Personal History and Racing Evolution

Richard grew up. And we're here with Dale Inman , who knows everything about everything here. So, what are we facing at this moment? Well, this is where it all started, I guess in early '49, around that time, about 10 or 15 years before Richard drove. But I used to go to the races with him when his father competed from this building, right here . So this is it. And of course, Lee didn't start running until he was 35. And they didn't let Richard race until he was 21. And now they can race at 18 or maybe even younger, I suppose. But this was just an old shed that barely protected from the rain and nothing more than that. And then it expanded to what you see around you now. So Lee poured this concrete in 1949, and it probably wasn't concrete when we first started working here , you know. And when I say "we," I mean the Pettys. Excuse me for that. It's not me. It's the Pettys when I say "us". Understand that. When did you start working for the racing team? I guess I've always worked on it. You know, I know I was at Darlington in 1951 and they wouldn't even let us into the pits, me, Richard and Maurice, Richard's brother, but Lee would sneak us in because that was all the help he had. And finally we were old enough to enter. And when Richard turned 21, on July 2nd, on July 12th, we went to Columbia, South Carolina, and he ran his first race. And I was with him then. Oh. And we grew up together. His mother and my mother were first cousins. So that makes us cousins ​​sometimes. I don't blame him all the time, but that's how we talk about each other, but it's been a long road for me. And of course, the Pettys were there at the beginning of