Lee Petty

Lee Petty won three Cup Series championships -- in 1954, 1958, and 1959 -- and in doing so established a dynasty that would define NASCAR for generations. The Level Cross, North Carolina patriarch was the father of Richard Petty, the grandfather of Kyle Petty, and the founder of Petty Enterprises, the most iconic team in the sport's history. Petty won the very first Daytona 500 in 1959, a race so close that it required days of deliberation before officials awarded him the victory over Johnny Beauchamp. That inaugural triumph at the World Center of Racing set the stage for a family connection to Daytona that would span decades. His driving style was calculated and conservative, a stark contrast to the wild abandon of many of his contemporaries. Petty understood that finishing races and accumulating points was the path to championships, and his three titles vindicated that approach in an era when mechanical failures and crashes claimed most of the field. A severe crash at Daytona in 1961 ended his full-time driving career, but by then, Lee Petty had already built the foundation upon which his son Richard would construct the most prolific career in NASCAR history. The Petty name is synonymous with stock car racing, and it all began with a determined farmer from Level Cross who could drive a race car faster than anyone in America.

Written by Richard R. Glover, NASCAR Reference