Kyle Petty
Kyle Petty
Kyle Eugene Pettyis an American stock car racing driver. Now retired, he formerly competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and is currently a television analyst for NBC's pre- and post-race shows. He formerly was a color commentator for TNT's NASCAR coverage from 2006 through 2014. He is the son of racer Richard Petty, grandson of racer Lee Petty, and father of Adam Petty. He and his ex—wife Pattie have two other children: Austin and Montgomery Lee. He last drove...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth2 June 1960
CityLevel Cross, NC
We had a great, great run, ... I can't really complain. We've struggled all year. To come here and have a good run was good for us.
Consistently running second or third gets you a championship every year in our series. That hasn't changed. You can talk about the Chase all you want, but . . . you're still going to get people who have a shot at the championship or are in the top 10 who haven't won races. There's nothing wrong with that.
This sport is probably more competitive than any other professional sport, ... When you get behind on some things, getting caught up again is tough. We've struggled with things for a while, but we've never given up on making it better and getting back to running up front and winning races.
I run 20-25 miles during the week ... but you really watch what you eat, I think that's the main thing.
I just loved the driving part. If I didn't race anybody, it didn't make any difference as long as I could drive. It's just the physical part of getting in the car and being able to go run fast and being able to drive.
You know, that's a hard question. You can't say the sport expanded too quickly, because it didn't expand at all for 45 years. Was Japan a stretch for us, running an exhibition race there? Yeah, I think it was. Was Mexico a stretch? Hmmm ...
In a lot of ways it's just like wine. It's aged very, very well. I just think everything about the place has gotten better.
I like driving the 45, ... That's the car I want to quit racing in.
Stock car racing wasn't exactly a part of everybody's household back then, especially since it wasn't on TV a whole lot early in his career. But, everywhere we went, people knew who he was. He was The King - and he still is.
I'm not sure anyone has ever done it there before.
I had to be the only child in this country who ever called his father 'The King.'
It's where we need to be as much as anything else.
It was a night race when nothing else was a night race,
This was basically a tire-management race. I know some teams had issues, but we never had any problems.