climb back in the car, Keselowski said. “No, absolutely not,” he said. “I think I owe
it to the guys that work on my car to gut it out. I expect a lot out of them and they have every right to expect a lot out of me.”
•• Te crowd standing just outside the edge
of the shade provided by the No. 43 team hauler continues to grow, bit by bit, as more and more of those milling about inside the garage on this particular race morning recog- nize the figure seated in the director’s chair.
It’s early, but waves of heat can already be seen rippling off the asphalt. “Tey said, ‘You can’t drive with a con-
cussion,’ ” Petty says, nodding and smiling at the crowd. “I said, ‘My whole life’s been a concussion.’ “You know, the helmets are so much
safer now. Every time you got hit up side the head back then, you got a concussion of some kind.” Petty missed his share of races, including
a handful in 1970 after he dislocated a shoul- der in a frightening crash at Darlington. “After that, I said the heck with it. I broke
another one [later] and just kept on trucking,” he says. It may not have been the wisest decision,
but as Petty notes, “My desire to drive the car and keep the business going overweighed any smart decisions. “Tat was my job; it was my business and
I just felt obligated to all the people that did the work. I wasn’t going to let a broken neck, broken leg, ribs or shoulder … I just got in there and done it. “I found out I could get by doing it.
Naturally you weren’t at your best. But I still felt like I needed to do it.”
OCTOBER 2011 65
Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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