Kyle Petty shares a touching birthday message for ‘The King’ Richard Petty on his 88th birthday: “I’m blessed to celebrate”

Kyle Petty wished his father, the legendary Richard Petty, on his 88th birthday. While saying happy birthday, Petty also left a heartfelt note for “The King.” All of this happened on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Richard Petty is known for driving the iconic No. 43 Petty Enterprises Plymouth/Pontiac in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now NASCAR Cup Series) between 1958 and 1992. He was the first driver to win seven series championships. Even to this day, the Hall of Famer holds the record for most wins (200) in the Cup Series.

Kyle Petty, his son, is also a former NASCAR driver who drove the No. 45 Dodge Charger back in the day. His last race was in 2008. In 829 starts, the 65-year-old Randleman native amassed eight wins, including the 1987 Coca-Cola 600. He is currently a color commentator for NBC Sports.

Taking to X, Petty wrote,

“Happy birthday to my dad! I’m blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday with him. To the world, he’s the King. But to us, he’s just daddy and Pepaw.”

Petty’s sisters, Rebecca Petty Moffitt and Sharon Petty Farlow, are steering their father’s racing legacy through the Petty Museum in Level Cross, of which Sharon is the executive director. Rebecca, on the other hand, serves as the chief executive officer of the Petty Family Foundation and president of Petty’s Garage. 2025 marks 75 years of Petty family racing.

“It takes a family. It takes a village,” Rebecca said in a release. “We are celebrating 75 years, and our family has been involved the whole time.”

Richard Petty, who happens to be the winningest driver in the Petty family, is still involved in NASCAR and several businesses revolving around the sport. He is the chief ambassador for Legacy Motor Club (formerly known as Petty GMS), owning a minority stake in the team as well.

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Richard Petty shares his thoughts on last week’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Richard Petty was impressed with how last Saturday’s Cup Series event turned out. Named the Quaker State 400, the race was held at the EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as the Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was the 18th race of the season, which Hendrick Motorsports ace Chase Elliott won.

Besides several instances of close-quarters racing, the 260-lap event featured perhaps the biggest wreck of the season, which involved more than half of the field. The flagman had to wave the red flag because there was no way for the surviving cars to maneuver around the mayhem.

“It made it interesting,” Richard Petty said of the incident. “There was a bunch of passing up front. On a track like that, that's a Daytona or Talladega wreck. You'd see very few of them that big. When the race was over, there wasn't but four cars that wasn't in a wreck or spin or something all along.”

The drivers are now getting ready for the upcoming feature, a 75-lap road race named The Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Circuit scheduled for Sunday, July 6. Fans can watch the race on TNT Sports, 2 pm ET onwards, or listen to radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.