Richard Petty
A NASCAR Legend

     Sometime along about 1967-68, the major automobile manufacturers came up with a startling idea. They decided it was worth the money to make their products produce less aerodynamic drag at speeds way, WAY over the legal highway limits. Sound crazy? Not when they saw how much advertising they got from their NASCAR Grand National wins. They had already gotten into the series to win by supporting three or four of the very best drivers. But just cornering the market on the top talent and giving that talent 100-200% more support than the independents could scratch up started going sour. One of the major factories happened to produce a car that was both slick looking (by the standards of the era) AND was slick at better than 100mph. And the factory battles weren't coming out even any more.

So along came the "Aero Wars". One of the first shots was the Torino shape and the Dodge flat-back. And the Torino shape was a CANNON shot. So Chryco decided to build a secret weapon. They turned it over to the Chrysler division.      Back then, the manufactures had different goals for different car lines. They also had different drivers assigned to the different lines. Richard Petty was

"assigned" to the Plymouth line (in Chryco's mind). But when Richard got wind of the secret weapon Charger Daytona, he wanted one. And a really arrogant and incredibly stupid thing happened. Chryco told him no. 
     Looking back, it seems incredible, but it really illustrates the way Grand National was back then. The factories really had their drivers on a string and when they pulled the driver jumped or he wound up out in the cold with the likes of Friday Hassler, Elmo Langley, Cecil Gordon, heck, most of the pack. Those guys often ran 2-year old cars and had volunteer fans in their pit crews. And not only did the factories turn their backs to those boys, but the tracks only paid appearance money to the "Big Names". Drivers who wanted to win really needed a factory ride. 
     So in '68 when Chryco told the Pettys no, it didn't seem to be a big risk to an administration that never really thought much from the drivers' point of view.
     But the Pettys raced for a living. Actually, that wasn't awfully out of the ordinary. An awful lot of the drivers did too. But an awful lot of the livings were… well… awful. But the Pettys' living was pretty good and they knew it might come down a few notches. Especially if that Daytona was as good as it looked on paper and the other big dogs had a Torino or Cyclone. So Petty got on the phone to FoMoCo. And I'll bet you that FoMoCo had a Torino on the way to Level Cross within seconds of hanging up the phone.
     So when the first race was run in 1969, Petty showed up way out there in California with a blue Torino on the open trailer they towed behind a BIG (for the day) FoMoCo hauler.     And the fans

went wild. And when he won the race… first time out in a Ford…. Everyone went wild. Some went wild with joy.      Some (like the boys at Chryco) probably went wild too, but I bet it wasn't with joy. However, the boys at Chryco did start planning to make some kind of "Daytona" at the Plymouth plants. And started negotiating to get Richard back.       He was back the very  next  year  so

you can guess about how the negotiations went. And this Ford of his? Where did it go? That's another story.

Richard Petty's '69 Torino '69 was the only year Petty drove a Ford Download #43 Ford Torino Author:  Kent