Lee Petty, winner of the very first Daytona 500 in 1959, was its founder, and his son Richard Petty became the best-known driver in the sport's history, wracking up a record 200 victories.

Family patriarch Lee Petty was the new company’s owner of record when Petty Enterprises was created in 1949. For most of the 50’s and into the 60s’, Lee Petty and son Richard Petty did the ...