Post by pmossberg on Dec 19, 2009 0:58:36 GMT -5
In their December 2009 issue, Car and Driver has a wonderful interview with Richard Petty. The attachment is a PDF of page 138 from the December 2009 Car and Driver. The article below and the content of the attachment are copyrighted by Car and Driver.
My favorite line, talking about the rumors that RPM was going to go with to Toyota,
Richard Petty
At 72, Petty remains the winningest NASCAR Cup series driver in history, with 200 victories and seven championships. Here, the King sits down with us to talk about his past and future in stock-car racing.
C/D: Some of the biggest NASCAR news in the late season was the merger of Rich¬ard Petty Motorsports with Yates Racing, and that you'll switch from Dodge to Ford next year. This comes less than a year after Petty Holdings merged with Gillett Evern-ham Motorsports. What was behind this last merger and the move to Ford?
RP: Dodge had talked to us and told us that they just weren't going to be able to partici¬pate like they had in the past. They would still give us technical stuff and information, but they have been helping us with some money to fund our engine programs and such. I knew a bunch of the Ford people from when I raced for them in 1969-some of those guys are still around, like Edsel Ford-so we con¬tacted them and went back and forth. And we talked to the Yates people, and they wanted to spend more time in the engine shop instead of fielding cars on the track.
C/D: During the summer, press reports said, in so many words, that you were going to race Toyotas, which a lot of your fans took as the end of the world as they know it. How close did you get to making that deal?
RP: Toyota's in Japan, right? That's about as close as I came.
C/D: Speaking of tradition, you promised your mother, before she died, that you'd never have an alcohol sponsor, and you haven't, and consequently left a lot of money on the table. But how would you explain Kasey Kahne's Budweiser car to her?
RP: When we merged with Gillett Evernham, that was already a setup deal. I'm doing some commercials with Budweiser for "Don't drink and drive." My mother would be okay with that as long as I ain't sittin' there drinkin'.
C/D: That first merger, with Gillett Evernham, left your son Kyle without a ride and no longer part of Richard Petty racing at all. You said last January that you two were speaking mostly through his mother. How are things now?
RP: Well, we're doing better. At least we're not hollerin' at each other. But it was a big disappointment for Kyle, I think, from the standpoint that he had always been there. But with us having other people involved in our business, I can't make 100 percent of the decisions, and when it came down to putting pencil to the paper, they decided we needed to do something else. He and his momma are still on good terms, so that's the main thing.
C/D: Besides your merger, the big news in NASCAR is the possible defection of Danica Patrick from Indy cars to NASCAR in 2010 or 2011. Do you think she can make it in NASCAR?
RP: No. And I say that because no female's ever done it. I guess there's always a first. But there's no way she can get out of an Indy car and race stock cars at this level. She needs to get in a car at some of the Saturday-night short tracks, beat and bash and get a little bit of a feel for it, and work her way up.
C/D: Why is it so hard for Indy-car drivers to make the transition to NASCAR?
RP: I think it's mind-set more than ability to drive a car. I don't doubt that every one of the 43 drivers in a NASCAR race are good drivers. But good racers? Ain't but six or eight who know how to race. Racers win. And good drivers-well, they're just good drivers.
C/D: To look at your career, people might think you've had it easy. But there have been a lot of rough times-ter¬rible crashes, serious health prob¬lems, the tragedy in 1965 when you went into drag racing and were involved in an accident that killed an eight-year-old boy, and the death of your own 19-year-old grandson, Adam, in a racing accident in 2000. Looking back, what would you do differently?
RP: I've had a lot of down times that people don't really know much about. Some really, really down times. But I've had a bunch of good times. I follow the old adage, "You pay now, or you pay later." Life is up and down, up and down, but I try to keep it in the middle as much as I can. I don't get too excited when I win, I don't get too down when I lose. I don't know of anything that I could change-l mean, yeah, there are times I know now that if I had done this or that dif¬ferent, I would have won that race-but that doesn't hange the philosophy. When you get down to it, I'm 72 years old, and I'm still goin' and comin', doin' what I want to do. How many people are that lucky? The good Lord looked down, put me in the right place, the right circumstances, the right people-I've not done anything, all those people around me made it work. So no, I wouldn't change any of it.
