Richard Petty is an auto racing icon and still one of NASCAR's most marketing entities.
So when he addressed the firestorm he created when he said Danica Patrick could win only "if everybody else stayed home," he sounded as if he knew what his comments would do.
Was that his intent? Was Petty crossing the line, as some suggested, or was he simply marketing the sport again?
ESPN reported Saturday that Petty refuted claims that he was sexist and said he was within his rights to express his opinion about Patrick, a current member on the Sprint Cup tour. Petty, nicknamed "the King" of stock car driving, was criticized after speaking out about Patrick.
Petty spoke about the controversy before the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway.
"What I said is what I said, and that's what I believe, OK?" he said, according to ESPN. "What's unfair is the sexist part. If her name had been Danny, OK, nobody would have said anything about it. So y'all are bringing up the sexist part of it, not me.
"It was definitely not sexist, OK? Hey look, I've been married 55 years to the same woman. So I am not a sexist by any ways. I love women."
Petty was quoted as saying at a trade show last week in Canada, "If she'd have been a male, nobody would ever know if she'd showed up at a racetrack. ... This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport."
That, coupled with Petty's comments Saturday show that he might've known what he was doing when he made the original remarks. He noted how the comments put NASCAR in the spotlight a couple of weeks before the start of the 2014 NASCAR season.
"There was nothing going on NASCAR racing. Nobody was talking about Daytona," he said. "Nobody was talking about nothing. Look at all the publicity NASCAR got and she got just for one little comment."
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