First race I ever went to was Martinsville, Va (lived in same county) in 1971. Petty won driving his ‘71 Plymouth short track Roadrunner. Saw him win many races there, wonderful memories.
Actually it was because he didn't win that many and people was pointing that out back then and still today, in fact he did indeed lose his 198th win straight up and was overruled by the owner of NASCAR remember it isn't a "sport" it's just called that for funsies, he doesn't measure up when you take off the rosy glasses and most people in the know have a low opinion of him for very good and extensive reasons
the winningest season in NASCAR's modern era was Gordon's 1998, where he won 13 races. someone would have to replicate that year *sixteen times* to get to Petty. outrageous.
Busch beat him already. Idc if most of his wins are in xfinity and truck. The parity in those 2 series is much much more competitive than the parity during Petty's era where most of the races didnt even have 30 cars.
One important bit of context is that today's fields are significantly more competitive than they were in the '50s and '60s. Back then, with such a long schedule, very few drivers had the stamina and finances to compete in NASCAR full-time, especially in the numerous low-paying short track races they had. In quite a few of Petty's early victories the field consisted basically of him, David Pearson when he felt like showing up, and a bunch of local ham-and-eggers in substandard equipment. That doesn't at all mean that Petty wasn't an incredible driver...but his early success was due at least in part to his marketing skills as it was his driving skills.
There are always factors. To be frank, the greatest racing driver to ever live will likely never actually compete in a racing car. Opportunity, timing, and luck are all factors, and they will never go away.
to be frank, the wins record in baseball is also unbreakable. Due to the way pitchers don't play nearly as many games as they used to and get taken out earlier etc.
When Petty won his 7th Daytona 500 in 1981, the only other driver who had won the race more than once was Cale Yarborough, who had only won twice to that point.
Out of all of Richard Petty's records that is my favorite...in the days of restrictor plates, pack racing, big accidents that take out half the field, and just insane unpredictability that will NEVER happen again.
You forgot to mention that David Pearson only raced in 574 races as opposed to Richard Petty's 1185. In fact David Pearson only ran 4 full seasons and was the champion in 3 of the (66, 68 & 69).
Pearson was great. However, keep in mind, that while Petty was racing every race, Pearson (and the Wood Brothers) were taking a week "off" to prepare their car for the next BIG race. I'd say that was a big advantage with this extra preparation and rest.
My grandfather was lucky enough to have watched Petty many times in his youth and met him several times. He once told me a story of when he was at a race at Dover and petty ran out of gas with a few laps to go. But was ahead by so many laps that he was able to coast the whole way on an empty tank and still win
Although what Richard did was very impressive for his Era, this only highlights how great drivers like Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were, winning 80+ races in the Modern Era when the schedule was shortened. Richard's 200 wins is similar to Kyle Busch's 200+ wins across all series. Impressive, but we don't look at it under the same lens because he was always driving the best car with less competition. With how evenly matched cars are today and the competition level, Jeff Gordon's 93 Modern Era Wins should be the record drivers chase.
I would argue for 115, as 55 of Richard's 140 wins from 1960-1971 would count as proper races under modern era rules. If you can hit 116, I'd consider the king dethroned.
I'd say Busch's was still more impressive considering there is still more parity in the xfinity and trucks today than Cup back in the 60s. Go look into how many cars were actually in the race in a majority of his wins (hint most of them is less than what you'd consider a minimum these days)
@@HughWanztino On average, Petty's 200 wins had 30.09 cars in the field. Yes, there are races where he only had 12 cars to deal with, but there's plenty of 40+ car wins to balance it out. Compare that to the average of say, Ned Jarrett who averaged barely 20 cars per win. Field competitiveness has more to do with how many good cars there are rather than how many total cars. I think everyone would agree that 2022 was a more competitive season than 2015, even though 2015 had 43 car fields compared to 2022's average of 37. A race with 10-15 good cars and 15 junk cars is just as competitive as a race with 10-15 good cars and 20-25 junk cars. Which describes most Xfinity and Truck races in the past decade.
@@darthhull85 I fully agree. Now just for fun, let's look at that North Wilkesboro '62 race I mentioned? Let's see, aside from Petty we have 17-time winner Marvin Panch in the Wood Brothers factory Ford. Our champion Joe Weatherly in Bud Moore's factory Pontiac. The two Lovette Pontiacs driven by Junior Johnson and Johnny Allen, who had recently won at Bowman-Gray. Petty's teammate Jim Paschal in the #41. The Holman-Moody Fords of Fred Lorenzen and Nelson Stacy. 1960's champion Rex White in his factory-backed Chevrolet. Jimmy Pardue who had won earlier in the season in his Pontiac. 1961 champion Ned Jarrett in B.G. Holloway's Chevy. Future seven-time race winner Darel Dieringer in a car that Fred Lorenzen won with at Augusta. Pontiac factory driver Jack Smith. Southern 500 winner Larry Frank. And nine-time winner and three-time Convertible champion Bob Welborn. Among the DNF's, you'll find the factory Pontiac of Fireball Roberts, the Chryslers of Buck and Buddy Baker, and Bill Foster who was driving Cliff Stewart's car which had won earlier in the year. That's 19 legitimately competitive cars. Yes, the low dollar races had few competitive cars, but for the event races you'd get a pretty good field. I'd certainly take it over any random Truck race that had Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter and a bunch of teenagers in the 12 competitive Trucks.
The fact that people try to pull this "plummer" excuse is sad. He went against: David Pearson-105 wins Bobby Allison-84 wins Darrell Waltrip-84 Cale Yarbrough-83 wins Ned Jarret-50 wins Junior Johnson-50 wins Lee Petty-54 wins Herb Thomas-48 wins Buck Baker-46 wins Tim Flock-39 wins Bobby Isaac-34 wins Fonty Flock-19 wins Rex White-28 wins Fred Lorenzen-26 wins Jim Paschal-25 wins Joe Weatherly-25 wins Benny Parsons-21 wins Jack Smith-21 wins Speedy Thompson-20 wins Curtis Turner-18 wins Dick Hutchinson-14 wins If you consider any of them plumners,you don't know wheel.
