Richard Petty is the King of NASCAR.

The legendary driver won seven NASCAR championships and 200 career races.

When Petty retired from the sport in 1992, he became involved in many business ventures. One of the latest businesses he opened up is Petty’s Garage in Randleman, N.C. Petty's Garage now builds Custom cars for the general public, most of which are Limited Edition. Petty’s Garage has been open since June of 2008.

“The building we are working out of (for Petty’s Garage) is the original shop we used to race out of for 60 years,” Greg Steadman, the general manager at Petty’s Garage, said. “The race team moved to Charlotte and we have the building here in Randleman.”

Now, Petty’s Garage has expanded into a high performance speed shop focused on spectacular performance automobiles. The work at Petty’s Garage also has expanded into the NHRA arena.

Richard Petty is the King of NASCAR.

The legendary driver won seven NASCAR championships and 200 career races.

When Petty retired from the sport in 1992, he became involved in many business ventures. One of the latest businesses he opened up is Petty’s Garage in Randleman, N.C. Petty's Garage now builds Custom cars for the general public, most of which are Limited Edition. Petty’s Garage has been open since June of 2008.

“The building we are working out of (for Petty’s Garage) is the original shop we used to race out of for 60 years,” Greg Steadman, the general manager at Petty’s Garage, said. “The race team moved to Charlotte and we have the building here in Randleman.”

Now, Petty’s Garage has expanded into a high performance speed shop focused on spectacular performance automobiles. The work at Petty’s Garage also has expanded into the NHRA arena.

“We are building some of our own products and we are building late model performance cars that are street cars,” said Steadman, who was the former competition director and NASCAR crew chief for Petty Enterprises. “It also seems like we end up doing a lot of drag style cars. Drag racing coincides with the street cars more than it does the circle-track type deal. We have built a couple of different things with some drag cars and we actually have a couple of cars here now, the late model Cobra Jets, which we have actually built. I grew up drag racing and then I worked on the NASCAR side for 14 years before I came back over here (to Petty’s Garage). We are basically a cool 80,000 square foot speed shop.”

Steadman also said Petty’s Garage is exploring involvement in the American Drag Racing League (ADRL), especially since the recent announcement of the ADRL SuperCar Showdown.

According to the official ADRL website, the ADRL SuperCar Showdown will showcase the latest factory-produced, dealership-available automobiles in all-out drag racing with no handicap starts or performance restrictions. While current offerings from the Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler Corporation and General Motors will take center stage in the initial events, there are few limits to the variety of machines that are eligible to compete.

“We have definitely felt around and we are building some cars that will be raced in NHRA classes and there will be some that will be just used for match races at events,” Steadman said. “I have not seen the rules or anything yet (about the ADRL SuperCar). Mainly what we are focusing on right now is late model cars. The late model drag car builds, the late model aftermarket performance builds, those things how they relate to the street car, the autocross and drag racing are what we are focusing on.”

Steadman also said presently Petty’s Garage builds cars on an individual-order basis.

“Right now everything is built per the customer order type of deal,” Steadman said. “We do not build anything until we have a customer. We will talk with the customer and decide what they want to build and how they want to build it and go from there. We do not have five cars sitting out here for sale. Our business is growing and this year here (2012) should be a good growth year and of course next year will be a very heavy growth year and then we will figure out where we will go from there. We can have a build for those types of cars that want to run in what I will call a Stock class referring back to the NHRA and what the ADRL (SuperCar) sound like. We can build everything from ground up. I would look at us being able to build a Petty-built car whether it be a Dodge, Chevrolet, or Ford car. It would have a Petty chassis and be a fit, finished designed car that could compete in any of those classes that they have with these later model vehicles. I would like to see us where we could possibly build 20 drag cars a year.”

Dan Pikarsky, senior director business development at Petty’s Garage, also pointed out there is going to be a Petty’s Garage ‘Performance Tour 2012’ hitting the road.

“We are taking performance vehicles and Richard Petty’s Signature Series Challengers, and Mustangs out on the road,” Pikarsky said. “We are going to events throughout the United States. In terms of drag races, we want to hit Charlotte for the 4-Wide Nationals (April 13-15), and we are waiting to get some other (drag racing) dates locked in.”