Kyle Petty, a contender during his years with Team SABCO during the early 1990s, recalls his memories about Bristol and his friendship with Kenny Wallace. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | NKP)
BRISTOL, Tenn. — For all the talk about NASCAR being a sport about family, friendships like that of Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace are just as remarkable and moving.
Naturally, friendships form over time and are born from respect and admiration as seen in an availability with Bristol Motor Speedway on Tuesday afternoon.
Given Petty’s personable nature and Wallace’s upbeat demeanor, it seemed like a slam dunk when both drivers were teammates for Felix Sabates’ Team SABCO operation during the 1993 NASCAR Cup Series.
However, Petty, an analyst for NASCAR on NBC and NASCAR.com, reflected on how this was not the case initially in 1993.
“So I’ll say this. I was not a good teammate,” Petty said. “I wasn’t a good teammate with my dad. And it’s so funny because if you go back and look, that was really in a lot of ways Kenny and I. Even if you go back to Darrell [Waltrip] and [Neil] Bonnett and some of that stuff, that was the teammate thing was just coming back into favor, you know what I mean? It was just kind of starting back.
“If you go back to the 50s when my granddad [Lee] raced and we can go back to owners like Carl Kiekhaefer and guys like that, they brought multiple cars to the racetrack,” he explained. “Petty Enterprises used to bring three or four cars to the racetrack. Just look for a driver to get in it, you know what I mean? But then the fashion became single cars. And that’s the era I grew up in.”
Petty, a third-generation stock car racer, offered more insights on the challenges that he and Wallace faced to be a formidable duo in the Cup series with Team SABCO.
Kenny Wallace works his way around Darlington Raceway in 1993. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | NKP)
“Kenny’s shop was in a totally different place,” he recalled. “They might as well have been racing out of California because the only times we were really together was when we’d go to sponsor dinners and stuff like that, and we’d see each other at the racetrack, because that was it was just a different time.
“But Kenny and I, we’ve been friends since the first time we met, since we were putting fuel necks in the back of cars and parking lots and changing crush panels and doing moving oil tanks and stuff.”
Before becoming close friends, Wallace was admittedly a bit starstruck by Petty and making his way to the Cup series in 1993. Wallace, known for his high energy and genuine enthusiasm, recalled a moment that set the wheels in motion for his friendship with Petty.
“I was intimidated by Kyle because I just was still in that all moment, even though I had made it to the Cup Series,” he admitted. “And I remember sitting in a rental car, Kyle and myself. We were testing for Felix Sabates [with] [Team] SABCO at Talladega, and I’m a little embarrassed. But I still look back at it, and I just it was just me and Kyle, I think it was raining.
“And I said, ‘Kyle, I just want to let you know how much I admire you.’ And he said in his Kyle Petty voice, ‘Stop it, man.’ I think he said I was goofier, and I am goofy. But anyway, that’s just what I think of Kyle. And now we’re really good friends, and I’m so much more comfortable around him.”
Recently, Petty and Wallace were teammates on SPEED and FOX Sports‘ NASCAR RACE HUB and NASCAR RACEDAY programs. Over the years, both have been respected pundits of NASCAR with their raw, honest takes of the latest happenings and trends in the stock car world.
Certainly, Petty, whose family is celebrating 75 years of racing in NASCAR, attributes his friendship with Wallace because of the latter’s upbeat and amiable manner.
“It’s because Kenny’s that that guy,” Petty said. “Kenny’s that guy that you meet, and instantly, you love him and want to be friends with him for the rest of your life. And that’s the way it is. And it’s a blessing to meet him. But that is a talent and that is something that….it’s genuine. Whatever you see is what you get.”
As for Wallace, it was a case of a St. Louis native realizing his dreams in stock car racing and rubbing elbows with one of motorsports’ dynasties in the Petty family. It was a facet not lost with the talented wheelman who once served as Joe Ruttman’s crew chief.
Kenny Wallace talks to one of his heroes, Richard Petty, in the garage area in 1993. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | NKP)
“When I was Kyle’s teammate, I was intimidated because he’s a Petty,” Wallace said. “He’s so famous. It hasn’t been until lately that I look at him as just a great friend. I have had so much admiration. I mean, you gotta remember, I come out of Missouri. It’s like, oh, my gosh, the Pettys.