It's so weird to compile a list of drivers that raced against his dad, and then more that raced against his son and then say look at all this competition he had... No, he was not competitive against a lot of those drivers...
Jeff Gordon's 93 wins should be the benchmark for wins that drivers should strive for. With today's playoff format, I don't think anyone will tie 7 Championships again for a long while.
@@joshuapowers4623 don't forget 5 of the 7 were won 5 in a row. That also helps odds. In order to get 7. Someone needs to win at least 3 in a row maybe even back to back 3-peats like Jordan did.
@@acedelta12 You're right because take a look at this: 2004 was the first year of the chase format with 10 drivers competing for the cup. In 2006, Johnson won his first title. In 2007, NASCAR changed the format with 12 drivers competing for the cup. Johnson won 4 more in a row in that span. In 2011, NASCAR changed the format to the wild card format. Johnson won the title in 2013. In 2014, NASCAR changed the format to the elimination chase format. Johnson won the title in 2016. In 2017, NASCAR tweaked the format to now we have stage racing and playoff points. Johnson nearly made it back to the final 4 in 2017. Who knows what would have happened if he won his 8th title.
Great video. Petty has been my hero since I was 6 years old in 1974. Not just because of his amazing accomplishments, but because of the man he is outside of the car. Polite, friendly and respected the competition and media.
To be fair, the wins record in MLB will never be sniffed at again. It’s so far out of reach in the modern game that 300 wins - 60% of Cy’s total (if you round up) - is considered to be an S-tier achievement and immediate pass to the Hall of Fame.
Don't forget that the racetracks varied greatly back then. They raced on dirt, asphalt, concrete, various road courses. Very minimal practice time to get used to a track and set up for it. You show up, qualify and go. That Petty mastered all these different tracks with so little prep time deserves much more attention than he currently gets. That's why he's the King: he could, and did, beat you literally anywhere.
As he should, the ones saying he was overrated and only won against nobodies only say that because they blindly listen to the TV telling them everything about NASCAR right now is better than anything from the past and it was really boring...I've even seen people try to say 2000's NASCAR wasn't very competitive!
@@PaperBanjo64 I mean he is overrated if youre talking about him having 200 wins just because a lot of those wins were not against the whole field, but he is still the goat. You cant deny his 7 Daytona 500's, 7 championships and if the guy commenting above is right that he had 115 wins against stiff competition then he is still the king
I honestly wonder how much better (or worse) Petty would be regarded if we had more footage of races in his era. We don't have video or even photos for most of the races he raced in or won.
To me, Kyle Busch’s 200+ wins over the 3 series is way more impressive. Even today it’s hard to say all the cars are competitive, but in Petty’s early days it was a joke how much better his cars were than the field. A DNF in 25% of starts and more top 10’s than finishes on the lead lap makes accumulation stats seem a lot less impressive.
Kyle Busch is still young ( compared to drivers in pettys Era. He has a combined win total of 229. Yes Petty has more cup wins but alot of those were against non sponsored very weak teams. Even the Truck series is harder to win in than any cup race prior to 1984. Petty was a very smart driver and was also the first driver to bring in a huge sponsor when that was unheard of way back then. Definitely a pioneer but he was just at the right place at the right time along with alot of talent.
The 'event' races in the '60's and '70's (basically anything with a purse over 10 grand); would usually have 10-15 legitimately fast cars. The low purse races would only have three or four good cars, and there were a few races that were truly Petty vs. nobody (Asheville '71 being by far his biggest joke win), but I'd definitely take a North Wilkesboro '62 field over any random Truck field.
I don't really subscribe to people but you have some really well done videos especially compared to other nascar TH-camrs not bashing them but you have some great quality giving you a sub because you deserve it keep up the good work.
Seems like 1967 is a banner year for American racing drivers, AJ Foyt won his second Indianapolis 500 and the 24 hrs of Le Mans . Dan Gurney won at Spa Belgium Grand Prix with his own designed and built Eagle car and won at the 24hrs of Le Mans Mans 😊
He was the Wilt Chamberlain of NASCAR. When the competition is as lacking as it was back then and with it not being a full time profession for most drivers, his accomplishments are blown out of proportion.
@@HughWanztino Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and even Shaquille O'Neal are all better
lol no @@Isaac_Arango MJ, LeBron, and Kareem, I'll give you. Russell and Magic are arguable. Duncan, Kobe, and Shaq hell nah. also, you only named 9 players, thought he wasn't top 10?
Also about 11:40 Even if a powerhouse crew chief and driver were to team up and start raking off 10-15 wins a season, it wouldn't last long. Even if they were every bit legitimate, even if they were beloved by the fans/garage, and even if they stayed healthy through it all...NASCAR would absolutely crack down on them. They'd limit horsepower, they'd make adjustments to the spoilers, and so forth, ask the T-Rex car how being within the rules and showing dominance worked out
Is it really the same sport when he was winning vs nowadays? Still the King but if the records are unbeatable like that, and the schedule is different, it doesn't seem like those records should be compared to modern racing.
Great video! I've watched Richard Petty since the 60's. While watching I was thinking I could add something you missed. NOPE! You nailed it. Big respect to David Pearson...thank you. The 1 and 2 statistic is interesting. My dad and I were big Petty fans. When dad was literally on his deathbed I brought him a model #43 and we talked NASCAR and Petty.
Richard Petty is 5.7% on average When you Compare number of # of starts to # of wins. David Pearson is 5.4% he started roughly half the number petty did and still won 103 times. DP is the GOAT
Johnson is massively overrated, a great crew chief and a lame points system really propped him up, take away the points resets and he only gets 3 championships maximum...Kevin Harvick was a far better driver that fake 7 time...Jeff Gordon actually should have 7 championships, and Jimmie stole 1 from Gordon...he stole 1 from Harvick, maybe 2...Harvick would be a multi time champ with season long points...and Jimmie Johnson made a total joke of himself in IndyCars when he was barely better than mediocre on road courses and only lucked into his 2010 Sonoma win.
