Over four decades later, Richard Petty's 200th NASCAR win still royal tale

Some kings wear robes. Others wear crowns. Richard Petty wore a cowboy hat and sunglasses. 

During his reign as NASCAR’s sovereign ruler from 1958 to 1992, Petty won 200 NASCAR Cup Series races, seven Cup Series championships and seven Daytona 500s. Even a rough eight-year stretch from 1985 to 1992 that bookended Petty’s career couldn’t put a black eye on the greatest driver to ever grace the garages of NASCAR.   

There are dozens of wins you could pick out as Petty’s most important — whether it be one of his seven triumphs in the Daytona 500, his World 600 win in 1975 or his 1967 victory in the Southern 500, ‘The King’ had enough crown jewels to make several heads of state jealous.

But no win will ever match his 200th and final Cup Series triumph in the 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona. 

Petty’s fans may have thought that George Orwell’s novel "1984" had come true ahead of the 1984 season. In a dystopian twist, Petty wouldn’t drive for Petty Enterprises — the team his father, Lee, founded upon the inception of the NASCAR Cup Series in 1949 — in 1984. After a cheating scandal dampened the excitement of Petty’s 198th career win at Charlotte in October of 1983, Petty left the family team to drive for Mike Curb. 

After win No. 199 came at Dover in May, every race had the possibility of being the one where King Richard I scored win 200. 

But win No. 200 didn’t come in the World 600 at Charlotte. It didn’t come in the California road course in Riverside. It didn’t come in the mountains of Pocono or the hills of Michigan. 

Instead, Petty’s 200th and final victory was the product of a Hollywood tale so perfect even Scorsese couldn’t dream of directing anything better. 

As the United States of America celebrated its 208th birthday, NASCAR was celebrating the Fourth of July with its traditional running of the Firecracker 400. As the race started at 10 a.m. in Daytona Beach, fans, media and teams all had ample opportunity to enjoy the beach following the race. 

But this iteration of the Firecracker 400 was different. President Ronald Reagan was to attend the race, becoming the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race in doing so. While Reagan didn’t make the start of the race, he did give the command to start engines from aboard Air Force One.