GARAGE GURUS.

• Date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Gentry, Connie

The Pettys no longer dominate NASCAR. But family members still lead in revving high-performance cars.

When her Filipino family visits Randolph County, Charina Reeder of Asheboro says there's one clear way to show them "how America feels." That involves a visit to the Richard Petty Museum and Petty's Garage in Level Cross in rural Randolph County, 15 miles south of downtown Greensboro.

In the Triad countryside, she is spot on--especially in NASCAR country, where the Petty name has defined motorsports for generations.

Within a 2-mile radius of the Petty museum and garage are acres of farmland, more than a dozen churches, motorcycle and gun shops, and a couple of mom-and-pop service stations. The sole national brand is Dollar General.

Remarkably, the Petty name is living on 30 years after the retirement of the most successful driver in NASCAR history, in large part because of the mechanical skills of about 20 technicians who attract a nationwide clientele.

Richard Petty, 85, clocked 200 career wins and seven series championship titles during a career stretching from 1958 to 1992. David Pearson, with a total of 105 wins, is a distant second. Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt matched Petty's seven NASCAR championship titles, but neither approached 100 wins.

The Petty legacy extends beyond Richard, of course. His father, Lee, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and set records for dirttrack racing before the sport moved to asphalt tracks. His son, Kyle, also had significant success in NASCAR between 1979 to 2009.

That legacy draws roughly 15,000 to 20,000 museum visitors...