@@PaperBanjo64 Johnson would have 3 without the playoffs, Gordon would have 7 and Harvick would have 4 hint he would be 4th all-time. Johnson would be tied for 5th instead of tied for first.
This makes me want to go in and check the career wide average finishing position to see if drivers are getting better on avg and just the king takes the win or if averages are falling meaning the pack is getting tougher.
Everyone always says that they use to race a ton of races in Richard's day. This was true in the 1960's, but in the 1970's when RJ REYNOLDS began to sponsor the WINSTON CUP SERIES, the schedule was drastically shortened. Look back and you'll see that the schedule was reduced to as little as 30 races a year. LASS THEN TODAY'S CURRENT schedule. This stood in place well into the 1980's until the schedule slowly began to grow again, eventually ending up at today's 36 race season........
Yay - loved this. I’ve got all the respect in the world for figures like Dale Sr., Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliot, or Mark Martin, and recognition for Johnson and all those drivers I stopped caring about after the turn of this century, but even if he wasn’t “my guy,” Richard Petty has earned every iota of his legend. People like to diminish him and others from the past, like drivers of today are a new and stronger breed and something someone like Benny Parsons couldn’t handle. This is nonsense - Cup drivers have always been the best and if you dropped a 25 year-old Richard Petty in a modern car, he’d own just as hard - he raced against legends like all of the Allisons, Junior Johnson, Cale, Fireball, Weatherly, Ned Jarrett, DW, along with Dale Sr., Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Tim Richmond, and on and on. One wonders if Busch or Logano would have done quite so well if they were dropped into the 1979 Daytona 500? Give the man his due, people. Things weren’t easier back then and the competition wasn’t soft. Yet this man doubled the accomplishments of the next best driver and was nicknamed “King.”
"there is no way these can be beaten" Ya no shit, its a different sport now, half the amount of races are ran, if we ran 60 races a year then Richard would be just like another driver I'm sure. I'm not saying he's Jeff Green or Danica Patrick or smthn, I'm just saying you cant compare to different sports like they are the same.
I like dale I would say he is the best to ever do it but is he as good as a driver as Richard some would say yes but to me they are both greats and deserve to be treated and respected as such
I think Petty is actually very underrated because there were tons of talent throughout the 60s and 70s, and he was clearly better than all of them: David Pearson H2H Wins: 290-261 Petty Wins: 108-97 Petty Top 5s: 292-289 Petty Top 10s: 367-349 Petty Av. Finish: 9.8-11.3 Petty Ned Jarrett H2H Wins: 146-140 Petty Wins: 42-39 Petty Top 5s: 151-149 Petty Top 10s: 193-198 Jarrett Av. Finish: 8.7-8.9 Petty Bobby Allison: H2H Wins: 385-308 Petty Wins: 134-83 Petty Top 5s: 351-329 Petty Top 10s: 455-436 Petty Av. Finish: 10.4-11.3 Petty Cale Yarborough H2H Wins: 275-246 Petty Wins: 82-75 Yarborough Top 5s: 255-243 Petty Top 10s: 324-300 Petty Av. Finish: 11.4-12.5 Petty Bobby Isaac: H2H Wins: 196-96 Petty Wins: 86-31 Petty Top 5s: 191-125 Petty Top 10s: 219-159 Petty Av. Finish: 7.6-13.1 Petty For 20 years, nobody was better than he was, week in and week out. That's why he's the greatest.
Thats a very odd list to put together. Many of those drivers were racing against his dad, and others were racing against his son. Richard Petty wasn't competitive against most of those people on the list...
@kwade5158 What are you even talking about? The guys on that list raced during the exact time as Petty, who else should I have brought up? Someone like Dale Earnhardt who had his prime well after Pettys ended?
I'm not the biggest fan of The King, but the man showed up to darn near every single points race, and it's not his fault he won a lot of them. You can't win if you don't race, and he raced the most and won the most. Yeah Pearson and Cale and Dale were great, but they didn't do what Richard did.
It's easy to win when: 1. You cheat often and in an era that was far less regulated 2. You face little competition from wildly underfunded teams relative to yours 3. NASCAR plays favorites Had Petty competed just 10 years later, he would have been a nobody. Look at his stats after Waltrip, Earnhardt, etc joined. Look at the mediocre success of his son as well. When faced with parity to his competitors, Petty just wasn't great.
Cy Young's win total will in fact never be touched again. To get 500 wins, a player would need to be an amazing young talent, and get to the big leagues around 21. If that was possible, and the MLB stays the way it is. If this 21 year old stays healthy and matches the 2023 MLB leading 20 wins for the next 25 years, he will still have to come back at 47 to win 11 more games. Now 2 pitchers in the integration era, and 3 pitchers total have pitched 26 or more seasons, now around 20,532 players have even played in the MLB, knowing that 14 of the 25 players on a roster are pitchers. Giving us approximately 11498 pitchers in the MLB. With 1 in 3832 MLB pitchers even having a chance to play that long of a career, we now have to consider pitching wins. Twice in MLB history a team has had more than 26 straight winning seasons, and both were done by the New York Yankees. In order to win 20 games you need consistent run support, and for your team to never just have a bad year. So we need a once in a 50 year player, with us having 150 years of baseball and 3 pitchers who got to 26 seasons pitched. And that player has to be part of one of the best teams every year, meaning he can't chase a contract on a team that won't have a winning season. As well as for those years being made of steel and refusing to get injured, and not slowing down long after most players do in their late 30s. This player also must be so generationally great they are called up young and allowed to pitch enough innings to even qualify for a win. I haven't seen a young phenomenon like Clayton Kershaw in a while, man turned 26 with 3 cy young awards and an MVP. But we need someone that amazing, that young to also be allowed to be a full time pitcher when they arrive. Tldr: No one will ever catch CY young, and there is a good chance no one will really even get past 300 ever again.
