Mourning Adam Petty
A death in the family

SALISBURY POST

You need only know about a young man’s bright smile and bright promise snuffed out in a few moments of grinding metal at a heartbreakingly tender age.

You need only know that children carry not only their own dreams, but the dreams of their parents and grandparents, as well; and when death snatches the young, we grieve not only the loss of a loved one but a diminishment of the future itself.

You need only know something about close-knit families, and how their members cleave to one another for solace and support in times of sorrow. For, when you strip away the paraphernalia of racing — when you take away the excitement and treachery of fender-to-fender jousting and the celebrity nature of the modern sport — this is about a family’s grief. Not only one particular and special family, but the extended family of race fans who for generations have held that family to their bosom.

The name Petty is, of course, the most storied in stock-car racing, and Adam Petty was the fourth generation to practice the family trade. His father, Kyle Petty, is a NASCAR racer; his grandfather, Richard Petty, is NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver; his great-grandfather Lee Petty was a racing pioneer and three-time Winston Cup champion who helped transform stock-car racing from its grimy, dirt-track roots to the superspeedway sport it has become.

It is a remarkable legacy, and one in which the family rightfully takes pride. The Petty Racing site on the Internet proclaims: “50 years ... 273 wins ... four generations ... and we’re just getting started.”

Yet, great as that legacy is, fame alone doesn’t explain why legions of fans made their way to the North Carolina community of Level Cross this weekend to leave flowers, stuffed animals and tear-stained notes outside the gate to the farm where Adam Petty lived with his parents. It doesn’t explain why, as of Saturday, more than 10,000 people had expressed their grief through a special e-mail address set up at the Petty Racing Web site.

What does help explain it, however, is the extraordinary connection that generations of stock-car fans have felt toward the first family of Southern racing. Adam Petty had shown remarkable promise in his young career; yet, in truth, his name was not yet widely known in its own right. Two months shy of his 20th birthday, he was on the cusp of moving into racing’s major leagues.

So when word came that he had died Friday in a New Hampshire practice crash scarcely a month after the death of his great-grandfather, stunned fans did not immediately think of his triumphs on the track. They thought of who he was, of the legacy he embodied and had hoped to continue, and of the family that had nurtured and loved him and now grieved this terrible loss.

He was part of the Petty family — and part of a much larger family, too.