Nascar's First Family

RICHARD, PATTIE and KYLE PETTY make the difference in the lives of thousands of children with the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

by Scott Murray

“We are a community. We travel together, we race together, ” says professional race car driver, Kyle Petty. “Four days a week, we live beside each other in motor coaches in the infield [of a racetrack].” Welcome to NASCAR Nation, the driving force behind the fastest growing spectator sport in America, and home to the first four-generation family in professional sports history.

Meet NASCAR’s first family, the Pettys. From Lee Petty, one of the true pioneers of stock car racing, to son Richard, who would win a record 200 times in a career that crowned him NASCAR Champion seven times and earned him the title “King Richard,” to his son, Kyle, current Nextel Cup driver and co-owner of Petty Enterprises, to his late son, Adam, a promising driver set to continue the family legacy, until he was tragically killed at the age of 19 during practice at New Hampshire International Speedway in May 2000. “It’s important when you lose a child that people remember him and that they continue talking about them,” says Adam’s mom, Pattie. And in keeping their son’s memory alive, they have made a difference in the lives of thousands of children. In the mid-nineties, Kyle founded the Ride Across America. Initially a group of friends and racing buddies who rode their motorcycles across the country and stopped at children’s hospitals along the way to raise a few bucks and provide a few smiles, it has turned into a multi-million-dollar fundraiser that has raised more than seven million dollars in its first decade. And Ride Across America planted a benevolent seed in the mind of young Adam, for he soon became involved with Steven Spielberg’s Starlight Foundation, touched by the difference it was making in the lives of hospitalized children across the country. So when Adam was finally old enough to join the Ride, he had his own agenda.

Pattie vividly recalls the words of her son as his mission had become one of nurturing the connection and  ulfilling the needs of the children in the hospitals they visited. “It’s really hard for me to come with y’all and go to a children’s hospital, because I keep thinking of kids like that little boy Keith who is just 15 and all he wants is a Gameboy. But, he’s probably not going to get it, even though you just left a check for $100,000 to the hospital.

Is there some way the Petty family could help those children and put a smile on their faces, where it all would be free?” Adam would not live to see his dream of building a camp for the kids realized, but the Petty family has seen to it that Adam’s plans to make life better for these hospitalized youngsters has become reality with the founding of the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a member of Paul Newman’s Association for The Hole in the Wall Gang. Says Pattie, “It doesn’t ease the pain of losing him, but, it kind of makes sense out of a bad situation. For Adam, it was important that we did something as a family that was free and that made them smile – something that gave them the opportunity to do something they had been told they could never do.”

Adam’s grandparents, Richard and Lynda, donated 75 acres from the back of their property, not far from Greensboro, North Carolina, to house the camp. Petty patriarch Richard says, “I have four kids and twelve grandkids. All of them are 100 percent healthy. This is a way of saying thank you, God, for this family and this opportunity.”

The Victory Junction, home away from home for the chronically ill or those with life-threatening diseases, opened its doors in June 2004, with the mission to serve youngsters between the ages of seven and fifteen who are forced to deal with any number of issues such as cancer, leukemia, asthma, arthritis, immunology deficiencies and burns. As one might expect, the camp has a racing theme, complete with the sight, sound, and feel of a real speedway. The miniature NASCAR has a water park, a lake for fishing and boating, a performing arts center, a dining hall (aptly named the “Fuel Stop”), with a race car suspended from the ceiling, and a milliondollar gymnasium donated by NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip and his wife, Buffy. The on-site medical team is housed in a state-of-the-art medical center named the “Body Shop.”

The camp offers such activities as horseback riding, arts and crafts, swimming, and fishing. “A little bit of NASCAR education also goes on here,” says Pattie. “They may come to camp knowing little about racing, but when they leave here, I think they know a little bit and maybe they’re a little enthralled with, ‘Oh, wow, I turned on the TV on Sunday afternoon and there’s Kurt Busch and he went fishing with me on Tuesday night!’ Tuesday night is when a handful of NASCAR drivers and teams show up and spend time with the kids, giving them an opportunity to be a part of a pit crew, sit in a real race car, and, simply experience life in the fast lane, even if only for just one night. The memories manufactured that night will surely last a lifetime.

“These kids are playing in the Michael Waltrip gymnasium, fishing with Tony Stewart, or seeing Ryan Newman,” adds Kyle. “As much as we like to stand back and look at what’s here, the thing I take away every night is the kids.” And it simply doesn’t get any better than that. “We lost a son and because of that, I think it made us want to raise our hand and say this is something we want to do,” continues Kyle. “There are thousands of race fans out there, thousands who donated $45 (in honor of Adam who drove car #45). When you start raising millions at $45 a clip, that’s a lot of people donating. I think about people like Michael Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett. They were the first guys that even acknowledged that we were building a camp and helped. Then came sponsors like Sylvania and Kevin Harvick and Dupont, who helped us build this place.”

I think what has amazed me is the NASCAR community that we live in, who all believed in what we were trying to do. What we do is entertainment, it’s a sport, it’s not that important. We entertain 100,000 to 150,000 or more for a couple of hours every Sunday. We’re not changing people’s lives. In twenty years, nobody will remember who won this race or finished second in that race. I think we all feel incredibly blessed to do something we love to do, which is drive race cars. At the same time, we know there are people and kids out there less fortunate. They’ve been dealt a different hand of cards. We see a lot of those kids here. Now, if you can give something back to them, that’s important, really important.

Opposite: Richard Petty obliges his young fans at a Victory Junction Gang Camp event. Top Left: Camp fisherman and his catch of the day Top Right: Blue campers showing off their arts and crafts class Left: Richard Petty and fellow campers at Victory Junction Gang Camp

“You come here, say, on a Monday, and you’ll see a bunch of kids and then you’ll see one standing over in the corner by himself.

Come back on Wednesday and he’ll be standing in the middle. He’s learned to associate and realizes he’s not alone with his affliction. They take that home and start making it easier for the rest of their life,” says Richard.

Thirty-five million dollars has been raised for this endeavor since Adam’s death. Certainly a labor of laughter, love, and life. And what a tremendous testimony to the respect the Petty family commands within the racing community. From the tightknit NASCAR neighborhood to the millions of loyal fans who idolize their every move, it’s obvious the Pettys have been given the green flag to continue their benevolent efforts on behalf of children in need all across America. It’s a wonderful mission; indeed, a mission with a message of hope, help and heart. No wonder Victory Junction takes the checkered flag 24/7.

	Top: Camp fisherman waiting for the big one Bottom: Richard and Kyle Petty with campers at Victory Junction Gang Camp