Wayne Peterson (born May 24, 1938) is an American professional stock car racing owner/driver and former paratrooper and United States Army Special Forces member.

Peterson grew up in a poor family in Boaz, Alabama, and when he was 15 years old, his high school was visited by Army National Guard recruiters.

Peterson was a member of the United States Army Parachute Team (Golden Knights), and worked with NASA on performing High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) landings.

[1] He was later assigned to the Third United States Army for 30 days, during which he was placed in the 77th and attended Ranger School in Fort Benning, followed by survival training in Antarctica and language studies in California, the latter in which he learned French and Vietnamese.

Peterson served in Germany and Okinawa with the 10th and 1st Special Forces Groups respectively before being deployed to Vietnam in 1963 as an advisor and eventually a combat role.

He was ordered to Diego Garcia, where plans were made for Operation Eagle Claw, an effort to free United States embassy members in the Iran hostage crisis.

Peterson compared the debacle and resulting public backlash to that received by American troops withdrawing from Vietnam: "We had to abort, put our tail between our legs, same way we came out of Nam.

[1] Peterson later joined NASCAR driver Lee Petty's crew as a gasman, followed by a tenure with Junior Johnson on the DiGard Motorsports team.

[13] The team has continued to field cars for drivers such as Ben Peterson, A. J. Moyer, Nate Moeller, and Cody Dennison.