Richard Petty

The 200th Winston Cup win had to be the one. No matter where it would have been, it's a milestone. Nobody's ever even approached gettin' close to 200 - a lot of 'em haven't even run 200!

I'm real proud to have won 200 races - even though it took me 25 years to do it. Because it's so far above everyone else; I think 105 is the next closest boy, you know what I mean? That's David Pearson, and he was at this game almost as long as I've been, 'though he's retired now. After him there's three or four drivers that's got 80 or 60 or sump'n like that - but that's not even in the realm of bein' close to 200.

We'd worked real hard that year to try and win 200. I was driving for a new team - it was owned by Mike Curb - and we won our 199th race at Dover, Delaware. That was in May, and then we ran four races - Charlotte, Riverside, Pocono and Michigan - and we didn't win. Then we came back to Daytona International Speedway-the home of stock car racing here in the United States - and went on and won the race.

It was quite a day. Apart from being my 200th win, we won it on July the Fourth, our Independence Day, which is a big deal anyway for us. And then the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, was there, too. And we won the race in one of those drafting situations.

It was a real close race. I was having a good ol' time with Cale Yarborough where he'd draft by me on one lap and then I'd draft back by him again.

What happened was that a caution came out with only a couple of laps to go. So we knew it wasn't gonna go green again; this was gonna be the race to the flag. We knew it was the last lap: Whoever got back to the caution first was gonna win.

You know, it had all the elements of a Winston Cup race. The lead changed twice or three times on the last lap - I was leadin', and then Cale took the lead, and then I went back by 'im. We left black marks down each side of our cars, racin' at 200 miles an hour. And, like I say, we did it in front of the President of the United States! If you'd have been writin' a book or a film script, nobody would have believed it, but that's the way it happened.

I had met the President before, but he'd never been to a race before - of any kind. He wasn't able to get to Daytona in time for the start, but it was kinda neat 'cause they arranged for him to radio in from Airforce One and he was able to give us the command, "Gen'lemen, start your engines" from his plane.

He got there maybe halfway through the race, and they put him in a bullet-proof glass box and interviewed him and all that. He was speechless that we was runnin' 200 miles an hour, beatin' on each other! I think it got his attention pretty good.

Then, when we won the race, instead of goin' to the winner's circle, I stopped on the race track and went up into the press box. We did an interview with the President and I talked with him a little bit up there.

After that they ran all the spectators out of the race track and then they let all the competitors and all the crew people back in, and we had a picnic with the President. He came down and got to meet all the rest of the drivers.

So it was a big day for racin' just because the President of the United States was there. Then it was even bigger for me because it was my 200th win. It would have been a big day for anybody to have won under those circumstances, but bein' that it was my 200th - it was an unbelievable situation.

I mean, I've won races before and thought that they're unbelievable situations, but nothin' ever had that much drama involved. That's what made it so special. An' if I won another 200, that would still have to be the highlight, just because of the situation that surrounded it.

Course we haven't won any more since then, in 'bout 100 races. Man, I tell you, it's been a long time; but we're gonna get that 201st win - if I have to step on my beard to get it!