Richard Petty was (and still is) UNBEATABLE 

Watching Petty on the track would be one of the first things i would do when i have access to time travel.

the winningest season in NASCAR's modern era was Gordon's 1998, where he won 13 races. someone would have to replicate that year *sixteen times* to get to Petty. outrageous.

After Petty won that 200th race in 1984, some unseen force basically went "Enough" and forbid him from winning again

The fact that people try to pull this "plummer" excuse is sad. He went against: David Pearson-105 wins Bobby Allison-84 wins Darrell Waltrip-84 Cale Yarbrough-83 wins Ned Jarret-50 wins Junior Johnson-50 wins Lee Petty-54 wins Herb Thomas-48 wins Buck Baker-46 wins Tim Flock-39 wins Bobby Isaac-34 wins Fonty Flock-19 wins Rex White-28 wins Fred Lorenzen-26 wins Jim Paschal-25 wins Joe Weatherly-25 wins Benny Parsons-21 wins Jack Smith-21 wins Speedy Thompson-20 wins Curtis Turner-18 wins Dick Hutchinson-14 wins If you consider any of them plumners,you don't know wheel.

Him ‘requesting’ a fire extinguisher at his final race in 1992 is legendary.

One important bit of context is that today's fields are significantly more competitive than they were in the '50s and '60s. Back then, with such a long schedule, very few drivers had the stamina and finances to compete in NASCAR full-time, especially in the numerous low-paying short track races they had. In quite a few of Petty's early victories the field consisted basically of him, David Pearson when he felt like showing up, and a bunch of local ham-and-eggers in substandard equipment. That doesn't at all mean that Petty wasn't an incredible driver...but his early success was due at least in part to his marketing skills as it was his driving skills.

to be frank, the wins record in baseball is also unbreakable. Due to the way pitchers don't play nearly as many games as they used to and get taken out earlier etc.

You forgot to mention that David Pearson only raced in 574 races as opposed to Richard Petty's 1185. In fact David Pearson only ran 4 full seasons and was the champion in 3 of the (66, 68 & 69).

My grandfather was lucky enough to have watched Petty many times in his youth and met him several times. He once told me a story of when he was at a race at Dover and petty ran out of gas with a few laps to go. But was ahead by so many laps that he was able to coast the whole way on an empty tank and still win

Although what Richard did was very impressive for his Era, this only highlights how great drivers like Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were, winning 80+ races in the Modern Era when the schedule was shortened. Richard's 200 wins is similar to Kyle Busch's 200+ wins across all series. Impressive, but we don't look at it under the same lens because he was always driving the best car with less competition. With how evenly matched cars are today and the competition level, Jeff Gordon's 93 Modern Era Wins should be the record drivers chase.

When Petty won his 7th Daytona 500 in 1981, the only other driver who had won the race more than once was Cale Yarborough, who had only won twice to that point.

Jeff Gordon's 93 wins should be the benchmark for wins that drivers should strive for. With today's playoff format, I don't think anyone will tie 7 Championships again for a long while.

Don't forget that the racetracks varied greatly back then. They raced on dirt, asphalt, concrete, various road courses. Very minimal practice time to get used to a track and set up for it. You show up, qualify and go. That Petty mastered all these different tracks with so little prep time deserves much more attention than he currently gets. That's why he's the King: he could, and did, beat you literally anywhere.

To speed run his records you need to dominate nascar for 7 yrs with 29 wins a season and lead most of the laps in every race damn thats crazy.

Great video. Petty has been my hero since I was 6 years old in 1974. Not just because of his amazing accomplishments, but because of the man he is outside of the car. Polite, friendly and respected the competition and media.

To be fair, the wins record in MLB will never be sniffed at again. It’s so far out of reach in the modern game that 300 wins - 60% of Cy’s total (if you round up) - is considered to be an S-tier achievement and immediate pass to the Hall of Fame.

No wonder Kyle cracked so often. He was under immense pressure.

The King is the Ultimate Legendary GOAT of NASCAR and racing history

hopelessly chasing perfection; good line

Kyle Busch is still young ( compared to drivers in pettys Era. He has a combined win total of 229. Yes Petty has more cup wins but alot of those were against non sponsored very weak teams. Even the Truck series is harder to win in than any cup race prior to 1984. Petty was a very smart driver and was also the first driver to bring in a huge sponsor when that was unheard of way back then. Definitely a pioneer but he was just at the right place at the right time along with alot of talent.

Feels like the King is getting more respect in recent years. Great video

I honestly wonder how much better (or worse) Petty would be regarded if we had more footage of races in his era. We don't have video or even photos for most of the races he raced in or won.