I’m tired of the Richard Petty slander. The fact is his success is backed up by modern stats. There’s a reason why everyone in the industry respects him, and no credible figure is saying “well actually, the competition now is better”🤓.
It’s true, there weren’t ANY other super teams besides Petty Enterprises until the late 70s arose. Lee Petty won all those titles and the money and basically passed it to Richard who was yes indeed talented but if you took Petty, Earnhardt Sr, Gordon, Pearson and KyBusch all in their primes and put them together for a full season in the same equipment, Petty wouldnt win the title. When other teams were catching up to PE in the 80s, Petty wasn’t even a title threat and only won a couple or a few races a year Not to mention Pearson had a better winning percentage and win ratio than petty when they were racing on track together. Much less that The Wood Brothers weren’t even a good team, mostly the same goes for Holman-Moody
I feel like its kind of comparing apples to oranges. The sport is very different now than it was back during petty's career peak. I think that the restrictor plates make a huge difference in how the sport has to be played. I mean Petty is the king undeniably regardless.
I also think the opening was misleading. The reason Tom Brady is consider great is not just how he has the most wins it’s the fact that he has won 7 SB. The most SB wins by a franchise is 6.
@@Tyler-qc6lz It's really not. Its not misleading anyone. No one is going the best K is better then the Best QB ever. Hell for three of Vinatieris Rings he was on Bradys team, the other Payton Mannings. That being said 2 of Bradys rings wouldn't exist without Adam. Specifically 2001 as Adam came up big against Oakland in the TuckRule game, and then big in the actual super bowl kicking the game winner. And 2002 where he kicked another super bowl game winner. Plus Vinatieri is hands down the Best kicker ever, and he holds the most points in the NFL record at 2,673. Being compared to him isnt an insult. Also 7 super bowls really isn't out of reach in todays NFL. What makes Bradys so impressive was the fact he did it for so long, with the same team for the most part. How many sports do you see 1 team reign over the League like that. Like The road to the Super Bowl ran through New England. Kinda like it has been for KC recently. Then when he went to Tampa and got that last ring, was such a way to go.
Watching Petty on the track would be one of the first things i would do when i have access to time travel.
Could just watch old videos of him racing today right :P
@@citizenoftheyearCC That works too
Mine would be petty or earnhardt.
Now this is an individual who’s got their priorities straight
First race I ever went to was Martinsville, Va (lived in same county) in 1971. Petty won driving his ‘71 Plymouth short track Roadrunner. Saw him win many races there, wonderful memories.
After Petty won that 200th race in 1984, some unseen force basically went "Enough" and forbid him from winning again
Saw that with jimmie too…but not with dale sr…he won in 2000 and was 2nd in points at age 48.
@@BigOleMattyhonestly, with Jimmie, it feels a bit like the ruling bodies didn't want him to break the 3 way championship tie.
@@cavalierliberty6838that and the Pocono wreck shook him up pretty bad and to add the struggles of the new camaro probably didn't help
Actually it was because he didn't win that many and people was pointing that out back then and still today, in fact he did indeed lose his 198th win straight up and was overruled by the owner of NASCAR remember it isn't a "sport" it's just called that for funsies, he doesn't measure up when you take off the rosy glasses and most people in the know have a low opinion of him for very good and extensive reasons
Yeah. That force was money lol
the winningest season in NASCAR's modern era was Gordon's 1998, where he won 13 races.
someone would have to replicate that year *sixteen times* to get to Petty.
outrageous.
HES BACK
When u look at what I’m carnation said petty is the goat and it’s NOT close
Larson could've easily won 16 in 2021.
It’s funny he says all this and thinks dale earnhardt is the GOAT nascar driver😂
Busch beat him already. Idc if most of his wins are in xfinity and truck. The parity in those 2 series is much much more competitive than the parity during Petty's era where most of the races didnt even have 30 cars.
Him ‘requesting’ a fire extinguisher at his final race in 1992 is legendary.
"Get the fucking fire extinguisher!" -Richard Petty
It's on FARRR
One important bit of context is that today's fields are significantly more competitive than they were in the '50s and '60s. Back then, with such a long schedule, very few drivers had the stamina and finances to compete in NASCAR full-time, especially in the numerous low-paying short track races they had.
In quite a few of Petty's early victories the field consisted basically of him, David Pearson when he felt like showing up, and a bunch of local ham-and-eggers in substandard equipment. That doesn't at all mean that Petty wasn't an incredible driver...but his early success was due at least in part to his marketing skills as it was his driving skills.
There are always factors. To be frank, the greatest racing driver to ever live will likely never actually compete in a racing car. Opportunity, timing, and luck are all factors, and they will never go away.
to be frank, the wins record in baseball is also unbreakable. Due to the way pitchers don't play nearly as many games as they used to and get taken out earlier etc.
When Petty won his 7th Daytona 500 in 1981, the only other driver who had won the race more than once was Cale Yarborough, who had only won twice to that point.
Than ole Cale went on to win back to back semi-retired!!
Out of all of Richard Petty's records that is my favorite...in the days of restrictor plates, pack racing, big accidents that take out half the field, and just insane unpredictability that will NEVER happen again.
You forgot to mention that David Pearson only raced in 574 races as opposed to Richard Petty's 1185. In fact David Pearson only ran 4 full seasons and was the champion in 3 of the (66, 68 & 69).
And 2nd for most wins !!!
Pearson was great. However, keep in mind, that while Petty was racing every race, Pearson (and the Wood Brothers) were taking a week "off" to prepare their car for the next BIG race. I'd say that was a big advantage with this extra preparation and rest.
There's a reason Petty always pointed to Pearson when anyone asked him who he thought was the better driver.
