[4] He earns broad respect in motorsport where beyond driving, he remains very active as both a team ambassador (Legacy Motor Club) in the Cup Series and owner of Petty's Garage (a car restoration and modification shop) in Level Cross, North Carolina.

The Richard Petty Museum was formerly in nearby Randleman, North Carolina, but moved back to its original location in Level Cross in March 2014.

In 1958, Petty married Lynda Owens, who would die of cancer on March 25, 2014, at her home in Level Cross, North Carolina at age 72.

His grandson, Adam (Kyle's son), was killed in a practice crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 12, 2000, five weeks after the death of Lee Petty.

[10] After his 1955 graduation, he took a business course at Greensboro Junior College, then began work for his father's racing company, Petty Enterprises.

[11] In Lakewood, Georgia in 1959, Petty won his first race, but his father Lee protested, complaining of a scoring error on the officials' part.

In 1964, driving a potent Plymouth with a new Hemi engine, Petty led 184 of the 200 laps to capture his first Daytona 500, en route to 9 victories, earning over $114,000 and his first Grand National championship.

Joining in the Chrysler boycott of NASCAR due to the organizing body's ban of the Hemi engine, Petty spent much of 1965 competing as a drag racer.

± On February 27, 1966, Richard Petty overcame a 2-lap deficit to win his second Daytona 500 when the race was stopped on lap 198 of 200 because of a thunderstorm.

The Talladega was specifically designed to give Ford a competitive race advantage by being more aerodynamic and thus faster, especially on super-speedway tracks more than a mile long.

On February 14, 1971, Petty won his third Daytona 500, driving a brand-new (for 1971) Plymouth Road Runner and beating Buddy Baker, by little more than a car length en route to another historic year, making him the first driver to win the race 3 times.

A year later, Petty won the Daytona "450" (shortened 20 laps {50 mi/80 km} due to the energy crisis) for the fifth time en route to his 5th Winston Cup Championship.

1975 was another historic year for Petty, as he won the World 600 for the first time in his career, one of 13 victories en route to his 6th Winston Cup.

The Petty Enterprises Team could not get the new 1978 Dodge Magnum to handle properly, even though much time, effort, and faith were spent massaging the cars.

In 1979, he snapped a 45-race drought, winning his sixth Daytona 500, the first to be televised live flag-to-flag; it would become notorious for a fistfight between competitors following the controversial finish.

Petty won the race as the first and second place cars of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crashed on the last lap.

In 1980, Petty won two races early in the year at North Wilkesboro and Nashville but a violent crash at Pocono in July ended his championship hopes.

Petty gave up on returning to Dodge knowing that for the superspeedways the Mirada would not be competitive, and bought a Buick Regal for the Daytona race.

NASCAR did not credit Petty with a class win, which was a dispute that affected two other drivers, Elmo Langley and Charlie Glotzbach, both of whom drove in combination races that season, finishing second to Grand American cars.

On July 4, 1984, Petty won his officially-recognized 200th (and what would turn out to be his final victory) race at the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

This would have in fact landed him on pole position for the race, as the fastest time in official qualifying was by Alabama Gang member Neil Bonnett, who recorded a 28.829-second lap (139.734 mp/h) in his Pontiac Grand Prix.

Petty's final top ten finish came at the 1991 Budweiser at the Glen which was the same race J. D. McDuffie was killed in a fifth lap accident.

Long-shot contenders Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and Harry Gant fell behind in the long run, which left Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki to compete for the title.

Facing intense pressure, Petty barely managed to qualify at Atlanta, posting the 39th fastest speed out of 41 cars.

In 2009 at the Coke Zero 400 in Daytona, for the 25th anniversary of his final, 200th victory in 1984, Petty drove one of his 1980s Pontiac racecars during the pace laps, leading the field for the first one.

In later years of his career, Petty developed the career of crew leader Robbie Loomis, who was at the helm of Petty Enterprises as crew chief in the 1990s and won three races—the 1996 Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix, the 1997 ACDelco 400 at North Carolina Speedway, both with Bobby Hamilton driving, and the 1999 Goody's Body Pain 500 at Martinsville Speedway, with John Andretti driving.

The name was originally going to stay the same, but when Evernham left the team, it was renamed Richard Petty Motorsports, despite George Gillett continuing to own the majority.

[28][29] During his 1992 retirement tour, Petty took a parade lap before every race with the exception of the Southern 500, where Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton served as grand marshal.

[33] Petty is currently a spokesman for Liberty Medical, Cheerios and the GlaxoSmithKline products Nicorette and Goody's Headache Powder.

[36] He has also established a summer camp known as "Victory Junction", which is intended to give seriously ill children an outdoors, summer-camp experience and has medical staff on hand around the clock in case of emergencies.