Kyle Petty

He improved to a 27th-place points finish the next season despite missing two races due to injury and failing to qualify for the season-ending race at Atlanta.

He parted way with SABCO at the end of the season.

He fell further down to 30th in points after only finishing in the top-ten five times and failing to qualify for the fall race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

His abbreviated schedule combined with only one top-ten in the second half of the season caused him to finish the season 31st in points.

Petty and the #42 Pontiac team competed in nineteen races that season, his best finish being a 4th at Atlanta.

Kyle Eugene Petty (born June 2, 1960) is an American former stock car racing driver and current racing commentator.

He won the very first race he entered, the 1979 Daytona ARCA 200, in one of his father's old 1978 Dodge Magnum race cars, at the time, Petty became the youngest driver to win a major-league stock car race.

Later in the season, he made his Winston Cup Series debut, again driving a passed down STP Dodge Magnum numbered No. 42 (a number used by his grandfather Lee Petty) for his family's team.

He ran five races and had a ninth-place finish in his first series race, the 1979 Talladega 500.

In 1980, he made a total of fifteen starts in the No. 42 (after crashing the last of his father's Dodge Magnums in one of the Daytona 125 qualifying races) and had six top-ten finishes, garnering a twenty-eighth-place points finish.

He began the 1981 season driving his father's No. 43 for one race, before running a full schedule in his regular No. 42, finishing in the top-ten ten times and finishing twelfth in points.

He began the 1982 season with two top-ten finishes, but later began splitting time between his No. 42 and the No. 1 UNO/STP car owned by Hoss Ellington, and ended the season fifteenth in points.

In 1983, he picked up funding from 7-Eleven and accordingly switched his number to 7.

He had only two top-ten finishes but improved to thirteenth in the standings.

He followed that season up with six top-tens the following year, but fell three spots in points.

Petty took his number and sponsorship to Wood Brothers Racing in 1985, where he had a then career-high seven top-fives and his first top-ten points finish.

The next season, he won his first career race in the infamous 1986 Miller High Life 400 at Richmond and finished tenth in the final standings.

In 1987, he switched to the #21 and received new sponsorship from Citgo, as well as winning the 1987 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

He failed to pick up a win in 1988, and fell to thirteenth in points, causing him to be released from the ride.

He signed on to a part-time schedule in 1989 for the new SABCO Racing team.

Originally beginning the season unsponsored, he and SABCO later picked up sponsorship from Peak Antifreeze after he drove their car to a top-ten finish at the Daytona 500, filling in for Eddie Bierschwale, as well as Ames Department Stores.

Peak became the team's full-time sponsor in 1990, and Petty finished eleventh in points after winning the GM Goodwrench 500 at North Carolina Speedway with a 26-second margin of victory.

Mello Yello would replace Peak as sponsor of the #42 in 1991, and Petty was running eleventh in points when he suffered a broken leg at a crash in the Winston 500 at Talladega, causing him to miss the next eleven races.

In 1992, Petty rebounded to a career-best fifth-place finish in points, as well winning two separate races that season at Watkins Glen and Rockingham.

The 1992 season would be the only year that he would win multiple races in a single season.

Kyle came very close to winning the championship in 1992, he had a flat tire at Phoenix (2nd to last race) and broke an engine in the last race otherwise he would have been neck and neck with Elliott and Kulwicki for the title.

He duplicated his points finish in 1993 as well as picking up a win in the Champion Spark Plug 500 at Pocono.

He dropped ten spots in points in 1994 after he failed to finish higher than fourth, and lost the Mello Yello sponsorship at the end of the season.

Coors Light became his new sponsor beginning in 1995, and Kyle won his final career Cup race in the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Dover.

In 1996, the popular rock group Soundgarden recorded a song called "Kyle Petty, Son of Richard."

Beginning with the 1997 season, Petty formed his own team, PE2 Motorsports, and fielded the No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac Grand Prix for himself.

He had two top-five finishes and nine top-ten finishes, and finished 15th in points, the highest points placement of all the new teams to run during the 1997 season.

He only had two top-tens in 1998, and fell back to 30th in points, causing him to return to Petty Enterprises and run his team from their shop, and became Petty Enterprises' new CEO.

He began the 1999 season with two early DNQs, and finished 26th in points despite finishing in the top-ten nine times.

Petty also made guest appearances on ESPN to provide commentary during Busch Series races.

He is the son of racer Richard Petty, grandson of racer Lee Petty, and father of racer Adam Petty, who was killed in a crash during practice in May 2000.

He had one top-ten early in 2000, the same year in which his son Adam died while practicing for a Busch Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Petty last drove the No. 45 Dodge Charger for Petty Enterprises, where he formerly served as CEO; his last race was in 2008.

Petty was born in Randleman, North Carolina.

He made his major-league stock car debut at the age of 18.