It occurs to me that in every photograph of NASCAR legendary driver Richard Petty that I’ve ever seen that his eyes are covered by big black sunglasses and his head is covered by a cowboy hat. This leads me to the question, is Richard Petty a human being, or is he a cyborg? Has anybody actually ever seen Richard Petty’s face recently?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I’m betting he’s a cyborg.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Do The Richard Petty Experience at a track sometime. In July I ran three laps at 170mph in a 650 hp NASCAR at Daytona. Holee crap, I promise that after that you won’t give a whit as to what it was that birthed the man, you’ll just be glad that it did indeed happen.
I met him in person when Sears was sponsoring his car. I waited in line for an hour to get his autograph for my husband (who’s an enthusiast). I asked for a second one for my husband’s buddy, and Petty told me I had to go to the end of the line for a second one. Fucker. Yeah, he’s a cyborg.
How does that work? You pay and someone drives you around a few laps at top speed? That can’t be cheap.
They have ride-along programs, yes, but they also teach you how to drive a car and then let you out there to wheel one yourself.
Richard is a lot like Dolly Parton: he doesn’t want to be seen “out of character.” (Boy, that was a weird sentence.) The hat and glasses are so iconic for him that it would almost be a shock to not see them.
The year before he retired, he was in a race where, in Turn 4, IIRC, he lost control of his car and did a barrel roll where one end of end car was up against the wall and the other end was on the track. He had to have turned 6-7 times before thankfully landing right side up. The car slid across the track and was hit by another driver. This impact caused him to spin around another 6-7 times. All the sheet metal on his was was torn off except the roof and part of the doors.
He went on Letterman later in the week and Dave asked him how he felt when he finally stopped spinning. He simply replied, “Well, I was little bit dizzy.” Luckily, he suffered only a few bruises and bumps.
He the said that he had done the Number One thing you never do in NASCAR - he had scraped the names of the sponsors of the car in the accident.
Granted, Petty is never gonna win a Nobel Prize, but he represents what NASCAR used to be about - a good ol’ boy drivin’ a car. What you see is exactly what you get.
I don’t recall ever hearing anything negative about the man.
I heard him say once that his eyes were really sensitive to light so the hat and glasses were for their sun and spotlight protective effects.
Besides, the true NASCAR fan knows that Matt Kenseth is the robot…a winning robot.
Yes, but Ryan Newman is a winning android, because he shows no emotion (and has no neck.)
Not true! I’ve seen footage of him smiling! Here is a picture!
Photoshop.
You’ll have to watch more NASCAR live broadcasts, he really does sometimes smile. You can’t photoshop live TV.