Lee Petty

One of NASCAR's first superstars, Lee Petty began racing with NASCAR's first race at Charlotte Speedway, in 1949. In the 1954 season, Petty won the first of his three championship wins in a Dodge. Petty's second championship win was in 1958, and was once again in his Dodge, though his third win, in 1959, a result of 11 wins, was in a Chrysler.

Petty set many records, including being the first three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. In 1959, he won the inaugural Daytona 500, and was ranked in the top-5 in the points standing, for 11 out of his 16 seasons.

Father of Richard Petty, another NASCAR legend, Lee Petty died after a long illness on April 5th, 2000. He was honored by the National Motorsports Press Association, with an induction into their Hall of Fame, at Darlington Raceway, in 1969. In 1990, Petty was inducted in the Hall of Fame of International Motorsports, in Talladega, Alabama.