INDIANAPOLIS -- Richard Petty recalls accepting an invitation from fellow legend A.J. Foyt in 1965 to come check out an open-wheel car.

The seemingly fateful visit would convince Petty that his place in the racing world was back at Level Cross, N.C. He was comfortable underneath a stock car running his family's race team.

Nevertheless, he was curious and entertained Foyt's gesture.

"Foyt tried to get me in a car and I couldn't get in the thing," recalled Petty, a seven-time NASCAR champion who announced he will field an entry for John Andretti in this year's Indianapolis 500.

"He said, 'Why don't you get in that car over there?' ... In the meantime he goes to his locker and gets out these shoes -- size 7. He says the only way your feet will fit down in there is if they're no bigger than a size 7, you know to hit the clutch and the break. I said, 'No way! These are 11-and-a-half-size shoes,'" Petty said as he lifted his black cowboy boot in the air. "I knew right quick I couldn't do it."

That was that and Petty's career never crossed over like Foyt's or Mario Andretti. Both have victories in NASCAR's Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.

"You got to figure that we were in the stock cars, and we owned our own cars," Petty said. "We didn't have big sponsors and stuff. That was our business. So I never ventured out to run Indy. I always kept up with what was going on."

Fast-forward 44 years to the present day -- and post-merger between Petty Enterprises and Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Through a string of events, you'll find Petty near -- although not inside -- another open-wheel car, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he formally announced a partnership between his Richard Petty Motorsports and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to field a car in May's Indy 500 sporting the famous No. 43 on the wing.

The pairing with John Andretti is not a surprise. He drove for Petty Enterprises in the late 1990s and recorded Petty's last Cup victory, at Martinsville in 1999. (Continued)