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Remembering Adam Petty's passing makes it difficult to think about racing
Posted: Tuesday May 16, 2000 11:19 AM
Right now it's hard to get too excited about anything. We have a great car and I think we have a great shot at winning The Winston but I think everybody's thoughts have been on the Petty family and how they are doing right now. We compete against each other every week and we have our own teams. But there is still a closeness among the people in racing. Deep down, we do care about each other. When one of us hurts, all of us hurt. And I know Kyle, Pattie, Austin, Montgomery Lee, Richard, Lynda and everybody in the Petty family is hurting a lot right now.
I don't know what happened at New Hampshire as far as the car is concerned, and that really doesn't matter right now. All I know is we all lost a pretty special guy in Adam Petty. I keep hearing about the smile, and how that was what most people think of when they think about Adam. I kind of do too but in a different way. Adam was the kind of guy who would make you smile. He smiled a lot but he caused a whole lot of smiles too. What kind of driver he would have become will always be up for debate, I guess. We didn't get a chance to watch him long enough to find out. I tend to think he would have been a pretty good one. He had a lot of skills and a lot of talents. He had a tremendous amount of desire. The only thing he lacked was the experience and he was gaining that every time out and, most importantly, taking advantage of that experience. More than that, though, he was a darned good person. He was the type of person you would want you kids to become. He was the type of person you thought, If everyone could be like Adam, the world would be a better place. Heaven is better off today but losing Adam sure hurt the world. We need a lot more people like him, not fewer. Racing's a tough sport. A lot of times there seems to be more take than give. People like the Pettys are the kind who give more than they take. I think all of the drivers need to take a harder look at giving something back to this sport. I worked hard to get here and, while I had a lot of help along the way, nobody gave me anything. I had to earn anything I got. Well, the 'school of hard knocks' might be a good learning experience but I think I need to help other people get to where I am. There are a lot of good drivers out there and helping them reach their goals only makes our whole sport better. Right now, I'll be driving forever - but I know that's not going to happen. I feel that way but I know an end will come sooner or later. That doesn't mean NASCAR racing is going away, though. Besides the fact that I want to win as many races and as many poles and as many championships as I can, I'd like to leave the sport a little bit better off too. If everybody felt that way and worked that way, the sport would be a lot better off. I look at guys like Richard Petty and I think he should not be the past, he should be the future. Adam was the future, and he was just like Richard -- good with people, signed every autograph that anyone wanted, great with the fans, great with kids. That's what all of us need to do. We're competitive and we're working as hard as we can to win. But we need to look at the big picture too -- of racing and of life. If nothing else, that's what we should have learned from Adam Petty. Jeremy Mayfield is in his third season in driving the Mobil 1 Ford Taurus on the Winston Cup circuit. His column appears weekly on CNNSI.com.
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