Richard Petty Museum Full Tour: Epic Racing Stories From Dale Inman! (Former Petty Race Shop)

this ain't no make-believe this is a car my grandfather would take the whole back seat out and he would put crates of shine in there obvious that I kicked him but I didn't I don't think he was cheating I think we're surviving but did you enjoy the drag racing no we've got it all grouped together to kind of show you how Adam kind of started his career because I think he was for real the video you're about to watch is one of three different videos we filmed at the petty Museum former Petty Enterprises complex this one's about the museum cars inside what Dale Inman has to say about him the other videos are Dale taking us around the property showing us the history of the buildings including the very first shed that we've had he started working out of a car from it's still there and the other one is Richard Petty showing us the house that he grew up in and was born in upstairs so if you haven't seen those yet you'll want to watch them after this one it crazy that Dale is almost 86 years old and he remembers almost everything he can look at a picture and it takes him back to that day I think that's pretty crazy yeah so you're gonna get a lot of pretty cool stories from Dale just as he sees things around the museum and and some more information from Rebecca Petty Moffett who's Richard's daughter who kind of runs the day today there at Petty's garage and you'll learn about Petty's garage too towards the end it's really cool they do cool frustration stuff in there you're gonna like this one so now we're in the Museum Part of the compound that's what Winston gave him when he retired in 92. He's Got The Sweat Band and everything but Tiffany's in New York made it a car like he when he's 200th race in I was with Terry Bonnie then oh okay we won the championship that year uh I had a boy to ask me said why wouldn't you in the picture when he won his son in a race I said pretty busy winning my eighth Championship I'm I'm being smarter like yeah I saw that I saw that green come on your face and you said you were you were doing that here four hall of famers been out of here you know Victor went in the first year his dad's the second year I went in the third year and already went in the fifth year was Maurice the engine guy yes and uh he is on the pit crew some you know he he fought polio but uh he was still really active with us he was awful protective of Richard Richard didn't have to protect himself as far as that I worked on 59 Daytona win look how that's what Lee wanted to race in a car like that that's a huge car here's an actual picture of it and you talk about aerodynamics screen on the front there to protect the windshield from sand blasting but we run it on dirt too to keep the mud off see it that's sometime in the 70s that's Richard that's Maurice that's myself it was an old barn over on my property and it accidentally got burned down but the Ducks and the chickens and everything we got a string tied to their leg and a nail hold them in the ground so they could run away they sold more magazines that month and it ever sold at that time see the see the sticker in the window yeah yeah back there that's just before we went to Daytona look at Lee's blue boots Esquire shoe Pilots come by and made some petty blue shoe polish shoe dye that we dyed all our shoes so that building right there is the one with a little and you heard you heard uh Rebecca talking about the gas pump yeah that's the pump and that building right there is still there so you see what's in the background this is 1964. okay just before Daytona the reaper shed original would have been kind of over there yeah that's early uniform right there there's probably both of them after they've managed to raise for getting ready to start a race early uniform AKA what they drove to the track in that's me and Richard did Darlington in 1957 I guess that is is that the other part of the museum in there or is that the red floor building with the temples on the wall at later years you know at least Lee's still with us he gave a cowboy hat to a NASCAR Foundation and we went to Iowa Speedway to the auction that night two women got to bed and on it and it got up to 22 500. wow yeah and he took the one off his head so both of them got one so the foundation hit a pretty big lake at night well that's really cool is it really really cool guy like that you never hear any any story about it I thought well that's what I tell people I said I'm kind of more proud of what he's done off the racetrack than what he's done on the racetrack because what he's done off the racetrack's not in the history books you know they should be it is now it's not a history book but it's not a history a digital form yeah like we saw every decal in there it's like two bucks and every single one of them has a signature on it that's impressive this is the car we built at 1966 and we built a new car in 67 and couldn't do no good with it went back with a 66. I think it won 13 races in 66. and went back and started running in 67 and there's 48 races and at 127 of them of this this car this car and then used to when the season was over one week we'll see if it was over November the 7th the season started November the 14th the next week so I think it won a couple of races from 68 too so that car's probably won 35 or 40 races there's this car this isn't a recreated version ma'am this isn't a recreated version this is the car that won this is the car this ain't no make-believe this is a car and like I say if you look right here I told you we built we built the car around Richard Petty if you'll notice the roll bars are slaying it and it's just the way we put them in that year for Richard is a seat crooked is that the good seat car guide for him was that something he liked to have to see that's the way he was sitting you know and he is a lot than a lot of other race car drivers yeah Buddy Baker was a pretty big boy and David Pearson was about Richard's eyes kale was muscular but he wasn't quite as tall great guy kale you know and everything but uh was there anybody else that any of you or the crew got into fights with all over the years besides Bobby Allison well was it Wilkesboro one Sunday and we'd huh had a pretty close race with Bobby Allison so after the race they didn't have a winner circle so Richard stopped on the racetrack and we just had got radios I had one in the pits and Richard had one that we could talk to each other with the crews didn't have them you know just somebody to come up with a pretty good set and speakers were in the helmets Richard got out of the car a few