054 … 470
11. … Mark Martin … 2052 … 472
12. … Juan Montoya … 2049 … 475
