The founder and patriarch of what would become the first real, and perhaps the greatest, American racing dynasty, Lee Petty established a team and a company that would rule NASCAR's top series for 30 years, from it's birth in 1949 to his son Richard's final championship in 1979.

Lee Petty and NASCAR were the perfect marriage.

Lee was one hell of a driver too, remaining in most of NASCAR's major Top 10 rankings for 49 years after his last full time season. In his 12 full seasons he finished in the top four in points 11 times, he would have made the Chase all 12 years.

Petty was the first competitor to reach the 50 win mark, all while building, repairing and hauling his own race cars from Pittsburgh, PA, to Rochester, NY, to West Palm Beach, Fl, to Grand Rapids, MI, to Toronto, CA and every other NASCAR sanctioned track in between...with family in tow.

Perhaps the highlight of his driving career was his photo finish win in the maiden Daytona 500 that kept racing fans on the edge of their seats for three days before he was announced as the winner by Bill France Sr.

Lee Petty is currently 9th on the all time win list and 13th in win percentage at 12.6%.

He is number 10 on the Top 5 finishes chart, taking the checkers in the Top 5 at an amazing 54.1% of the races he started only trailing Dick Hutcherson and Tim Flock.

Petty is also in the number 12 spot all time for Top 10 finishes...right behind Jeff Gordon...with 332 and an incredible 77.7% Top 10 average giving him the overall number 1 spot on the all time Top 10 list.

But perhaps the most impressive number in Lee Petty's portfolio is his average finish ranking...number 1 with an average finish of 7.6 in 427 starts...no other racer in NASCAR history comes close.

As impressive as his driving record may be, Lee Petty's most important contribution to NASCAR racing was proving to the rest of the field that, yes, a man could actually make a living and raise a family by racing full time in NASCAR's premier series.

Petty's fascination with the sturdy little light weight coupes built by Plymouth for traveling salesmen led to a long running relationship with Chrysler. Once the automobile moguls in Detroit came around to the idea that "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was in fact a valid premise, Petty Enterprises became big business.

By the time Detroit came around, Lee Petty had built an "Enterprise" with sons Richard, Maurice and nephew Dale Inman, all future Hall of Famers...the timing was sublime.

"Petty Enterprises", with it's "lots of blue mixed with a little white" race cars, became one of the flagship teams of Chrysler Corp and, other than the politically charged power play of moving to Ford in 1969, Petty Enterprises carried Chrysler's racing division on it's back for almost two decades, carrying on with General Motors for another 22 years before returning with Dodge in 2002.

Lee Petty's "enterprise" closed out it's history at the end of the 2008 season with 10 championships, 268 wins, 890 Top 5s, 1,269 Top 10s, 61,574 laps led and $89,665,549.00 in winnings in Cup competition...toss in NINE Daytona 500 wins and call it "dominance".

Petty Enterprises will be sorely missed in the NASCAR paddock. Lee Petty took the concept of a multi-car "system" with a team mentality and a family owned and operated entity, and made it the model of the modern era "racing organization" that every NASCAR team uses today.

There is a lot more to the Lee Petty story but his accomplishments as NASCAR's first superstar driver AND team owner should be enough to garner a unanimous vote for induction in the first class of NASCAR's Hall of Fame.

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