GARAGE GURUS.

• 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 annually, while the family's racing business, Petty Enterprises, was sold and moved to Mooresville in 2008 to be closer to other NASCAR operations. While Richard Petty retains an interest in what is now the Petty GMS, its majority owner since 2021 has been Maury Gallagher, the CEO of Allegiant Air. Jimmie Johnson bought a minority stake in November.

Separately, Petty's Garage has become a substantial business since its formation in 2008. The garage has performed work for celebrity car buffs including musician Kid Rock, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, and rocker-turned-racer Brian Johnson of AC/DC fame.

"We work on cars from Texas, Michigan, New York, all across the U.S., and Canada; and people from all over the world order our parts. But the guy 15 minutes up the road doesn't know were here," says Rebecca Petty Moffitt, Richard's youngest daughter and executive director of the Petty...