people gathered around Maurice got there before I did and handed Maurice the helmet and uh somebody took a hold of Richard or something Mars hit him right in the face with a help he thought he was gonna hurt but Richard I kind of caught the guy before we went down he said I was going to congratulate him I said well I don't know why he hit you I was worried about tearing the helmet up with the ready but just some of the funny stories it's told you know and so Maurice was ready to go all the time I was ready to go all the time he was looking for it yeah he was certainly the protector of Richard why did they call him squirrel I've never seen that before well when you'd make a mistake we'd call somebody a squirrel so we got to call in him squirrel senior and Richard Squirtle Jr that didn't last long it just it just happened to be on at that time but there's the famous Superbird did you guys do any uh tweaking to the body panels or anything on these things nothing much you know they they were pretty fast you know we worked on the front spoiler but everything was back legal then and then that blade back there from left to right boy you could tweak that eye a degree and just make all the difference in the world we tried to set it on our car when we went we tried to set it at zero to the world and worked on the chassis as much as we could and then tweaked that wing and it made difference what year around do you remember being in a wind tunnel for the first time when did Arrow become a conversation of work in the shop 64 for sure big on this 66 and 67 car for sure with the wooden templates or they don't have templates back then yeah they they had templates then of course they still made us run the door handles you see that you know and then they finally they were being knocked off during the race and where the door handles functional back then or they're just still on there they just had to be on there to look like a car you know and they went down one year this one wasn't but I when we had to run them I cut them down but I'd stick in maybe a half inch one of the mechanics come by trying to show an official but now they've been cut down I think Maurice told him get his hands off the car I ain't gonna call him names but were you ever uh messing with a post to get the windshield laid back or anything like that before they started making rules we always tried to get them as high as we could here for Daytona where he could see around the corner you know so you're trying to raise the windshield up uh just to get him out of his vision because like you mentioned he was pretty tall you know and we could only get the seats so low and everything you know do you ever recall anything you guys were doing that ended up being like having a rule written against it just any random thing he figured out was helpful and then they were like oh well we're not going to do that anymore no not I can't remember that part of it I don't want to remember that part of it but the last race of the 90s 1966 season was it Rockingham and we went down and I say we I keep saying we it was a Pettis we put made a little spores on it something probably something just like this but we made it out of Bondo because we figured we'd have to file it all right and they looked at it and says uh oh you can go ahead and run it because we're going to let them run it next year and ain't no telling how much it helped us and we didn't even know it at the time you know because we hadn't been in the Wind Tunnel or nothing to visit today you just knew from conventional wisdom that it would help it was fours and stuff and just so much history of what Nascar came from okay I know you keep saying whenever you're like well it was them not we but you're one of the guys on that thing it's just it's it's to me it's everything about Richards look how big that car is Lord have mercy it's huge and we painted it to a new car paid that v on it so we could recognize the car and then of course we keep saying we had two super Birds just like Pete Hamilton drove one of them you know he won both daytonas and both talladega's and maybe the Daytona 500 that year but we put a big red nose on it so we could tell them apart and Richard's car today if you watch a race Sunday it'll have a red number on the top huh and if you watch that and that's for us to pick out better you know what I mean do you remember the origin of the petty blue color how that was came about well they had a little bit of blue paint and a little bit of white paint they mixed them it come out petty blue was that an accident yesterday it was an accident it was just have enough paint to paint the car they might have done the paint thing while I was in service but that's that's the way it come about they was they need to know paint to paint a car so they mix two together and that's the way it turned out but now Richard created I mean he was he was in on a lot of this stuff he wasn't only just a driver he he worked on him he was capable working on them you know I'm not saying he liked the work but he didn't work The Fan Appreciation tour you know it was Richard hit it all after 92 and had put a lot of strain on a lot of us because we certainly didn't want to get him hurt you know what I mean you know wound up doing the fan appreciation to her with this car and this car right here I think we started running in 1972. he run a we had a 70 71 we had the Plymouth and a Dodge and they wanted Betty Baker to drive the Dodge so we stayed with a Plymouth all in 71 come to find out the Dodge was a little bit better in the Plymouth so 72 and 73s 74 75 76. 77 they let us run it that long because they didn't have another car that was wasn't supposed to run a car for three years but I'm a NASCAR changed the rules where we could run it longer and uh this was an awful good car for me that's the picture of it we took it to England oh a good one Professor wanted it to Goodwood and I I was fortunate enough to get to go with him over there for that and it not is farewell to a year he wore a different uniform at Everett racetrack like there's two races at Bristol he wore the same uniform and a helmet and I've got that uniform and helmet and I don't know who's got the rest of them you know and he's uh was either one of that okay somebody asked him while ago how many races he wanted Martinville I believe you said 15. and uh I've got the grandmother clocked from 1969 I believe wow and it you know I've got a lot of stuff that I passed on when I pass you know and um he's he's been awful good to me I've got a couple of Rolex watches from Daytona wins they all tell the same time but they're kind of special you know is