Why 21-Year-Old Richard Petty Started His NASCAR Cup Career in Canada

Richard Petty, the driver whose name would become famous to racing fans across America, started his Cup Series career in—of all places—Canada.

The date was July 18, 1958. Petty had turned 21 earlier that month, and his father Lee looked upon that as a key birthday, one that would open the door to one of international motorsports’ grandest careers.

First, though, he gave Richard a test run of sorts. On July 12, six days before the Cup race in Toronto, Petty made his NASCAR debut in a Convertible Division race at Columbia Speedway in central South Carolina. He finished sixth, five laps behind. His feet officially wet, the Pettys rolled off to Canada for the next weekend’s race.

There was no big discussion that resulted in the choice of the Toronto race for his Cup entrance, Petty said.

“Daddy handled everything about when we raced and where we raced,” Petty said. “It was the next race on the schedule, so we went.”

Lee, one of NASCAR’s pioneer drivers, also was in the field, a fact that would become all too clear to his son.

The race was held at Canadian National Exposition Speedway, a .333-mile paved track. Petty’s debut was not magical. He finished 17th in a field of 19.

Petty didn’t finish the race because he was spun out—by his father, the race winner. Lee had the day’s dominant car, and, as he was lapping cars near the race’s halfway point, he caught Richard. Richard was in the way, so Lee sent him spinning.

As Richard would confirm many times over the years, racing was very much a business for his father, particularly in the sport’s early years. A win meant more money to fuel the family’s racing operation, and no one—not even his son—would stand in the way.

Ross Kennedy, who flagged the race, remembers. “Richard was all over the track,” he said. “Lee was leading, and he came around and there was Richard in the way. Whomp—that was the end of Richard.”

The win was one of seven Lee would score that year on the way to the Cup championship.

Curious fans who might want to see the track where stock car racing’s king made his first Cup Series laps will be disappointed. Major-league racing ended at the Toronto track in 1967, and the site was eventually bulldozed.

Petty, however, does have a souvenir from the track. “When they tore the track down, somebody sent me a steel pole that the fence went on,” he said.

Petty’s first Cup ride—an Oldsmobile—would be a unique item for any racing museum. But the car didn’t last much longer. “I think I ‘eliminated’ it at Trenton,” Petty said.

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