“I can remember my brothers, Rusty Wallace and Mike Wallace, and I remember they were coming back to the hotel at Daytona, and they said, ‘We snuck into the Daytona garage area and we saw Richard Petty and his firesuit was dirty because they worked on their race cars.'”
To say the least, Wallace’s savvy and knowledge with setting up cars paid dividends when he went from atop the pit box to the driver’s seat with teams like Team SABCO, FILMAR Racing and Andy Petree Racing.
As for Petty, with his known wit and humor, offered his thoughts on trying to conquer Bristol Motor Speedway from its change to asphalt to concrete in the summer of 1992.
“So, listen, asphalt, concrete, dirt, I don’t care. I’m still looking for that win picture. I can’t find mine,” Petty said with his trademark smile. “It was tough, no matter what, man. But it did change. It did change for me the way you drove the racetrack, because Harry [Gant] and those guys would run right up next to the wall. A lot of those guys would run right up next to the wall, but you could make the bottom work, too.”
In the past 22 years, Petty, whose best finish at Bristol was third in the 1993 Food City 500, recognized how the dynamics of racing at Bristol have changed.
Kyle Petty’s No. 42 Mello Yello Pontiac Grand Prix gets serviced by his over-the-wall crew in a race in 1993. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | NKP)
“Now, with the gear rules and so much different stuff, it’s a different racetrack than it was,” he shared. “But it was a race. It was a driver’s racetrack and a raceable racetrack where you could make you could make up for your car a little bit. And that’s a rare thing today.
“But back then, when it was asphalt and even when it went to concrete those first few years, it was that way. I think the car has changed the racetrack more than the surface has changed the racetrack.
Nevertheless, Wallace sang his praises for Petty when it came to tackling tracks like Bristol. Although Petty humorously tipped his podium finish at Bristol to following Ken Schrader, Wallace observed how Petty finessed his car on the inside line with ease and confidence.
Kenny Wallace is still active in the dirt track racing scene with his enthusiasm still evident to this day. (Photo: Josh James Artwork)
“As far as the concrete, listen, I gotta give Kyle credit on this, and he’ll know exactly what I’m talking about,” Wallace said. “The Kyle Petty that was so good at Rockingham and the Kyle Petty that was so good at Dover, listen, I’ve raced a lot and I know what it takes with throttle and brake manipulation.
“That concrete track at Bristol, it was tighter corners, but following that apron that was made for Kyle and my brother Rusty Wallace, those two taught me how to let off early. Get that left front on the apron, three quarter throttle through the middle. If you’re carrying too much speed on exit, roll up a little bit.”
The Petty technique worked for Petty as evident with his ninth place finish in the 1993 Bud 500, otherwise known as the Bristol Night Race. In fact, Wallace credits Petty’s unique approach for why he won at Rockingham Speedway in 2001.
“Kyle created that technique at Dover and Rockingham and I learned it,” he said. “I learned it, and then that’s what helped me win Rockingham, my last win in XFINITY. And that’s what helped me win [at] Bristol. But it was Kyle and Rusty. They were the innovators of that type of driving style.
“And then come along Jeff Gordon and of course [Dale] Earnhardt. They went in, they let the car go up. They came down. But Rusty, Kyle [and] I followed their driving technique of keeping the left front on the apron. And that was that technique at that time. And I really remember that, Kyle.”
Through it all, Wallace and Petty’s friendship is solid, genuine and heartwarming as brothers from different families. Likewise, their friendship links to their ties with Team SABCO and Bristol Motor Speedway, particularly with Bristol offering commemorative t-shirts of the duo on-site in the Fan Zone.
Of course, Petty, who worked as a pit reporter and analyst for ESPN SpeedWorld from 1994 to 1999, recalled a moment where he thought his microphone went awry at Daytona.
“Listen, why are they ever let me on TV, God only knows,” Petty said. “I have no idea which one you’re talking about, but the best one with Michael was I went to do an interview with him and put the microphone in front of him, and he just did his mouth like this and wasn’t talking. And then I asked him another question. Just like that was normal, you know what I mean? And the people at ESPN went crazy because we’ve been messing around on air. But I have no idea what was going on there.
“Listen, I did that, and they gave me a job and gave me an opportunity. And then when Adam started running, then I quit because I wanted to be a part of the Saturday races with him. And I didn’t want to do the TV stuff, but that’s always been…. that is the one good thing about doing TV while you were still driving is because everybody made fun of you, and it was okay because you had a microphone. You could make fun of everybody else, too. And it was all good natured.”