My grandfather was lucky enough to have watched Petty many times in his youth and met him several times. He once told me a story of when he was at a race at Dover and petty ran out of gas with a few laps to go. But was ahead by so many laps that he was able to coast the whole way on an empty tank and still win
Richard Petty moment
Although what Richard did was very impressive for his Era, this only highlights how great drivers like Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were, winning 80+ races in the Modern Era when the schedule was shortened. Richard's 200 wins is similar to Kyle Busch's 200+ wins across all series. Impressive, but we don't look at it under the same lens because he was always driving the best car with less competition. With how evenly matched cars are today and the competition level, Jeff Gordon's 93 Modern Era Wins should be the record drivers chase.
I would argue for 115, as 55 of Richard's 140 wins from 1960-1971 would count as proper races under modern era rules. If you can hit 116, I'd consider the king dethroned.
I'd say Busch's was still more impressive considering there is still more parity in the xfinity and trucks today than Cup back in the 60s. Go look into how many cars were actually in the race in a majority of his wins (hint most of them is less than what you'd consider a minimum these days)
@@HughWanztino On average, Petty's 200 wins had 30.09 cars in the field. Yes, there are races where he only had 12 cars to deal with, but there's plenty of 40+ car wins to balance it out. Compare that to the average of say, Ned Jarrett who averaged barely 20 cars per win.
Field competitiveness has more to do with how many good cars there are rather than how many total cars. I think everyone would agree that 2022 was a more competitive season than 2015, even though 2015 had 43 car fields compared to 2022's average of 37. A race with 10-15 good cars and 15 junk cars is just as competitive as a race with 10-15 good cars and 20-25 junk cars. Which describes most Xfinity and Truck races in the past decade.
@@seannolan9857it’s not just cars, it’s manufacture backed fully sponsored cars
@@darthhull85 I fully agree. Now just for fun, let's look at that North Wilkesboro '62 race I mentioned?
Let's see, aside from Petty we have 17-time winner Marvin Panch in the Wood Brothers factory Ford. Our champion Joe Weatherly in Bud Moore's factory Pontiac. The two Lovette Pontiacs driven by Junior Johnson and Johnny Allen, who had recently won at Bowman-Gray. Petty's teammate Jim Paschal in the #41. The Holman-Moody Fords of Fred Lorenzen and Nelson Stacy. 1960's champion Rex White in his factory-backed Chevrolet. Jimmy Pardue who had won earlier in the season in his Pontiac. 1961 champion Ned Jarrett in B.G. Holloway's Chevy. Future seven-time race winner Darel Dieringer in a car that Fred Lorenzen won with at Augusta. Pontiac factory driver Jack Smith. Southern 500 winner Larry Frank. And nine-time winner and three-time Convertible champion Bob Welborn. Among the DNF's, you'll find the factory Pontiac of Fireball Roberts, the Chryslers of Buck and Buddy Baker, and Bill Foster who was driving Cliff Stewart's car which had won earlier in the year. That's 19 legitimately competitive cars. Yes, the low dollar races had few competitive cars, but for the event races you'd get a pretty good field. I'd certainly take it over any random Truck race that had Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter and a bunch of teenagers in the 12 competitive Trucks.
The fact that people try to pull this "plummer" excuse is sad.
He went against:
David Pearson-105 wins
Bobby Allison-84 wins
Darrell Waltrip-84
Cale Yarbrough-83 wins
Ned Jarret-50 wins
Junior Johnson-50 wins
Lee Petty-54 wins
Herb Thomas-48 wins
Buck Baker-46 wins
Tim Flock-39 wins
Bobby Isaac-34 wins
Fonty Flock-19 wins
Rex White-28 wins
Fred Lorenzen-26 wins
Jim Paschal-25 wins
Joe Weatherly-25 wins
Benny Parsons-21 wins
Jack Smith-21 wins
Speedy Thompson-20 wins
Curtis Turner-18 wins
Dick Hutchinson-14 wins
If you consider any of them plumners,you don't know wheel.
It's so weird to compile a list of drivers that raced against his dad, and then more that raced against his son and then say look at all this competition he had... No, he was not competitive against a lot of those drivers...
Jeff Gordon's 93 wins should be the benchmark for wins that drivers should strive for. With today's playoff format, I don't think anyone will tie 7 Championships again for a long while.
Why? All seven of Johnson's were under a playoff format, a few different formats in fact.
@@joshuapowers4623 The current elimination style format? Maybe I will be wrong, but not seeing it.
@@joshuapowers4623 don't forget 5 of the 7 were won 5 in a row. That also helps odds. In order to get 7. Someone needs to win at least 3 in a row maybe even back to back 3-peats like Jordan did.
@@joshuapowers4623 I like to joke that the format constantly changed JUST to try and stop Jimmie Johnson
@@acedelta12 You're right because take a look at this: 2004 was the first year of the chase format with 10 drivers competing for the cup. In 2006, Johnson won his first title. In 2007, NASCAR changed the format with 12 drivers competing for the cup. Johnson won 4 more in a row in that span. In 2011, NASCAR changed the format to the wild card format. Johnson won the title in 2013. In 2014, NASCAR changed the format to the elimination chase format. Johnson won the title in 2016. In 2017, NASCAR tweaked the format to now we have stage racing and playoff points. Johnson nearly made it back to the final 4 in 2017. Who knows what would have happened if he won his 8th title.
Great video. Petty has been my hero since I was 6 years old in 1974. Not just because of his amazing accomplishments, but because of the man he is outside of the car. Polite, friendly and respected the competition and media.
To speed run his records you need to dominate nascar for 7 yrs with 29 wins a season and lead most of the laps in every race damn thats crazy.
To truly speedrun Richard Petty's records, you need to win every single race you enter in for five and a half years. *FIVE AND A HALF YEARS.*
To be fair, the wins record in MLB will never be sniffed at again. It’s so far out of reach in the modern game that 300 wins - 60% of Cy’s total (if you round up) - is considered to be an S-tier achievement and immediate pass to the Hall of Fame.