Volvo XC60

He was the Wilt Chamberlain of NASCAR. When the competition is as lacking as it was back then and with it not being a full time profession for most drivers, his accomplishments are blown out of proportion.

Now we need a Jimmie Johnson video

The King will always be the King forever and ever. Also, looking forward to your Hater's Guide to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Season video!

GOAT contenders: Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson, Gordon, Pearson, Waltrip, KyBusch, Bobby Allison, Yarborough

I met Richard petty at VIR! Super nice guy in person. Very humble and kind

Seems like 1967 is a banner year for American racing drivers, AJ Foyt won his second Indianapolis 500 and the 24 hrs of Le Mans . Dan Gurney won at Spa Belgium Grand Prix with his own designed and built Eagle car and won at the 24hrs of Le Mans Mans 😊

To me, Kyle Busch’s 200+ wins over the 3 series is way more impressive. Even today it’s hard to say all the cars are competitive, but in Petty’s early days it was a joke how much better his cars were than the field. A DNF in 25% of starts and more top 10’s than finishes on the lead lap makes accumulation stats seem a lot less impressive.

To win 7 Daytona 500 SEVEN in the sport biggest race no one is going to break that mark

Thats why hes called The King.

Also about 11:40 Even if a powerhouse crew chief and driver were to team up and start raking off 10-15 wins a season, it wouldn't last long. Even if they were every bit legitimate, even if they were beloved by the fans/garage, and even if they stayed healthy through it all...NASCAR would absolutely crack down on them. They'd limit horsepower, they'd make adjustments to the spoilers, and so forth, ask the T-Rex car how being within the rules and showing dominance worked out

Thank you so much for this video. I had no idea. I was pissing my friends off going up and down about how awesome these stats were. Blew my mind

Richard Petty is 5.7% on average When you Compare number of # of starts to # of wins. David Pearson is 5.4% he started roughly half the number petty did and still won 103 times. DP is the GOAT

I think Petty is actually very underrated because there were tons of talent throughout the 60s and 70s, and he was clearly better than all of them: David Pearson H2H Wins: 290-261 Petty Wins: 108-97 Petty Top 5s: 292-289 Petty Top 10s: 367-349 Petty Av. Finish: 9.8-11.3 Petty Ned Jarrett H2H Wins: 146-140 Petty Wins: 42-39 Petty Top 5s: 151-149 Petty Top 10s: 193-198 Jarrett Av. Finish: 8.7-8.9 Petty Bobby Allison: H2H Wins: 385-308 Petty Wins: 134-83 Petty Top 5s: 351-329 Petty Top 10s: 455-436 Petty Av. Finish: 10.4-11.3 Petty Cale Yarborough H2H Wins: 275-246 Petty Wins: 82-75 Yarborough Top 5s: 255-243 Petty Top 10s: 324-300 Petty Av. Finish: 11.4-12.5 Petty Bobby Isaac: H2H Wins: 196-96 Petty Wins: 86-31 Petty Top 5s: 191-125 Petty Top 10s: 219-159 Petty Av. Finish: 7.6-13.1 Petty For 20 years, nobody was better than he was, week in and week out. That's why he's the greatest.

5:56 I appreciate the Talladega night clip 🥹 my favorite movie ever !

Great video, i would love to see one about Steve Kinser and how he is the King in Sprint Car Racing with the World of Outlaws.

Is it really the same sport when he was winning vs nowadays? Still the King but if the records are unbeatable like that, and the schedule is different, it doesn't seem like those records should be compared to modern racing.

He will forever be The King

Elly dropping another banger

Yay - loved this. I’ve got all the respect in the world for figures like Dale Sr., Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliot, or Mark Martin, and recognition for Johnson and all those drivers I stopped caring about after the turn of this century, but even if he wasn’t “my guy,” Richard Petty has earned every iota of his legend. People like to diminish him and others from the past, like drivers of today are a new and stronger breed and something someone like Benny Parsons couldn’t handle. This is nonsense - Cup drivers have always been the best and if you dropped a 25 year-old Richard Petty in a modern car, he’d own just as hard - he raced against legends like all of the Allisons, Junior Johnson, Cale, Fireball, Weatherly, Ned Jarrett, DW, along with Dale Sr., Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Tim Richmond, and on and on. One wonders if Busch or Logano would have done quite so well if they were dropped into the 1979 Daytona 500? Give the man his due, people. Things weren’t easier back then and the competition wasn’t soft. Yet this man doubled the accomplishments of the next best driver and was nicknamed “King.”

