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NEW YORK -- As memorable characters that sear the consciousness go, a nimble novelist or talented adman could not create Richard Petty. NASCAR's most successful driver is bigger than the sport which he helped make so large and significant.

He truly is "The King" -- an American icon with a nickname that fits.

Even in harried New York, where the King came to promote 50 years in NASCAR, he is recognized. Bigwig banker or bike messenger, they all know it's Richard Petty.

Since stepping out of the famous No. 43 at the end of the 1992 season, after 1,185 starts, 200 wins and seven Cup Series championships, the visual hasn't wavered. Feathered Charlie 1 Horse cowboy hat Petty put on in 1978 and hasn't taken off since. Ever-present black sunglasses. Oval belt buckle nearly as big as his thin waist. Reed-thin legs in straight-legged jeans leading to pointy cowboy boots that float over the concrete.

The King is as instantly recognizable as eminently American celebrities ranging from Johnny Cash to Elvis.

NASCAR's greatest ambassador constantly is asked about racing. The King shows no airs, always answering in characteristic candor. Does he mind talking so much about the business side of NASCAR nowadays, particularly as media obsess on the economy's impact on a sport that still continues to draw the biggest crowds most fans will ever be part of in their lifetimes?

"Don't make a difference to me," he says. "Talking racing is talking racing."

The King's take on the sport continues to be blunt, unique and worth hearing, especially after recent changes in his family business. Petty Enterprises, which began 60 years ago, has moved from Randleman, N.C., to Mooresville and also took on a partner in Boston Ventures.

“

The sport is the same, it just has different players. ... When they crank it up and get in the racecar, they are racecar drivers, just like they've always been.

”

-- RICHARD PETTY

"We are racers, not business people," is how the King explained the need to play catch-up with larger shops with their fancy technology, outside executive talent and big-time expansion plans.

"It's a family business and still has my name on it," he said. "What my dad, Kyle, and I've worked for needs to be represented in the Petty way as much as we can."

The "Petty way" has always been ultra competitive. In fact, back in the day when racing against his dad Lee, the son won the race. The father protested to NASCAR. The son's victory was taken away.

"There's no difference if it was his son or mother. My dad would have protested if he thought he won," the King recalls.

Lee passed on a single-minded desire to succeed. Racing was in Richard's blood. He recalls first meeting his wife. "I told her, 'Racing is number one in my life, and if you try real hard you can be number two.' "

The King's own son, Kyle, has described being born into a racing family as similar to being raised a farmer. It's simply what the family does.

However, after losing his grandson, Adam -- now frozen in time as the image of unfulfilled greatness in a fire suit and a growing legacy of bringing joyful smiles to sick children at the Victory Junction Gang Camp -- there was no longer a dynasty to protect, Petty says. "We asked ourselves, 'How do we want to continue this?' "

Petty had raced through the shortened NASCAR events during the 1970's oil crisis. There were lean times before sponsor R.J. Reynolds injected capital into the sport. The King has seen ebbs and flows. He's gone toe-to-toe with adversity. His world view therefore seeks the proper balance, context.

"The whole world has slowed down," he observed. "The good Lord gives us a chance, when things slow down, to appreciate things. If everything is good, you don't have a chance to appreciate what's really good. It's a life lesson."

Losing, even to the most winning driver in the sport's history, teaches, too. When you lose, you get to appreciate the wins that much more, Petty said.

The King's family business is retooling for the next half century. Meantime, the fans who support the enterprise struggle to pay their own bills. Travel is more expensive. "For Sale" signs grow mold. And NASCAR races at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night -- exactly 50 years after the first time Richard Petty climbed into a stock car.

The pundits will continue to dissect how the King's sport has changed. Some will say the Golden Years are now. Others pine for days gone by that always look better in wistful reflection.

The driver they call "The King," son of Lee, father of Kyle, who once raced convertibles at fairgrounds before crowds of five or six thousand, said that things really haven't changed that much.

"The sport is the same, it just has different players," Petty noted. "We get angry and cuss at one another. We're buddies before the race and get ticked off at one another after the race. When they crank it up and get in the racecar, they are racecar drivers, just like they've always been."

Also:
• Road to seven titles, 200 wins began 50 years ago
• Caraviello: King's great talent often overlooked today