DARLINGTON
Petty Blue and Day Glo Red. In NASCAR, they are the colors of royalty, only befitting for a king.
Or, in this case, The King, Richard Petty.
No need for a crown. A cowboy hat and sunglasses are just fine.
On this glorious Sunday at Darlington Raceway, the Jim Hunter Media Center became this king’s court.
And what was Petty here to talk about? The Petty Blue and STP Day Glo Red that that his No. 43 car wore from the 1972 Daytona 500 through the end of 1992. All Petty did during that time was win 64 races, including four Daytona 500s and four Cup crowns.
Crowns befitting for the king, mind you.
But Petty was on his way to greatness even before that when his car was entirely in Petty Blue, winning three Cup championships.
What took the No. 43 to the next level in 1972, however, was major sponsorship, which STP could bring at a time when funds from car manufacturers began to dwindle.
But what Andy Granatelli – then the chief executive officer of STP – wanted was for Petty’s car to be totally Day Glo Red like the other STP-sponsored cars.
But Petty wasn’t having it. He was true Petty Blue.
Nonetheless, they reached enough of a common ground where Petty’s car was all-Petty Blue with STP decals on the hood and quarter panels for California’s season opener (Cup campaigns did not start with the Daytona 500 until 1982).
And Petty won.
“It was a good start for us,” Petty said.
Four Sundays later, at Daytona, the car graced Petty Blue, STP’s logos and its Day Glo Red on parts of it.
Granatelli tried one more time in the actual contract to add a provision, offering Petty an extra $50,000 if he agreed his car to turn all-Day Glo Red. But it was to no avail. Petty crossed that provision out, initialed it, and signed the contract.
“I was running Petty Enterprises, and (Granatelli) was running STP. So, we made the agreement and it was a done deal,” Petty said. “We gave it to the lawyers and let them figure it out.”
To tell that story through real time this weekend at Darlington, Richard Petty Motorsports driver Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 car was all-Petty Blue with the STP logos Friday and Saturday.
But on Sunday, the car added STP’s Day-Glo Red to go with the Petty Blue for that night’s Southern 500 race.
“You can probably make a short movie out of what happened between the beginning of 1972 up to the Daytona 500 around this sponsorship,” Wallace said. “It’s amazing to think that ‘The King’ would potentially walk away from such a big sponsorship over the color, but looking at how things worked out, it’s now the sport’s most iconic scheme.”
STP, in return, benefited from the tremendous marketing exposure through Petty’s success.
“This is an incredible story to relive,” said Katina Wall, Marketing Director for STP. “The Southern 500 throwback weekend allows us to do something fun with our partnership. We’re fortunate enough to have this unique relationship with the Pettys, to be one of the few partners who have such a rich history together. We’re honored to tell this amazing story of our longstanding relationship with the Petty organization. We look forward to today’s race and Bubba Wallace carrying on the legacy.”
It’s one befitting of the King.
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