Top 22 Quotes & Sayings by Richard Petty

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Richard Petty.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Richard Petty

Richard Lee Petty, nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 43 Plymouth/Pontiac for Petty Enterprises. He was the first driver to win the Cup Series championship seven times, while also winning a record 200 races during his career. This included winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times and winning a record 27 races in one season (1967). Statistically, he is the most accomplished driver in the history of the sport, and is one of the most respected figures in motorsports as a whole. Petty remains very active in the sport as both a NASCAR team owner in the Cup Series, and owner of Petty's Garage in Level Cross, North Carolina.

If guys don't respect themselves, they don't respect other people. That's times and personalities. And all of them are not that way. But it don't take but one or two to screw up the whole crowd.
If there are 10 people there, two or three are going to recognize you.
There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile. — © Richard Petty
There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile.
I don't know if it was much of an interview. We just shot the breeze.
No one wants to quit when he's losing and no one wants to quit when he's winning.
Cotton Owens was leading and daddy was second. They came up on me and I moved over to let them pass. Cotton went on, but daddy bumped me in the rear and my car went right into the wall.
Cats know, comin' out of four, they better be standin' on it, else they'll be standin' in it.
Now they're getting so politically correct you can't even stick your tongue out at somebody.
I quit driving, I'm not retired.
I'd rather be called King than other things I've been called.
If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'
You can only live on the past for so long, and we kind of stretched our luck on that. We think we're on the way back, but it's just a matter of how quickly things come together. Common sense tells you it's not going to happen overnight because we're trying to catch up.
Like everyone else, I don't want it to get too far away from the racing because as time progresses, we're trying to get new fans and still keep the old fans and we've still got to have the racing.
Never put a question mark where God puts a Period
When I first started racing, my father said, "Win the race as slow as you can.
Racing has become more show time; we've got to have something new to create interest in the sport.
I didn't miss out on a family life because of racing. I had one because of it.
The good Lord doesn't tell you what His plan is, so all you can do is get up in the morning and see what happens next.
You can work hard, do everything that you think is right, but one thing you'll never overcome in life is fate. You can't control fate. — © Richard Petty
You can work hard, do everything that you think is right, but one thing you'll never overcome in life is fate. You can't control fate.
If you ain't trying to cheat a little, you ain't likely to win much.
We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn't that much money to be made.
I closed my eyes, held my breath and then everything went black.
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