Cy Young's win total will in fact never be touched again. To get 500 wins, a player would need to be an amazing young talent, and get to the big leagues around 21. If that was possible, and the MLB stays the way it is. If this 21 year old stays healthy and matches the 2023 MLB leading 20 wins for the next 25 years, he will still have to come back at 47 to win 11 more games. Now 2 pitchers in the integration era, and 3 pitchers total have pitched 26 or more seasons, now around 20,532 players have even played in the MLB, knowing that 14 of the 25 players on a roster are pitchers. Giving us approximately 11498 pitchers in the MLB. With 1 in 3832 MLB pitchers even having a chance to play that long of a career, we now have to consider pitching wins. Twice in MLB history a team has had more than 26 straight winning seasons, and both were done by the New York Yankees. In order to win 20 games you need consistent run support, and for your team to never just have a bad year. So we need a once in a 50 year player, with us having 150 years of baseball and 3 pitchers who got to 26 seasons pitched. And that player has to be part of one of the best teams every year, meaning he can't chase a contract on a team that won't have a winning season. As well as for those years being made of steel and refusing to get injured, and not slowing down long after most players do in their late 30s. This player also must be so generationally great they are called up young and allowed to pitch enough innings to even qualify for a win. I haven't seen a young phenomenon like Clayton Kershaw in a while, man turned 26 with 3 cy young awards and an MVP. But we need someone that amazing, that young to also be allowed to be a full time pitcher when they arrive. Tldr: No one will ever catch CY young, and there is a good chance no one will really even get past 300 ever again.

Well done video! It was very informative and very entertaining.

I don't really subscribe to people but you have some really well done videos especially compared to other nascar RU-vidrs not bashing them but you have some great quality giving you a sub because you deserve it keep up the good work.

Everyone always says that they use to race a ton of races in Richard's day. This was true in the 1960's, but in the 1970's when RJ REYNOLDS began to sponsor the WINSTON CUP SERIES, the schedule was drastically shortened. Look back and you'll see that the schedule was reduced to as little as 30 races a year. LASS THEN TODAY'S CURRENT schedule. This stood in place well into the 1980's until the schedule slowly began to grow again, eventually ending up at today's 36 race season........

Please do the 1992 season next. I can't wait any longer. XD

Great video! I've watched Richard Petty since the 60's. While watching I was thinking I could add something you missed. NOPE! You nailed it. Big respect to David Pearson...thank you. The 1 and 2 statistic is interesting. My dad and I were big Petty fans. When dad was literally on his deathbed I brought him a model #43 and we talked NASCAR and Petty.

These sorts of records kind of make me wish NASCAR wasn't a spec series. Let teams have a development war!

Competition is way more competitive now and its a lot harder to cheat/ everyone has the same equipment now

Restrictor plates killed any drivers chance to catch up with "The King".

I'm not the biggest fan of The King, but the man showed up to darn near every single points race, and it's not his fault he won a lot of them. You can't win if you don't race, and he raced the most and won the most. Yeah Pearson and Cale and Dale were great, but they didn't do what Richard did.

Only in Nascar thunder 2004 can you compete against The King

This makes me want to go in and check the career wide average finishing position to see if drivers are getting better on avg and just the king takes the win or if averages are falling meaning the pack is getting tougher.

Nothing can stop Richard Petty tonight

While a HUGE Richard Petty fan, he doesn’t even come close. John Force is the UNDISPUTED GOAT!!!

I liked this video the moment i heard the Donkey Kong Country song lol

Petty should have an asterisk by his win record because for many years he had way more financial backing and better equipment than any one he competed against

you forgot to mention that kyle fucken busch has the most combined wins in nascar history you only mentioned cup checkmate hamlin mark

I believe Cal Ripken Jr consecutive games played is one of the most impossible record to beat also.

AWESOME video!

I’m tired of the Richard Petty slander. The fact is his success is backed up by modern stats. There’s a reason why everyone in the industry respects him, and no credible figure is saying “well actually, the competition now is better”🤓.

Johnson would not have won 7 without the joke that is the playoff system. It should be Petty, Earnhardt, and Gordon.

Amazing work once again

In football you have to compare stats relative to each position. You can’t compare the stats of a QB to a kicker or an olineman to a WR.

I like dale I would say he is the best to ever do it but is he as good as a driver as Richard some would say yes but to me they are both greats and deserve to be treated and respected as such

Hearing Martin Broduer’s name said without the french accent hit me like a flashbang. I literally had to rewind to hear it again😂

The Donkey Kong music makes this so much better lol

I feel like its kind of comparing apples to oranges. The sport is very different now than it was back during petty's career peak. I think that the restrictor plates make a huge difference in how the sport has to be played. I mean Petty is the king undeniably regardless.

FACT: when Dale Sr rejoined RCR in 1984, Richard Petty stopped winning.