Don't forget that the racetracks varied greatly back then. They raced on dirt, asphalt, concrete, various road courses. Very minimal practice time to get used to a track and set up for it. You show up, qualify and go. That Petty mastered all these different tracks with so little prep time deserves much more attention than he currently gets. That's why he's the King: he could, and did, beat you literally anywhere.
hopelessly chasing perfection; good line
The King is the Ultimate Legendary GOAT of NASCAR and racing history
Feels like the King is getting more respect in recent years. Great video
As he should, the ones saying he was overrated and only won against nobodies only say that because they blindly listen to the TV telling them everything about NASCAR right now is better than anything from the past and it was really boring...I've even seen people try to say 2000's NASCAR wasn't very competitive!
@@PaperBanjo64 I mean he is overrated if youre talking about him having 200 wins just because a lot of those wins were not against the whole field, but he is still the goat. You cant deny his 7 Daytona 500's, 7 championships and if the guy commenting above is right that he had 115 wins against stiff competition then he is still the king
I honestly wonder how much better (or worse) Petty would be regarded if we had more footage of races in his era. We don't have video or even photos for most of the races he raced in or won.
The King will always be the King forever and ever. Also, looking forward to your Hater's Guide to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Season video!
Now we need a Jimmie Johnson video
No wonder Kyle cracked so often. He was under immense pressure.
Elly dropping another banger
Thats why hes called The King.
These sorts of records kind of make me wish NASCAR wasn't a spec series. Let teams have a development war!
Thank you so much for this video. I had no idea. I was pissing my friends off going up and down about how awesome these stats were. Blew my mind
I met Richard petty at VIR! Super nice guy in person. Very humble and kind
Volvo XC60
haha! this was so funny! you said the name of a car! hahaha! this is hilarious!
Volvo 850R
@@giospage thanks for the sarcasm.
Nah, mondeo it is.
Great video, i would love to see one about Steve Kinser and how he is the King in Sprint Car Racing with the World of Outlaws.
To me, Kyle Busch’s 200+ wins over the 3 series is way more impressive. Even today it’s hard to say all the cars are competitive, but in Petty’s early days it was a joke how much better his cars were than the field. A DNF in 25% of starts and more top 10’s than finishes on the lead lap makes accumulation stats seem a lot less impressive.
kb lol
Kyle Busch is still young ( compared to drivers in pettys Era.
He has a combined win total of 229.
Yes Petty has more cup wins but alot of those were against non sponsored very weak teams.
Even the Truck series is harder to win in than any cup race prior to 1984.
Petty was a very smart driver and was also the first driver to bring in a huge sponsor when that was unheard of way back then. Definitely a pioneer but he was just at the right place at the right time along with alot of talent.
The 'event' races in the '60's and '70's (basically anything with a purse over 10 grand); would usually have 10-15 legitimately fast cars. The low purse races would only have three or four good cars, and there were a few races that were truly Petty vs. nobody (Asheville '71 being by far his biggest joke win), but I'd definitely take a North Wilkesboro '62 field over any random Truck field.
GOAT contenders: Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson, Gordon, Pearson, Waltrip, KyBusch, Bobby Allison, Yarborough
To win 7 Daytona 500 SEVEN in the sport biggest race no one is going to break that mark
I don't really subscribe to people but you have some really well done videos especially compared to other nascar TH-camrs not bashing them but you have some great quality giving you a sub because you deserve it keep up the good work.
Seems like 1967 is a banner year for American racing drivers, AJ Foyt won his second Indianapolis 500 and the 24 hrs of Le Mans . Dan Gurney won at Spa Belgium Grand Prix with his own designed and built Eagle car and won at the 24hrs of Le Mans Mans 😊
He was the Wilt Chamberlain of NASCAR. When the competition is as lacking as it was back then and with it not being a full time profession for most drivers, his accomplishments are blown out of proportion.
The difference is that Wilt Chamberlain is not top 10 in the NBA, and Richard Petty is at least top 5 in NASCAR
@@Isaac_Arango Wilt isnt top 10? LOL apparently you know nothing about basketball. Only a fool would keep Wilt out of the top 5.
@@HughWanztino Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and even Shaquille O'Neal are all better
lol no @@Isaac_Arango MJ, LeBron, and Kareem, I'll give you. Russell and Magic are arguable. Duncan, Kobe, and Shaq hell nah.
also, you only named 9 players, thought he wasn't top 10?
@@HughWanztino Even Stephen Curry could be considered a little bit better
Please do the 1992 season next. I can't wait any longer. XD
5:56 I appreciate the Talladega night clip 🥹 my favorite movie ever !
I liked this video the moment i heard the Donkey Kong Country song lol
He will forever be The King
Competition is way more competitive now and its a lot harder to cheat/ everyone has the same equipment now
Nothing can stop Richard Petty tonight
Also about 11:40
Even if a powerhouse crew chief and driver were to team up and start raking off 10-15 wins a season, it wouldn't last long. Even if they were every bit legitimate, even if they were beloved by the fans/garage, and even if they stayed healthy through it all...NASCAR would absolutely crack down on them. They'd limit horsepower, they'd make adjustments to the spoilers, and so forth, ask the T-Rex car how being within the rules and showing dominance worked out
Well done video! It was very informative and very entertaining.
I got to see Richard win at Pocono in 1975. One of the top highlights of 60 years of going to races
The King, The Queen and the Prince.
Petty, Dale, and Jimmie
Dale is the real king, Petty is the Jester because his stats are a joke, and Jimmie is the prince with some bs things, too.
Is it really the same sport when he was winning vs nowadays? Still the King but if the records are unbeatable like that, and the schedule is different, it doesn't seem like those records should be compared to modern racing.
Well said. I agree.
Even winning a truck series race is extremely difficult compared to some of Pettys wins where he lapped the field 20 times.
Kyle has 229 wins in all three series.
Any one of those series is harder to get to victory lane than anything prior to the mid 80s in cup.
