Last weekend, Richard Petty was the special guest as part of the Canadian Motorsports Expo. Petty was brought on stage to take part in a half hour Q&A with fans, before signing autographs.
Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion, Petty answered the questions from the fans in his most honest way possible.
Most people have since heard of Petty’s comments that Petty told the Toronto Star during the media session.
“If everybody stayed home. If she’d been a male, nobody would ever know if she’d showed up at a race track.”
The question about Patrick directly was brought up to Petty following the Q&A after a fan asked for Petty’s thoughts about females in racing.
“I’m not a fan of it,” he commented. “I believe men were born to drive, but woman should do something else.”
He went on to express how females and males are built different physically and that plays in effect to driving.
Petty was also asked about his thoughts on the Chase format.
“I won the championship seven times but was done five different ways,” he commented. “You have a good year and you won. This format…you could win 15 races and not win the title, but you could win zero races and win the title.
“I think you’ve heard of this thing called Obamacare and I think they asked Obama if he could help them with the Chase points system.”
Other concerns have surrounded the races that are included in the Chase and whether a road course should be added.
“We need cookie cutters, Martinsville, Bristol and a road course – to be a champion, you have to be good everywhere,” he commented.
Petty’s thoughts on the Chase led to a fan asking about his thoughts on the new qualifying format…
“The new 10 year TV contract brought it about,” he stated. “Qualifying usually takes two hours and TV said they’d only give an hour so they needed to think of some scheme.”
Petty also expressed concern of the fact that teams are only allowed to use one set of tires for the whole session.
Other topics included bringing a Sprint Cup Series race to Canada, which Petty said would be a success, but is tough to do with the current schedule.
“We run 36 races for points, and then two exhibition races and then the two 150s,” he explained. “Not enough time to start adding more. If they start going to each track once rather than twice, then there’s a good chance.”
There topics of a lighter nature, including how the petty blue was developed.
“It came about at two or three in the morning,” Petty recalled. “We didn’t have enough color to paint the whole car so we mixed them together – a bit white, a bit of blue. Once it was done and we saw it, we liked it.”
The fan forum ended off with Petty’s advice to drivers that are trying to make their way up through the ranks.
“If some guy walked up to me and asked me for advice, I tell them to forget what they know,” Petty started. “Look at nothing but racing for four years. Do nothing but race. Dedication is what it takes.
“I believe in fate. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen. Don’t be let down if it doesn’t happen.”
