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NASCAR History: Car Number 45 and Kyle Petty

by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

December 31, 2009 11:49 am UTC No Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

Kyle Petty's car number 45 as Daytona testing with Victory Junction Gang Camp Today’s spotlight is on car number 45 and a man who not only continued to run the number to honor his son, but also continued his son’s dream after a tragic accident took his son’s life. While the subject’s surname is synonymous with NASCAR, it is my opinion that the more important and admirable association has come to be one focused on charity for children.

Stats for cars running the #45:

Number of Races: 830
Number of Wins: 6
Number of Top 5s: 52
Number of Top 10s: 134
Number of Poles: 8

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver Kyle Petty

The last couple of years have been a financial hardship for many of us as we struggle with the economy and unemployment. Most likely you know someone personally who has suffered a significant financial loss during this time. Perhaps you significantly altered or reduced your spending during this past holiday season.

Doing so is certainly understandable. Unfortunately, these sort of financial periods often result in reduced giving to very needy and worthy charities. One such charity would be that of Victory Junction Gang Camp (VJGC).

VJGC is a camp for chronically ill or serious medical conditions where the children can visit and experience camp and while there they also receive their necessary medical care at no cost. The “Association of Hole in the Wall Camps was created, serving as an umbrella for the world’s largest family of camps for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. While each individual camp has its own founder or founders, it is Paul Newman that started it all. Our founders, Kyle and Pattie Petty, Lynda and Richard Petty, the Bahre family, Leo Hindery, Jr. and the Kyle Petty Charity Ride, Inc. are all responsible for donating at least $1 million dollars and for helping to establish Victory Junction.“(1)

NASCAR Cup Driver Kyle Petty In 1999 Kyle’s son, Adam Petty, wanted to build a camp for medically challenged kids who otherwise would not be able to attend a regular camp. Adam was killed during a Busch series practice session in Loudon, NH in May of 2000. It was his tragic death that would inspire the Petty’s to carry out Adam’s dream by founding VJGC. Kyle also continued to honor his son on the track by running car number 45 in Sprint Cup races.

“To date, Victory Junction has changed the lives of more than 10,000 children with chronic medical conditions and serious illnesses and their families.“(2) Kyle Petty comes from what may be the most iconic name in NASCAR racing, but it is the work he’s done with VJGC that has truly touched not only thousands of children and their families, but mine as well.

While I personally have gone through a significant amount of personal loss and emotional pain in 2009, I’m thankful that my children are healthy. If I had to choose only one organization to support in these financially hard times, Victory Junction Gang Camp is one of them.

Please take the time to learn more about VJGC as well as the Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America which raises funds for VJGC and other similar charities!

{(1)(2). Quotes taken from the Victory Junction Gang Camp website.}

Filed under: James Jones, Kyle Petty, NASCAR, NASCAR History

Tagged with: Adam Petty, Kyle Petty, Victory Junction Gang Camp

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Eldora Daydreamin’

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

June 7, 2008 8:41 pm UTC 3 Comments

I can’t decide if it would be good to have more events like Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream. If there were too many, it wouldn’t be as special, I guess. But it’s a shame more fans can’t get there to experience it live.

23,000 some fans did make it though. According to the track announcer, people from 46 states ordered tickets to the ’08 Prelude as did fans from Denmark, Germany and Australia. For a race on dirt in the middle of a bunch of cornfields in western Ohio, that had about a fifty percent chance of getting rained out. Amazing.

OK, not just any dirt race. Darrell Waltrip didn’t drive the water truck this year but he did do a half dozen laps in a dirt late model with a lucky young fan along as passenger.

Eldora veterans – from their younger, pre-superstar days – were there. Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dave Blaney, Ryan Newman, David Reutimann, Matt Kenseth and Ken Shrader. Others with lots of experience on the dirt raced as well. Clint Bowyer was fast. Kenny Wallace and old-timer Red Farmer made the trip and were quick. Mark Martin, J J Yeley and Aric Almirola wrecked. Bill Elliot had mechanical woes.

Kyle Busch and Jimmy Johnson brought there own late models. Robby Gordon drove a Scott Bloomquist-prepared car to second place. Johnson and Robby G have plenty of time driving in the dirt. Johnson in motocross and Gordon off-road.

During the driver intros, homeboy Tony got the loudest cheers. But Jeff Gordon had plenty of fans too. Even Kyle Busch heard more cheers than boos – until he stoked the booing with his “I can’t hear you” pose. From then on, the only cheers Kyle got were when he either hit or broke something. Both of which happened a lot.

Our seats were in turn three – which was the down-wind corner – so by the time the cars got to us, the twenty mile an hour breeze had brought the dirt kicked up in turn one to us and we got a double dose of dirt track in our faces each lap. I’ve got to get a pair of those yellow plastic goggle/glasses they were selling before next year’s race.

I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.

Photo credit: Split Second Sports and Panther Creek Design & Photo

Filed under: Clint Boyer, Dave Blaney, David Reutimann, Denny Hamlin, Eldora Speedway, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kenny Shrader, Kenny Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Nascar Legends, Prelude to the Dream, Robby Gordon, Ryan Newman, The Pettys, The Waltrips, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: Clint Bowyer, Darrell Waltrip, Eldora Speedway, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kyle Petty, Prelude to the Dream, Tony Stewart, Victory Junction Gang Camp

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Tony Stewart Raised Clouds of Dirt and a Million Bucks for the Kids

by Charlie Turner

June 5, 2008 9:47 pm UTC 4 Comments

I finally got a chance to attend Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream All-Star race for Dirt Late Models, NASCAR super-stars and the kids of Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang Camp II. It was a blast.

A work buddy of mine has attended every year and after the 2007 race I decided that, since I’m only a couple hours away, I needed to be there this year. So I was.

Western Ohio had been drenched with rain leading up to race day. It threatened throughout Wednesday too but the weather held off. The wet prelude to the Prelude was seed for some new Tony Stewart legends though.

The night before the the big Wednesday event had seen tornado warnings in the area. Reportedly it was Smoke driving his four-wheeler through the camping areas surrounding the track, advising campers to batten down for the coming storms.

The heavy rains made for a lot of extra preparation work to get the dirt surface ready for the powerful dirt late models used in the Prelude to the Dream and Tony was out personally working on the track well past one o’clock in the morning Wednesday.

Before the racing started Wednesday evening, we watched Stewart drive one of the track trucks lap after lap – part of the time with passenger Kyle Petty – trying to get the surface just right.

And it worked. The racing came off without a hitch – either natural or man-made. The crowd was big and boisterous. In the end, Tony Stewart won the feature and then presented Kyle Petty with a check for one million bucks for Victory Junction Gang Camp II.

It was a fun day and it felt a little special to be part of that million dollar donation. I’m going back next year for sure.

Photo credit: Split Second Sports and Panther Creek Design & Photo

Filed under: Eldora Speedway, NASCAR & the Media, Nascar Legends, Prelude to the Dream, Robby Gordon, The Pettys, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: blog, dirt late models, Eldora Speedway, Kyle Petty, motorsports, Prelude to the Dream, Tony Stewart, Victory Junction Gang Camp

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