Never knew he was such a a legend

And people have the audacity to complain about Hamilton’s and Verstappen’s winning streaks.

In Brisca f1 racing, stuart smith snr has 500 feature final wins, second place has 289. Only 57% of the way there from a drive who has raced for twice as long. Stu won 50.7% of the races he entered. Only dominance which can outdo the 43's that i can think of

I have a PS2 copy of NHL '03 with Ovechkin on the cover....

I was always a Pearson fan back in the day- but the King IS the KING... no doubt about that

The King, The Queen and the Prince. Petty, Dale, and Jimmie

Thank you very respectfull

couple minutes ago i thinking about Richard Petty career and i turned up my phone suddenly this pop out speechless

Dale Sr. would most definitely have scored championship #8 and maybe even #9. But I just can’t see him getting any more than 100 wins

The Max Verstappen of NASCAR.

When will the new season of the haters guide return ? Been hyped up for the whole year waiting hahaha.

The king Richard Petty is Dinoco

Which Lewis Hamilton F1's Goat only has 103 in a sport some say it's harder but to be honest Petty's Nascar was more then that... Also makes modern NASCAR look like 4D chess compared to F1's checkers considering new driver can beat that like in the other sports mentioned in the video... Also let's not forget careers are getting longer and drivers starting earlier and never dieing... So dacades from now we could ssee it the odds say it to be true we just need a child protagy and a 50 or so long career... But I doudt they'll beat him as they would have all the time it the world Petty only had 35 years.

While 200 wins is an insane stat that noone will touch likely ever. I will say I believe that Kyle Busch's 231 wins in NASCAR's National series is much more impressive considering the amount of elite equipment and drivers that have been around since his first win in 2004.

Could we do this with the other seven time champs

They didn't call him king Richard for nothing

Nice Contra Hard Corps: Uprising music.

At one time, Richard Petty raced 2-3 time each week. Not all were NASCAR sanctioned races either.

90% of his wins came on local tracks. NASCAR don’t even race those tracks anymore

You have to remember the era he raced in was way less competitive. Doesn’t change how insane the stats are, but puts it into perspective. Dale Earnhardt will always be the GOAT

babe wake up the king posted again

Ok but have you considered quinn houff

"The King" Richard Petty also has 555 Top 5s in his Career. This means that "The King" won an Average of 19 Top 5s Per Year (From when he got his 555 Top 5s [1959 - 1988, 30 of his 35 Year Racing Tenure]), which is a 6.33% Career Average in Top 5s.

Petty was the only guy crazy enough to throw all of his and the sponsor money into running every single race. It’d be like if you committed to running every single Nascar Weekly series track across the united states. You’d be living on wins. Using a car you bought from a dealership and modded to run as fast as possible. Richard was the greatest of the 60’s and 70’s and tapered off as soon as NASCAR became ultra modern, when actual stock cars were phased out for ultra fabricated race cars with factory motors. He set the tone, But it’s arguably way harder to win races when everybody shows up with the same level of prep if not more so than you every weekend of the year, than it is racing against 40-50 other guys who run limited schedules because their sponsors either can’t pay for it all or they don’t have the same raw skills at tuning cars. These days the cars and teams are so close together that 1 singular guy can’t stand out like they used to without finding a sinkhole in the rule book like Everham did.

Petty's stats are unsurprising when you consider that he was a talented driver in a factory team that had the sponsorship money to experiment and their scraps were still better than the best of anything that wasn't Wood Bros equipment. It becomes incredible when you compare this to every other racing series in the era. Huge sponsorship funding didn't really start in F1 until the early 70s and that took another 5-10 years to filter into the rest of the racing world. The Petty family figured that out like ten years earlier than the rest of the racing **world** . Not nascar, but ahead of the**world**.

Sounds like Jim Clark

"there is no way these can be beaten" Ya no shit, its a different sport now, half the amount of races are ran, if we ran 60 races a year then Richard would be just like another driver I'm sure. I'm not saying he's Jeff Green or Danica Patrick or smthn, I'm just saying you cant compare to different sports like they are the same.

See thats the thing, the wins record was just crazy, but, the cars and drivers were different back then than they are now. There was a point in time where nascar execs started looking for talent to just drive, teams were forced to go by nascar rule changes, and year after year they made the cars more and more equal, the drivers got better and better, it's going to be impossible for a driver to win that many races again.

I hear Donkey Kong Country music!

Outrageous stats are typically indicative of a lower overall level of competition. My mon could have won in the mid 60's with Petty's car. David Pearson raced in fewer than 1/2 the races Petty did, but has over 50% as many wins. In fact Pearson had fewer starts than any of the top NASCAR drivers in history and still has more wins than all but Petty.