Q & A with NASCAR legend Richard Petty

He's simply called "The King," owing to his 200 victories in a career that spanned from 1958 to 1992. It's a record unlikely to be broken because the sport is much more competitive today. No current driver has half that number of wins.

Petty recently turned 71, but he never seems to change much: Tall, lanky, with his signature cowboy hat, wrap-around sunglasses, ever-present grin and his unwavering willingness to sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans.

But much has changed. Petty and his family recently sold control of their team -- which struggled since Petty stopped driving -- to the investment firm Boston Ventures. Petty had little choice; he needed the cash to stay competitive in today's NASCAR.

Tonight, when the NASCAR Sprint Cup series races at Chicagoland Speedway, it will be 50 years since Petty's first race. Petty -- son of Lee Petty, one of NASCAR's early driving greats -- drove a 1957 Oldsmobile in NASCAR's old Convertible Division at Columbia (S.C.) Speedway. He finished sixth.

Petty recently spoke to The Times about that day and what has happened since:

Question: What do you remember about that first race?

Answer: It was Thursday night. The reason they run on Thursday night in South Carolina was they had an Army base down there and they paid [the soldiers] on Thursday night.

Q: Did you know you wanted to be a driver?

A: I knew I wanted to try. I'd never done it. I'd been going [to races] since I was 11 years old, so I knew how the program worked. I'd done everything there was as far as working on the car. We run the race and I told Dale [Inman, his cousin and future crew chief], "You know, I think I'm going to like this."

Q: Did you talk to your dad after the race?

A: I talked to him before. Basically he said, "Just don't drive over your head."

Q: NASCAR has changed so much since then. What's one change you like, one you don't like?

A: The big thing that's changed is there's a lot of money in it. The big thing I don't like is there's too much money in it.

Now it's so technical . . . the teams got so big. But it's a necessary evil; it needs to do that for us to grow. It couldn't stay like what it was 20 years ago or five years ago. It has to change to keep up with what the market wants to sell.