@@Mike-xt2ot facts
Petty>Busch
Great video! I've watched Richard Petty since the 60's. While watching I was thinking I could add something you missed. NOPE! You nailed it. Big respect to David Pearson...thank you. The 1 and 2 statistic is interesting. My dad and I were big Petty fans. When dad was literally on his deathbed I brought him a model #43 and we talked NASCAR and Petty.
Only in Nascar thunder 2004 can you compete against The King
Richard Petty is 5.7% on average When you Compare number of # of starts to # of wins. David Pearson is 5.4% he started roughly half the number petty did and still won 103 times. DP is the GOAT
Never knew he was such a a legend
Great video btw!
The Donkey Kong music makes this so much better lol
Amazing work once again
Hearing Martin Broduer’s name said without the french accent hit me like a flashbang. I literally had to rewind to hear it again😂
couple minutes ago i thinking about Richard Petty career and i turned up my phone suddenly this pop out speechless
FACT: when Dale Sr rejoined RCR in 1984, Richard Petty stopped winning.
I believe Cal Ripken Jr consecutive games played is one of the most impossible record to beat also.
you forgot to mention that kyle fucken busch has the most combined wins in nascar history
you only mentioned cup
checkmate hamlin mark
Johnson would not have won 7 without the joke that is the playoff system. It should be Petty, Earnhardt, and Gordon.
Johnson is massively overrated, a great crew chief and a lame points system really propped him up, take away the points resets and he only gets 3 championships maximum...Kevin Harvick was a far better driver that fake 7 time...Jeff Gordon actually should have 7 championships, and Jimmie stole 1 from Gordon...he stole 1 from Harvick, maybe 2...Harvick would be a multi time champ with season long points...and Jimmie Johnson made a total joke of himself in IndyCars when he was barely better than mediocre on road courses and only lucked into his 2010 Sonoma win.
@@PaperBanjo64 Johnson would have 3 without the playoffs, Gordon would have 7 and Harvick would have 4 hint he would be 4th all-time. Johnson would be tied for 5th instead of tied for first.
This makes me want to go in and check the career wide average finishing position to see if drivers are getting better on avg and just the king takes the win or if averages are falling meaning the pack is getting tougher.
And people have the audacity to complain about Hamilton’s and Verstappen’s winning streaks.
Restrictor plates killed any drivers chance to catch up with "The King".
The king Richard Petty is Dinoco
Everyone always says that they use to race a ton of races in Richard's day. This was true in the 1960's, but in the 1970's when RJ REYNOLDS began to sponsor the WINSTON CUP SERIES, the schedule was drastically shortened. Look back and you'll see that the schedule was reduced to as little as 30 races a year. LASS THEN TODAY'S CURRENT schedule. This stood in place well into the 1980's until the schedule slowly began to grow again, eventually ending up at today's 36 race season........
The Max Verstappen of NASCAR.
When will the new season of the haters guide return ? Been hyped up for the whole year waiting hahaha.
Yay - loved this. I’ve got all the respect in the world for figures like Dale Sr., Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliot, or Mark Martin, and recognition for Johnson and all those drivers I stopped caring about after the turn of this century, but even if he wasn’t “my guy,” Richard Petty has earned every iota of his legend. People like to diminish him and others from the past, like drivers of today are a new and stronger breed and something someone like Benny Parsons couldn’t handle. This is nonsense - Cup drivers have always been the best and if you dropped a 25 year-old Richard Petty in a modern car, he’d own just as hard - he raced against legends like all of the Allisons, Junior Johnson, Cale, Fireball, Weatherly, Ned Jarrett, DW, along with Dale Sr., Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Tim Richmond, and on and on. One wonders if Busch or Logano would have done quite so well if they were dropped into the 1979 Daytona 500?
Give the man his due, people. Things weren’t easier back then and the competition wasn’t soft. Yet this man doubled the accomplishments of the next best driver and was nicknamed “King.”
They didn't call him king Richard for nothing
While a HUGE Richard Petty fan, he doesn’t even come close. John Force is the UNDISPUTED GOAT!!!
Sounds like Jim Clark
"there is no way these can be beaten"
Ya no shit, its a different sport now, half the amount of races are ran, if we ran 60 races a year then Richard would be just like another driver I'm sure.
I'm not saying he's Jeff Green or Danica Patrick or smthn, I'm just saying you cant compare to different sports like they are the same.
babe wake up the king posted again
I have a PS2 copy of NHL '03 with Ovechkin on the cover....
I like dale I would say he is the best to ever do it but is he as good as a driver as Richard some would say yes but to me they are both greats and deserve to be treated and respected as such
Ok but have you considered quinn houff
Thank you very respectfull
Nice Contra Hard Corps: Uprising music.
Didn’t even mention stage racing changed the sport forever.
Petty was a sensation in an era of NASCAR that barely knew what it truly was. He'll never be beaten.
I think Petty is actually very underrated because there were tons of talent throughout the 60s and 70s, and he was clearly better than all of them:
David Pearson
H2H Wins: 290-261 Petty
Wins: 108-97 Petty
Top 5s: 292-289 Petty
Top 10s: 367-349 Petty
Av. Finish: 9.8-11.3 Petty
Ned Jarrett
H2H Wins: 146-140 Petty
Wins: 42-39 Petty
Top 5s: 151-149 Petty
Top 10s: 193-198 Jarrett
Av. Finish: 8.7-8.9 Petty
Bobby Allison:
H2H Wins: 385-308 Petty
Wins: 134-83 Petty
Top 5s: 351-329 Petty
Top 10s: 455-436 Petty
Av. Finish: 10.4-11.3 Petty
Cale Yarborough
H2H Wins: 275-246 Petty
Wins: 82-75 Yarborough
Top 5s: 255-243 Petty
Top 10s: 324-300 Petty
Av. Finish: 11.4-12.5 Petty
Bobby Isaac:
H2H Wins: 196-96 Petty
Wins: 86-31 Petty
Top 5s: 191-125 Petty
Top 10s: 219-159 Petty
Av. Finish: 7.6-13.1 Petty
For 20 years, nobody was better than he was, week in and week out. That's why he's the greatest.
