Tributes/ Memorials to Legends

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TRIBUTES/MEMORIALS TO LEGENDS

Adam Petty

(1980-2000)

*Born: July 10, 1980 in High Point, NC

*Began racing as six-year-old in go-karts.

*Sports' only fourth generation athlete, member of the Petty legacy. Great-grandson of Lee;

grandson of "The King" Richard, son of Kyle.

*Made NASCAR debut in 1997 in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. He ran 25 races.

*October 17, 1998, Adam made his first NASCAR Busch Series start at Gateway International Raceway

- finishing 27th.

*Busch Series starts: 43

*Busch Series Top 5 finishes: 3

*Busch Series Top 10 finishes: 4

*Best Busch Series finish: 4th (California Speedway, 1999 Auto Club 300)

*Final 1999 Busch Series Points Position: 20th; 2000 Busch Series Points Position: 24th

*Started in two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 1999: Richmond International Raceway and

Texas Motor Speedway.

*Made first appearance on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series circuit at Texas Motor Speedway on

April 2, 2000. Started 33rd and finished 40th.

*Other motorsports experience includes: American Speed Association (ASA) and Automobile Racing Club

of America (ARCA).

In February 2000, during practice for the Daytona 500, Adam told Huddlin' With The Pros! that driving a race car was the only thing he wanted to do with his life. "I grew up in racing and this is where I want to be," he said with a toothy smile etched across his face. "I think about racing all the time, when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed at night. I love it."

In 1981, when he was barely a year old, his grandfather held him in his arms in Victory Lane. He played at the track with other kids whose fathers also raced on Sundays. Each July, his grandparents would bring him, his brother Austin, and sister Montgomery Lee, to Daytona for a summer vacation. In February 1998, when Adam announced to the racing world that Sprint Foncard was going to sponsor his Busch Series car, his grandmother Lynda Petty, said she had reservations about Adam taking up racing. "I wish he would do something else, but it is all he knows," she said.

Adam Petty slammed hard into a wall while practicing for the Busch 200 race at New Hampshire Speedway on Friday, May 12. The 19-year-old driver, the first-ever fourth generation professional athlete, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital from head trauma following the early afternoon accident.

Although Adam never made it to the winner's circle in the Winston cup series, he did bring home a win in the ARCA series in October 1998. He was scheduled to make his second Winston Cup start in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's (Charlotte) Motor Speedway on May 28. His death was the first on-track fatality in NASCAR since John Nemechek was killed in a Craftsman Truck Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 1997. He was the younger brother of Winston Cup driver Joe Nemechek. The last death in the Busch Series competition was Clifford Allison, the 28-year-old son of racing legend Bobby Allison, at a race in 1992 at Michigan Speedway. The last Winston Cup deaths were Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr in 1994.