FS.com exclusive: Richard Petty talks Daytona 500 history

Even as he approaches the age of 80, Richard Petty remains both a timeless NASCAR icon and the consummate gentleman.

Resplendent as ever, the seven-time champion came to the FOX Sports studios Monday, clad head to toe in black, with jeans, a crisp team logo shirt, boots, dark sunglasses and, of course, his trademark Charlie 1 Horse hat. As always, his handshake is firm, is smile as easy and friendly as a summer Sunday morning.

He is, and will always be, The King, the winner of 200 races, a mark that has never and likely, will never, be approached.

With the 59th Daytona 500 less than three weeks away (Feb. 26, 2 p.m. ET on FOX), Petty is one of the few remaining racers who actually competed in the first Daytona Speedweeks in 1959, where he finished third in the convertible race and 57th in the Daytona 500, after the engine in his Oldsmobile let go after just eight laps.

I asked Petty about the Daytona experience, starting with that first Speedweeks. This is what he had to say.

FS.com: What was it like going through the infield tunnel at Daytona for the first time in 1959?

Petty: (Laughs). "A 21-year-old kid who had a race-car hung on the back of it. When we went through the tunnel and went out in the infield, there was nothing there. It looked liked the dadgum first and second corners were five miles down there. It was just flat, just nothing.

"It just blowed our mind. The biggest thing we’d seen was maybe a one-mile track or something. Nothing like that. I’d never seen any pictures of it or nothing. They just set you down in the middle of it.

"It was mind-boggling to a 21-year-old kid. It might have been more mind-boggling or messed his mind up even more for my dad (Lee Petty, 1959 Daytona 500 winner), because he’d never seen anything like it and he’d been racing for seven or eight years."

What was it like to get on the track for the first time?

Petty: "When we got on the track, they said, ‘OK, we want everybody to run around on the flat for two to three laps to sort of see the race track.’

"Well, you know me. I jumped out there and went right up on the banking. They black-flagged me (laughs)."

What were the speeds like?

Petty: "I think I qualified at 130 miles per hour. Pace cars run faster than that now. But that was 30 mph faster than I’d ever been, probably. Especially on a race track."

Were the high speeds scary at first?

Petty: "No. That was one thing about it. I think for my dad and a lot of the guys that had run before, it was so different, they didn’t know what to expect. Well, I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never run that many small tracks, anyway. So to me, it was just a race track.

"Everybody ran around the inside of the track. Man, I was up in the middle of the race track, up against the wall. Not that I didn’t have any fear, but it didn’t bother me. I just jumped in there."

You won this race seven times. Do you have a favorite win?

Petty: "I probably should have won four of them, maybe five. Lucked into a couple of them, of course, then there were probably two or three others, we had trouble that we should have won. It just kind of evened it up.

"I don’t know. Even in ’64 (Petty’s first Daytona 500 win), Daytona was only five years old. Daytona wasn’t as big in the racing world as it was after that. It was just another race track and they happened to run in February. It was a big deal, but it took it another six or eight years to (surpass) Darlington. ‘Cause Darlington was our big, big deal."

Do you still get excited when you through the tunnel?

Petty: "Yes, it is the thing. Like I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. It’s everybody’s ambition to win Daytona, you know what I mean?

"Me just going back there — if you look at Richard Petty’s history, one of the biggest things that helped me was I was winning Daytona.

"You win Daytona in February, you’re a winner all year long, whether you run another race or don’t even go to the race. They always introduce you as the Daytona 500 winner. By doing that, that put my name out there a lot than it would if I hadn’t a won it."

What’s better to win: Daytona 500 or championship?

Petty: "Daytona 500. The championships, when we were winning them, were championships. Now, they’ve gotten to be big things. A championship now is worth a lot more than the race. When we won our championships, Daytona was bigger as far as a monetary deal and the P.R. you got out of it and all that stuff. It was more than being a champion."