Richard Petty’s 1967 season still sets the standard for dominance in NASCAR. Driving the No. 43 Plymouth, he won 27 of his 48 starts, including 10 races in a row. Under the hood sat a 426 Hemi V8.
That season also brought Petty his second Grand National championship, the series known today as the Cup Series.
Here is how the year added up, where the wins came from, and what became of the blue Plymouth that carried him.
The numbers behind Richard Petty’s 1967
The schedule that year had 49 races, and Petty started 48 of them. According to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, his 27 wins work out to a 56.25 percent win rate. The Hall says that rate would equal 20 wins on today’s 36-race schedule.
In fact, the Hall points out that Petty won more races in 1967 alone than 14 different Hall of Fame drivers won in their whole careers. It also notes that no driver has won more than 13 races in a season since NASCAR trimmed its schedule in 1972.
He also spent a remarkable amount of time in front. Petty led 5,543 laps that year, a record, according to the Hall of Fame. That was 44 percent of the laps he completed. Moreover, he led at least one lap in 41 of his 48 starts.
A Hemi-powered Plymouth Belvedere
The car was a Plymouth Belvedere, painted Petty blue. According to Street Muscle magazine, it was a 1966 model that the team kept racing through 1967 with few changes. Power came from the 426 Hemi V8, and Street Muscle says it drove through an A833 four-speed manual.
The family business built and ran it. The Hall of Fame says Petty’s cousin Dale Inman served as crew chief, while his brother Maurice Petty built the engines. His father, Lee Petty, founded Petty Enterprises.
Speed was only part of the story, though. According to Autoweek, the closest margin of victory all season was six seconds. On a typical race day, Autoweek says, Petty finished laps ahead of second place.
Ten wins in a row
The streak began in August at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem and ended in October at North Wilkesboro, according to CBS Sports. In between, Autoweek lists wins at Columbia, Savannah, Darlington, Hickory, Richmond, Beltsville, Hillsborough and Martinsville.
Darlington stood out. It was the only track longer than one mile where Petty won that year, according to the Hall of Fame, and he won there twice. Besides the spring race, he took the Southern 500. Autoweek says his margin in the Southern 500 was five laps, at a track that usually gave him trouble.
After the 10th straight win, Petty seemed to run out of things to say. As Autoweek tells it, he suggested reporters interview each other instead, because he had little to add that he had not said already.
Short tracks and dirt
Most of the 1967 wins came on small tracks. The Hall of Fame says 25 of the 27 came at tracks of one mile or shorter. Also, 11 of them came on dirt, including sweeps of the dirt races at Columbia Speedway and the Virginia State Fairgrounds track, now Richmond Raceway.
Hickory gave him a rare double. He won there on dirt in April, then won again on the paved track in September, according to the Hall. Meanwhile, his shortest win came at the 0.200-mile Islip Speedway. There he averaged just 42.428 mph, his only 1967 win under 50 mph.
The big tracks were another matter. Petty went winless in three tries at Daytona that year, the Hall says. Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 in a rare NASCAR start, according to Autoweek.
How the Richard Petty 1967 streak ended
The run stopped at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the National 500. According to the Hall of Fame, an engine failure ended it. Petty finished 18th, Autoweek reports, while Buddy Baker scored the first win of his career.
After that, Bobby Allison won the season’s last two races, at Rockingham and Weaverville. Even so, Petty had already passed his father Lee’s career win total during 1967, Autoweek notes, on the way to 200 career wins.
Where the Belvedere is now
The car survives. The Richard Petty Museum brought it out of retirement for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, according to Jalopnik. Petty’s team changed the oil, checked the brakes and fitted a new battery before the trip, the two reports say.
Street Muscle reports that Petty had not driven the car in 47 years when he took it up the Goodwood hill. Today the 426 Hemi Plymouth Belvedere from his 27-win season remains with the Richard Petty Museum in North Carolina.
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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.
