Kyle Petty competed in NASCAR for 30 years, where he was on the receiving end of endless questions about his driving style and his legendary racing family. He probably even had to deal with some of the absurd Super Bowl-esque questions.
“If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”
These days, Petty gets to ask the questions instead of answering them. NASCAR fans will see him before and after the Cup Series races for NBC and Peacock, preview the competition and then analyze it. However, last year a whole new opportunity presented itself, with the retired driver asking the important questions and making pertinent comments. It’s something he does as well as anyone else in the talk show genre.
Season 2 of Dinner ride with Kyle Pettywhich airs on Thursdays Circle network, began on June 16 with musician John Oates. NASCAR great Darrell Waltrip showed up the following week, and the guest list generally alternates between Petty’s two passions: sports and music.
“Last season I sat with Dale Jr. and with my dad and Mario Andretti. This season I sat down with Jeff Gordon, with Coach Gibbs, with Darrell Waltrip,” he said. sit down and talk to them about races we’ve raced against each other, things that happened during our time together in the same sport.”
He moves seamlessly from repeating past clashes on the song to asking musicians about the inspiration for iconic songs.
“I ask the questions I want to know the answer to. And (maybe) no one else wants to know the answers. I do not give a hoot. I want to know the answers. Tell me the answers!”
Kyle Petty
Interviewing Waltrip is low hanging fruit, as folks in the business know that “DW” can fill a notebook with his answer to a single question. Petty wanted to bring him in as a guest in part because the winner of 84 Cup Series races before retiring in 2000 is part of the link between generations.
“Darrell was the man who was the bridge from Richard Petty and Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough to what Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin and all those guys were,” Petty explained. “He was that bridge. He built a bridge in this sport. He’s the guy we walked with and walked that bridge to bring the sport into the late ’80s and ’90s.
“I’m looking at Jeff Gordon, and Jeff Gordon’s that bridge that went through with Jimmie Johnson and with the guys who are in the sport now. They’re all looking at Jimmie and Jeff Gordon. It fascinates me that those guys came to a sport that they were from kept.”
As always, Waltrip has delivered memorable stories. With episodes lasting just half an hour, great material never made it into the final cut.
“I called the Circle folks and said, ‘I just interviewed Darrell. Season 3 is in the can,'” Petty joked. “’All season. We have one guest.’ So it was. We kind of walked everywhere, but that’s Daryl and that’s his personality and that’s what makes him so great. I love that man.”
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