Richard Petty

We are excited to partner with TEAM, RADD and NHTSA on this campaign, designed to raise awareness of two major safety issues – impaired driving and seatbelt use. Richard Petty Driving Experience provides the perfect venue for the campaign’s messages and incentives, particularly for reaching young men, who make up the highest risk group for motor vehicle crashes. The collaboration of our staff, NASCAR driver hosts and fans with the celebrities and dignitaries that represent the campaign at Richard Petty Driving Experience is exciting to see.

The guys that don’t respect that history and tradition, I don’t think they’re going to be around all that long. And those guys who don’t know the history and tradition, I think it’s upon them to learn about it pretty quick if they want to be a success.

I don’t particularly tell my guys to cheat. I just tell them not to get caught.

If there are 10 people there, two or three are going to recognize you.

I closed my eyes, held my breath and then everything went black.

There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile.

[on The Who’s performance at Woodstock] It was the worst gig we ever played.

Twelve was a real turning point for me as I moved to a mixed school, and then I became cool and discovered hair gel.

Being good is about being an all-round contributor in the great world of music.

A lot of people can’t stand touring but to me it’s like breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it.

You cannot allow other people’s opinions, comments, or decisions affect how you feel about yourself.

My first real kiss came when I was 10, and it was in an acting class. I had to do a scene from a movie where someone gets kissed under a tree, and I did not want to do it! But my acting partner wanted me to feel comfortable, so he bought a picnic basket with all these snacks. He made such an effort – and it was cute.

I don’t do too well there. If you were brought up in London, where you can walk around everywhere and there are theaters, you can’t really do LA. I couldn’t make a life there. You’re in a car all the time, and there are no seasons.

I never dreamed I would receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, mostly because my style is so typically Austrian.

No one wants to quit when he’s losing and no one wants to quit when he’s winning.

And now that you have a child you have to clean up your act, ’cause you can’t drink anymore. You can’t come home drunk and go, ‘Hey, here’s a little switch: Daddy’s gonna throw up on you!’

I am working on a dress sock line of funky, colorful, cool designs.

There’s probably not a crew chief out there who hasn’t tried something that seemed like a good idea.

That is not a functional use of language. That is a drunk driver crashing a pickup truck full of alphabet soup.

I’ve never done work for money, ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn’t do well, what does that mean? It leaves you with nothing.

In the last series, we set up a church [to expose televangelists and the ease of avoiding tax through establishing a religious organisation]. It took a lot of legal advice and months of gathering correspondence with one pastor. In terms of the UK, I’m not sure what the Inland Revenue’s position on churches is. The IRS is very much of the opinion that all churches, whatever their form, operate tax free. How would I make sense of what we achieved? We achieved nothing! We achieved $70,000 in single [donations], a four-foot wooden penis and five vials of human sperm. Although a lot of people would consider that a decent year’s work, I suppose. It’s a pretty impressive room full of tat.