Thats a very odd list to put together. Many of those drivers were racing against his dad, and others were racing against his son. Richard Petty wasn't competitive against most of those people on the list...
@kwade5158 What are you even talking about? The guys on that list raced during the exact time as Petty, who else should I have brought up? Someone like Dale Earnhardt who had his prime well after Pettys ended?
At one time, Richard Petty raced 2-3 time each week. Not all were NASCAR sanctioned races either.
Richard Petty is the Wayne Gretzky of NASCAR
Babe wake up Elly posted
I'm not the biggest fan of The King, but the man showed up to darn near every single points race, and it's not his fault he won a lot of them. You can't win if you don't race, and he raced the most and won the most. Yeah Pearson and Cale and Dale were great, but they didn't do what Richard did.
Didnt know much about him before this video. Now Im willing to be a fanboy
Racing is Racing and I love the fact that I lived in the time as they raced I started kindergarten in 1958!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
AWESOME video!
I was always a Pearson fan back in the day- but the King IS the KING... no doubt about that
It's easy to win when:
1. You cheat often and in an era that was far less regulated
2. You face little competition from wildly underfunded teams relative to yours
3. NASCAR plays favorites
Had Petty competed just 10 years later, he would have been a nobody. Look at his stats after Waltrip, Earnhardt, etc joined. Look at the mediocre success of his son as well. When faced with parity to his competitors, Petty just wasn't great.
Cy Young's win total will in fact never be touched again. To get 500 wins, a player would need to be an amazing young talent, and get to the big leagues around 21. If that was possible, and the MLB stays the way it is. If this 21 year old stays healthy and matches the 2023 MLB leading 20 wins for the next 25 years, he will still have to come back at 47 to win 11 more games.
Now 2 pitchers in the integration era, and 3 pitchers total have pitched 26 or more seasons, now around 20,532 players have even played in the MLB, knowing that 14 of the 25 players on a roster are pitchers. Giving us approximately 11498 pitchers in the MLB. With 1 in 3832 MLB pitchers even having a chance to play that long of a career, we now have to consider pitching wins.
Twice in MLB history a team has had more than 26 straight winning seasons, and both were done by the New York Yankees. In order to win 20 games you need consistent run support, and for your team to never just have a bad year.
So we need a once in a 50 year player, with us having 150 years of baseball and 3 pitchers who got to 26 seasons pitched. And that player has to be part of one of the best teams every year, meaning he can't chase a contract on a team that won't have a winning season. As well as for those years being made of steel and refusing to get injured, and not slowing down long after most players do in their late 30s. This player also must be so generationally great they are called up young and allowed to pitch enough innings to even qualify for a win.
I haven't seen a young phenomenon like Clayton Kershaw in a while, man turned 26 with 3 cy young awards and an MVP. But we need someone that amazing, that young to also be allowed to be a full time pitcher when they arrive.
Tldr: No one will ever catch CY young, and there is a good chance no one will really even get past 300 ever again.
I’m tired of the Richard Petty slander. The fact is his success is backed up by modern stats. There’s a reason why everyone in the industry respects him, and no credible figure is saying “well actually, the competition now is better”🤓.
It’s true, there weren’t ANY other super teams besides Petty Enterprises until the late 70s arose. Lee Petty won all those titles and the money and basically passed it to Richard who was yes indeed talented but if you took Petty, Earnhardt Sr, Gordon, Pearson and KyBusch all in their primes and put them together for a full season in the same equipment, Petty wouldnt win the title. When other teams were catching up to PE in the 80s, Petty wasn’t even a title threat and only won a couple or a few races a year
Not to mention Pearson had a better winning percentage and win ratio than petty when they were racing on track together. Much less that The Wood Brothers weren’t even a good team, mostly the same goes for Holman-Moody
90% of his wins came on local tracks. NASCAR don’t even race those tracks anymore
I feel like its kind of comparing apples to oranges. The sport is very different now than it was back during petty's career peak. I think that the restrictor plates make a huge difference in how the sport has to be played. I mean Petty is the king undeniably regardless.
In football you have to compare stats relative to each position. You can’t compare the stats of a QB to a kicker or an olineman to a WR.
I also think the opening was misleading. The reason Tom Brady is consider great is not just how he has the most wins it’s the fact that he has won 7 SB. The most SB wins by a franchise is 6.
@@Tyler-qc6lz It's really not. Its not misleading anyone. No one is going the best K is better then the Best QB ever. Hell for three of Vinatieris Rings he was on Bradys team, the other Payton Mannings.
That being said 2 of Bradys rings wouldn't exist without Adam. Specifically 2001 as Adam came up big against Oakland in the TuckRule game, and then big in the actual super bowl kicking the game winner. And 2002 where he kicked another super bowl game winner.
Plus Vinatieri is hands down the Best kicker ever, and he holds the most points in the NFL record at 2,673. Being compared to him isnt an insult.
Also 7 super bowls really isn't out of reach in todays NFL. What makes Bradys so impressive was the fact he did it for so long, with the same team for the most part. How many sports do you see 1 team reign over the League like that. Like The road to the Super Bowl ran through New England. Kinda like it has been for KC recently. Then when he went to Tampa and got that last ring, was such a way to go.
Petty was racing Janitors and Electrictrians. Mickey Mouse Cups
I totally agree. There should be an asterisk next to that stat.
60 races per year😭
It’s amazing how many stats you rack up when there’s multiple races a week to varying levels of participation from competitors…
I hear Donkey Kong Country music!
Gordon is the goat. Petty is a pioneer. He had it relatively easy compared to the modern era Gordon, Earnhardt and Johnson raced in
fun fact richard's last 2nd place ame to dale sr in 1987