Hard to believe it’s been 25 years.
I was just getting into NASCAR back in 2000 (I was 11 years old) but I still remember hearing the tragic news of Adam Petty losing his life back on May 12, 2000.
Petty was a fourth generation NASCAR driver: The son of Kyle Petty, grandson of NASCAR legend Richard Petty, and great-grandson of Lee Petty, a pioneer of the sport who competed in NASCAR’s first-ever race and would go on to become the first three-time champion.
Naturally there wasn’t much doubt that Adam Petty would continue on in the family business, and he began his racing career in the ARCA Series at just 18 years old.
He was a gifted race car driver, winning the first ARCA race he ever ran back in 1998 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, while also running some races in what was then the NASCAR Busch Series (now known as the Xfinity Series).
In 1999, he moved to the Busch Series full time to drive for his grandfather’s team, Petty Enterprises. His best finish that year was 4th, but he finished a respectable 20th in the final standings during his rookie season (despite missing four races), and the team planned to have him run another full season in the Busch Series while running a handful of races in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Petty managed to qualify for the race during his first-ever attempt at a Winston Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway, and was having a solid run before suffering from a blown engine that left him with a 40th place finish.
Unfortunately that would turn out to be his only race in the Cup Series, because on May 12 during practice for the Busch 200 Busch Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Petty’s throttle stuck while he was heading into the track’s third turn. He struck the wall nearly head on, killing the 19-year old instantly after he suffered a basilar skull fracture.
After Adam’s death, his father Kyle chose to drive his son’s #45 car for the remainder of the Busch Series season, and in 2001 he would change the number on his own Cup Series car to the #45 to honor his son.
And today, 25 years after Petty’s tragic death, his grandfather Richard Petty posted a simply but moving tribute to Adam Petty on social media:
There’s no doubt that Adam Petty would have gone on to do great things in his racing career, but his death ultimately led to changes that have made the sport safer in the years since.
Just a few weeks after Petty’s death, Kenny Irwin Jr. was killed in the same corner at New Hampshire, also from a basilar skull fracture. And of course the following season, Dale Earnhardt lost his life during the season-opening Daytona 500 from the same injury.
With three drivers being killed by basilar skull fractures in less than a year, NASCAR began mandating head and neck support, or HANS, devices for all drivers. And the following year, the sport required SAFER barriers at all of their tracks, which are steel and foam energy reduction barriers that lessen the impact of collisions with the wall.
The result is that there hasn’t been a death in NASCAR since 2001, and while his loss is no doubt still painful to the Petty family, they can take comfort in knowing that countless others have been saved due to the lessons learned from his death.
