Richard Petty 1969 Ford Torino

1969 Riverside Motor Trend 500 Winner

In 1968 Richard had was racing a Plymouth in the NASCAR series and was the most “trick” car Petty’s team had raced up to that time. Late in the year, Dodge introduced the Charger 500 with cleaned up aerodynamics in an effort to stay competitive with the new Ford Torino. Petty asked Chrysler to allow him to switch from the Plymouth to the new Dodge. Chrysler’s response was no, he had to continue to compete with the outdated Plymouth. He realizes that only two cars will be competitive in NASCAR in 1969 the Dodge Charger and the Ford Torino. Ford, seeing an opportunity, spoke to Petty about running a Ford and revealed that more work was being done to further improve the Torinos with a long nosed version that would be named the Talladega.

On November 25th, 1968 Petty announced to the press that after 10 years with Plymouth the Petty’s would be switching to Ford for 1969.

The first race of the season was held at Riverside California. The Motor Trend 500 was a NASCAR Grand National - Pacific Coast Late Model Series combination event held on February 1, 1969. Richard Petty led 103 of the 186 laps in route to a twenty-five second victory on A.J. Foyt. Eventual season champ David Pearson finished 3rd.

He went on to finish second the 1969 championship.