"She didn't know any better": When Richard Petty reflected on dating wife Lynda in a car without a passenger seat

In 2016, Richard Petty sat with Graham Bensinger in the latter's In Depth Graham Bensinger podcast about his dating life. During their conversation, Petty revealed how he once went on a date with Lynda Owens in a car that did not have a passenger seat.

As Petty sat with Bensinger, he unraveled some interesting insights into their early dating life. He stated how he made a seat with a floorboard, wheel and cushion, and took Owens for a ride. Although the seat "wasn't too stable" for Owens, they "happily" traveled to places.

As Petty took a trip down memory lane, he talked about their early dating life:

"I had a '56 Dodge, I had it all lowered, big wheels and tires, and had a mobile motor with three carburetors and no mufflers and all that. So they came with bank seats, and I got the idea that I didn't want the bank seat. I went with some kind of truck or something and had a bucket seat. So I put the bucket seat in the thing.

"So I drove around and I took a big rug and stuff and laid in the floorboard. So the floorboard wasn't that rough. When I'd go pick her up, I'd take a wheel and just put a wheel over there and put a cushion on the thing and we'd ride around, go to the drive in, or go to the ball game or whatever and she'd have to hang on because it wasn't too stable but that's the truth, we did do that."

When Bensinger asked if Owens was fine going out on a date on such a set-up, he added:

"She was young and innocent and it didn't make any difference if I had come with a wagon, she'd have been happy just to go out. She didn't know any better."

Richard Petty married his long-time girlfriend, Lynda Owens, in 1958. They were married for over five and half decades until Owens died of cancer on March 25, 2014 at the age of 72 at her home in Level Cross, North Carolina.

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Richard Petty had a heartfelt confession for his late wife, Lynda Owens

In the same interview with Graham Bensinger, Richard Petty unraveled how his late wife, Lynda Owens, took care of his family, and how he spent three lives with her.

NASCAR legend Richard Petty gives fans the thumbs up. Credit: Getty

Here's what he said about her:

"She took care of the house, she took care of the bills, she did all of that. I went out and did my racing and did my job, and then it was like I tell people—three lives. She lived the life, I lived the life, and we lived the life together. So we were married 55 years, but we probably lived together 25." [2:47]

Richard Petty is the winningest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has 200 wins in the series, 123 pole positions and 712 Top 10s in a whopping 1184 Cup Series races. He also won seven Cup Series titles, with the last of his wins coming in 1979.