there anything on these cars when you were the crew chief of that you're proud of like little tricks or gadgets that you had figured out in them that nobody picked up on Long I tell this all the time you know Dale General had me on the show and wanted me to try to pick out my our cheating points I I don't think he was cheating I think we're surviving but we we built a car around Richard Petty I mean we Chrysler say in 1964 come with some racing pieces bigger spindles different tie rod ends and axles and different Springs and it had these cars had torsion bars and Petty Enterprises took them for Richard along with Richard's help and everybody that worked here we we changed the steering on it made it steer a lot easier this was way before power steering the cars were just built around Richard Petty that's that's what made it so successful I guess but uh but if yet we altered everything we could to our advantage I'm not saying was cheating because when you worked with Harry Hyde and Junior Johnson and Paul sellington and all that crowd that come along then you had to be competitive if you weren't pushing that you weren't you weren't going to be up he's doing everything to this Advantage you know what I mean of course you know the window Nets came along after his big wreck at Darlington in 1970 in the Road Runner you know and you know I helped get him out of the car I thought he was dead then and he uh kind of his upside down just hanging by his seat belt when we released it he kind of moaned a little bit and that's the first time I know he was alive you know of course he got hurt real bad at Pocono did you ever weigh the car having lead-filled radios or a lead-filled helmet and pull that out of the car after it got waited may have heard something like that did some of them do that some of them did they just trying to cheat us then I think Daryl Waltrip had a helmet that was made out of lead weighed 50 pounds and they put it in the car they tell the story that he he dumped his lead BB 's like out of the egg spun out in them yeah you've heard that story okay and I can't prove it but I've heard it I've heard it from quite a few sources I think it's pretty pretty interesting yeah and stuff that was done have y'all talked to Daryl yeah yeah not about that stuff we heard him talk about that okay um Junior's show but you know then of course they of course there's the big Hemi that is huge who made the headers on that thing back in the day who was the guy who did all that stuff you know that was people that that would come here and make headers you know of course I I don't know but they're you know they're made out of stainless steel and everything and of course Carson I'm trying to think of some names but there was people that went around made headers because if you locate your motor a little bit different you know you couldn't it wouldn't you couldn't go to AutoZone by set ahead and for a hammy for a race car you know of course we had to make the tailpipes and everything of course this is a calorie finish his career in we got in a wreck earlier Atlanta on his last race in 1992. took it to the garage and kawiki and Bill Elliott was running for the championship and we didn't want to get in the way but when they throw the white flag Richard went out went under the white plane come back around got to check her just to make sure he finished the season here and we must have set in the pitch maybe 150 laps or so wow but running the last lap that's cool and then of course in 1965 they didn't Outlaw the hammy but they said if you run the Hemi you got to put in a big Fury body Chrysler didn't want to do that we didn't do it because it was a bigger family car you know so I think told Richard and the petties to go drag racing so that's what we've done about halfway through the about three quarters of the way through the 65 season and then they finally let us come back and run the Hemi into Belvedere at um it tracks a mile and Below but they wouldn't let us run the big tracks did you enjoy the drag racing no why not well it happens so quick you couldn't overcome a mistake if you made a mistake it killed you I know I don't know it was just different I come up with like I said I come up with his Cup racing now which was Grand National Race and then I think you're the first person I've ever heard be honest about drag racing like it's over so quickly you can't enjoy it that I didn't like it yeah it's like you do all this no it's just it's a lot of preparation to just like go down there for 10 seconds yeah yeah you work hard for the harder you work seconds yeah the harder you work now the less time yeah Top Fuel stuff yeah I don't even know what was running but we run a lot of we run a lot of quarter miles maybe run some eighth of miles and maybe some half miles you know I don't even know but uh but it crosses her Chrysler done it to keep Richard Petty's name and I've been with him just about all over the world he's recognized everywhere he goes I've never and they we've tried it without the Hat somehow they still recognize him you have to have like a full disguise he's just you just know that yeah but you know like I said we've been him been together since about this big you know played High School football together double dated together in fact we went to the Martinsville about 45 miles away so the crew went up early and my wife came up with Richard Linda in 1969. we won the race and she gets in line to get an autograph from him yeah so it you know at one time we was all young if it was I guess did you ever try driving no you never got in a car to test or anything no I Lee probably would have let me but I just couldn't see tearing up somebody's car and Lee trust me Richard tore up some cars on the way up you know like I say I every time I come through I see something different you know he had a cable that run up after a spring held his head up really oh to for the the left side yeah was anybody else using the mask from a fighter jet like that uh I don't think so here's a little tribute to the Wood Brothers we have not been there yet but we'd like to okay Eddie Wood talk to him a lot but Glenn and Eddie Glenn and Leonard Leonard Leonard if I got a hero and if I got a hero and raising it'd have to be Richard number one and then Leonard would be right up there Leonard Wood he was he was super and still is he made that he made Richard Ness and made me one it's the authentic Leonard Wood RC car never seen one of those before that's awesome it's all that's handmade it's just amazing what he could do and uh but like I said and when I talk about Richard I don't know where he's my cousin the hero or my boss…