Classic American People: Maurice Petty
Maurice Petty (1939-2020) was the first mechanic/engine builder ever to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014. Jim Maxwell celebrates the ‘winningest race mechanic’ ever…
In order to win at NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing), one needs a great driver, a great car and a great engine. Richard Petty is the winningest driver in NASCAR history with a record 200 wins, and the Petty Enterprises organisation built and prepared excellent race cars over the years. The Petty family was based in Level Cross, North Carolina, located about 10 miles south of Greensboro. Lee was the father, and his two sons were Maurice and Richard.
Maurice is pronounced ‘Morris’ in the South, and life for Maurice, who was born in 1939, took a nasty turn when he was three-and-a-half years old. The youngster had contracted a disease which attacks the central nervous system, polio, producing paralysis. “I remember trying to get up from bed and I couldn’t walk into the kitchen as I always had,” he recalled in a 1992 interview. “I just crawled into the kitchen on my belly and that’s when the panic hit. Nobody knew what was happening. I just suddenly couldn’t get my legs to do anything – anything at all.”
However, thanks to treatment back then − although there was no vaccine, just the wrapping of the legs with burlap bags soaked in hot water − he recovered. It was a true miracle, considering he was paralysed from the waist down. Although he had limits, he went on to play high school football and even though he walked with a limp, it was never a handicap, and never got in his way of getting things done in the race shop, building engines, plus driving in a total of 26 races from 1960-1964.
The book Chief, Maurice Petty: His Story, covers the early days and explains that Maurice actually wanted to be a race-car driver; however, business decisions were the reason his skills were used in the garage building engines. He later revealed that secretly he wanted to drive a lot more than he did: “I'll tell you,” recalled Richard about his brother driving, “it’s a shame he didn’t continue, because he may have had more talent for it than I had. But I guess he didn’t have the desire. And it takes a heap of that, if you’re going to be successful. Talent alone won’t do it.”
Where Maurice really shone was his building of race engines. The man built the vast majority of the engines with which Richard won races, as well as other Petty Enterprises drivers.
All added up, it is said to well exceed a total of 220 NASCAR wins with all the Petty team drivers over his career, as well as seven championships. And from a very young age, he was known as ‘Chief’.
“LOT OF TIMES, CHIEF DIDN’T EVEN COME INTO THE WINNER’S CIRCLE WITH US. HE’D JUST START LOADING THE TRUCK AND SAY SOMETHING LIKE ‘LET’S GET READY FOR THE NEXT RACE.’ THAT WAS JUST THE WAY HE WAS, AND IT WAS GOOD FOR THE REST OF US.”
“THE KING OF THE HEMIS, THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE ARE REMEMBERING, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE. IF AN ENGINE CAME OUT OF PETTY ENTERPRISES, IT HAD HIS FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER IT. BUT HE WAS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. HE WAS INNOVATIVE, HE WAS A LEADER. THERE WOULD BE NO PETTY ENTERPRISES, PERIOD, WITHOUT A MAURICE PETTY. THAT’S HOW LARGE HE WAS FOR US.”