-Steven Cole Smith
My favorite line, talking about the rumors that RPM was going to go with to Toyota,
"Toyota's in Japan, right? That's about as close as I came."
Richard Petty
At 72, Petty remains the winningest NASCAR Cup series driver in history, with 200 victories and seven championships. Here, the King sits down with us to talk about his past and future in stock-car racing.
C/D: Some of the biggest NASCAR news in the late season was the merger of Rich¬ard Petty Motorsports with Yates Racing, and that you'll switch from Dodge to Ford next year. This comes less than a year after Petty Holdings merged with Gillett Evern-ham Motorsports. What was behind this last merger and the move to Ford?
RP: Dodge had talked to us and told us that they just weren't going to be able to partici¬pate like they had in the past. They would still give us technical stuff and information, but they have been helping us with some money to fund our engine programs and such. I knew a bunch of the Ford people from when I raced for them in 1969-some of those guys are still around, like Edsel Ford-so we con¬tacted them and went back and forth. And we talked to the Yates people, and they wanted to spend more time in the engine shop instead of fielding cars on the track.
C/D: During the summer, press reports said, in so many words, that you were going to race Toyotas, which a lot of your fans took as the end of the world as they know it. How close did you get to making that deal?
RP: Toyota's in Japan, right? That's about as close as I came.
C/D: Speaking of tradition, you promised your mother, before she died, that you'd never have an alcohol sponsor, and you haven't, and consequently left a lot of money on the table. But how would you explain Kasey Kahne's Budweiser car to her?
RP: When we merged with Gillett Evernham, that was already a setup deal. I'm doing some commercials with Budweiser for "Don't drink and drive." My mother would be okay with that as long as I ain't sittin' there drinkin'.
C/D: That first merger, with Gillett Evernham, left your son Kyle without a ride and no longer part of Richard Petty racing at all. You said last January that you two were speaking mostly through his mother. How are things now?
RP: Well, we're doing better. At least we're not hollerin' at each other. But it was a big disappointment for Kyle, I think, from the standpoint that he had always been there. But with us having other people involved in our business, I can't make 100 percent of the decisions, and when it came down to putting pencil to the paper, they decided we needed to do something else. He and his momma are still on good terms, so that's the main thing.
C/D: Besides your merger, the big news in NASCAR is the possible defection of Danica Patrick from Indy cars to NASCAR in 2010 or 2011. Do you think she can make it in NASCAR?
RP: No. And I say that because no female's ever done it. I guess there's always a first. But there's no way she can get out of an Indy car and race stock cars at this level. She needs to get in a car at some of the Saturday-night short tracks, beat and bash and get a little bit of a feel for it, and work her way up.
C/D: Why is it so hard for Indy-car drivers to make the transition to NASCAR?
RP: I think it's mind-set more than ability to drive a car. I don't doubt that every one of the 43 drivers in a NASCAR race are good drivers. But good racers? Ain't but six or eight who know how to race. Racers win. And good drivers-well, they're just good drivers.
C/D: To look at your career, people might think you've had it easy. But there have been a lot of rough times-ter¬rible crashes, serious health prob¬lems, the tragedy in 1965 when you went into drag racing and were involved in an accident that killed an eight-year-old boy, and the death of your own 19-year-old grandson, Adam, in a racing accident in 2000. Looking back, what would you do differently?
RP: I've had a lot of down times that people don't really know much about. Some really, really down times. But I've had a bunch of good times. I follow the old adage, "You pay now, or you pay later." Life is up and down, up and down, but I try to keep it in the middle as much as I can. I don't get too excited when I win, I don't get too down when I lose. I don't know of anything that I could change-l mean, yeah, there are times I know now that if I had done this or that dif¬ferent, I would have won that race-but that doesn't hange the philosophy. When you get down to it, I'm 72 years old, and I'm still goin' and comin', doin' what I want to do. How many people are that lucky? The good Lord looked down, put me in the right place, the right circumstances, the right people-I've not done anything, all those people around me made it work. So no, I wouldn't change any of it.
-Steven Cole Smith
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I have Richard petty cars 1/18 1/24 scales! Etc...
