Why a NASCAR champ calls Richard Petty 'the greatest race car driver that ever lived'

NBC Sports

23-04-2025

In more than 20 years in NASCAR, Brad Keselowski had never spent any significant time with Richard Petty until they traveled together April 7 to Washington, D.C., to visit with Congressional members of the National Motorsports Coalition.
The time with Petty was eye-opening for Keselowski, who quizzed the seven-time Cup champion about his life and career.
Keselowski explains what the time with Petty meant to him and why he calls Petty — who is tied with Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson for the most Cup titles — as the 'greatest race car driver that ever lived.'
Keselowski on Petty:
'It was sometime over the year last year I was thinking about him and how special he is to our sport, really unique person, and I could get on a soapbox here because my personal opinion of Richard Petty is probably different than a lot of people's opinion of Richard Petty.
'I feel that Richard Petty is the greatest race car driver that ever lived. The reason why I feel that way is broader than just his persona, which is, I think, it's pretty cool. It's broader than his 200 wins. I think it connects back to something that makes racing very unique compared to other sports.
'It's the aspect of he raced in an era where the contemporaries he had that at least could win or were top-level drivers would, candidly, not make it out every year, and he himself multiple times barely made it out of big crashes. He had the one in Darlington, the couple in Daytona and not only did he survive those, but he kept racing. And he didn't just keep racing. He kept winning.
(Original Caption) Richard Petty's arm hangs out the window of his Plymouth after the veteran stock car driver hit the retaining wall along the pits and took off on this airborne flight. Petty was taken to the hospital.
Richard Petty's arm hangs out the window of his Plymouth after his car hit the retaining wall along the pits and took off in this 1970 crash at Darlington Raceway. (Photo: Bettmann Archive)
'Like nobody else can really claim that, at least not at the NASCAR level, maybe you could look at a Mario Andretti or somebody of that nature. So to me, there are drivers that are going to have amazing resumes of championships, amazing resumes of big race wins or total race wins, but he has the quintessential race car driver story of success, persona and guts.
'All three of those together are just, they're legendary. I don't think he gets enough credit for that, particularly nowadays when we become so stat based with everything. We forget just how impressive it is that this guy at one point in his career had won multiple races, multiple championships and been through crashes he that barely lived through, watched other people of similar nature die at races. After experiencing all of that, he got back in the car and won races and championships.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - JULY 4, 1984: Richard Petty recorded his 200th, and final, NASCAR Cup Series win at the 1984 Firecracker 400. (Photo by ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)
Richard Petty recorded his 200th, and final, NASCAR Cup Series win at the 1984 Firecracker 400 (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)
'There's nobody like that that I can put a finger on. So, I was thinking about that sometime last year. What I was really thinking about, 'Brad, what are the things in your life that you take entirely for granted that you're going to totally regret 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now?'
'And one of them as I was kind of making this mental list was I had access to Richard Petty and didn't do anything with it, like didn't get to know him, didn't get to build a relationship with him, which was entirely true up until I went on that trip (in April), for the last decade or more of my life. I was like, 'Man, I'm going to really regret that one day. I don't know when or how, but one day I'm going to really regret that.
'I remember making a mental note of that, not necessarily having an answer to it. And so when the opportunity came up to go to DC for the trip with NASCAR and the congressional committee and I saw his name was on the list, I was like, 'That's great, maybe I'll get to spend some time with him.'
'And just by complete happenstance, it ended up being that I was on the airplane with him. And I don't want to undersell (it). Toni Breidinger was on the plane with me and Rajah (Caruth) was on the plane with me, so they were there too. So it wasn't just Richard and I, but it was me sitting in front of Richard for three, I don't know, it may have been four or five hours. And just 'Tell me about this. Tell me about that. What was this like? What was that like? What was that like? How would you handle this? What's your opinion on that?' And it was awesome.
'I wish that we had the Google Glasses … I wish I was wearing them for that plane ride and pushed the record button. So, it was a real, real blessing, real treat. And I would extend that same thought to all of us in the room, what are the things that 10, 20 years from now are you going to say I wish I would've taken advantage of that opportunity and regret I didn't do it, and Richard was one of them. … He's got so many amazing stories and has lived a fullest of lives. He's lived 20 people's lives, right?'
HAMPTON, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 25: Legacy Motor Club co-owner and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Richard Petty walks the grid prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25, 2024 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by)
Getty Images
What stood out most about all that time with Petty that day?
Keselowski said: 'I'm still blown away by the same thing, which is 'Richard, how did you get back in the car after winning all these races, championships, having two or three kids and after seeing the Ned Jarretts win and retire and the Fireball Roberts parish on the racetrack, like how did you endure? How did you keep going?
'Like how did you not just say, 'You know what, I made my money, I've got my farm, I've got my wife and kids, I'm just going to pack it up. How did you keep enduring and enduring at a high level? Because you could just keep enduring in the sense of I'm just going to keep racing, but when the tires look like they're going to blow out, or, you know, when it looks a little hairy, I'm just going to fall on back, right?
'He could have done that, but he didn't. And, so, you know, asking him, maybe less candidly, those questions and just hearing him and his commitment to the sport and how NASCAR is and what he was and what he always wanted to be, that just blew me away. Nowadays people aren't so much committed to things as I think he was and his generation was. Full send.'