It was a day that 14 years on, saddens every NASCAR fan. The fourth generation of a racing dynasty was brought to a tragic halt at Loudon New Hampshire….it was the day that NASCAR lost Adam Petty.
I should be writing about one of the sport’s greatest multi champions, instead it’s a very short and tragic tale. Adam Petty was born in 1980 born into NASCAR royalty…..his great grandfather Lee father Kyle and Grandfather the great “King” Richard Petty so racing was obviously in the blood. There was never really any doubt where his life would take him.
Like his father he won his 1st ever ARCA race at Charlotte in 1998 aged just 18. He had obviously inherited the family talent and in 1999 he joined the NASCAR family driving full time in the Busch series where he finished 6th in his 1st race at Daytona and had a season best place finish of 4th. He finished 20th overall however he had shown enough talent to be one of the favourites in 2000. One of his fellow rookies was Kevin Harvick and he also had battles with Matt Kenseth. Both are now top Sprint Cup drivers.
In 2000 he was set for a 2nd season in the Busch Series and was due to run 7 Winston Cup races where interestingly he was up against a young rookie named Jimmie Johnson. He was driving for his grandfather’s team and the plan was to move up full time to Cup in 2001.
The early season was a struggle but he did manage to qualify for his 1st Winston Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway where he finished 40th after an engine failure. Sadly, he never got to race against his father as Adam was already out of the race when Kyle replaced an ill Elliott Sadler. Adam’s great grandfather, the 3 time Champion Lee Petty lived to see the race at Texas but died 3 days later.
On May 12th 2000, Adam was practicing at Loudon Motor Speedway for a Busch race when his throttle stuck wide open causing a head on wreck at Turn 3. Adam was tragically killed instantly due to a skull fracture and the Petty dynasty came to a shuddering tragic halt.
Eight weeks later after a similar crash that killed Kenny Irwin Jr, NASCAR mandated the use of a kill switch on the steering wheel so arguably Adam’s wreck was the beginning of the ongoing safety work that we see today. Kyle Petty drove Adam’s number 45 for the rest of 2000 as a tribute to his son and he also had the 45 on his car for the rest of his career.
We shall never know how good Adam Petty would have been but in my opinion, we would be talking about a multi champion.
There may just be a happy ending however. In 2013 Kyle Petty’s brother Austin named his newborn son Adam in tribute. The name Adam Petty may yet be a NASCAR champion in years to come.
In memory of Adam Petty.
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