accessAtlanta

It's a weekend of familiar and unfamiliar vehicles for Kyle Petty.

On Sunday, he'll be doing the usual: racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship at New Hampshire International Speedway. But on Saturday, Petty will be spinning tales instead of wheels, introducing four of his favorite flicks on Turner Classic Movies.

JAKE A. HERRLE/Turner Classic Movies (ENLARGE)
Kyle Petty has picked four of his favorite films to introduce on Turner Classic Movies.
Associated Press (ENLARGE)
"Casablanca," with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, is one of Kyle Petty's favorites.
MOST POPULAR STORIES Police: Jeffrey Donovan arrested, suspected of DUI Report: Abdul's return to 'American Idol' doubtful Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has 'very treatable' cancer Fallon's '7th Floor West' is a silly, soapy treat Chris Brown apologizes for Rihanna beating
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR
PETTY'S PICKS • "Freaks" (1932), noon Saturday: "It's troubling in a lot of ways, but at the same time when you watch it I think there's a lot of hope." • "Grand Prix" (1966), 1:15 p.m.: "To be a kid [when he watched it the first time] and sit there and say, 'Oh, so this is what my father sees' — that was pretty special to me." • "D.O.A." (1950), 4:30 p.m.: "A total departure from everything I'd seen before." • "Casablanca" (1943), 6 p.m.: "It's like a great frat party, where all of the sudden the party just happens and it's the greatest party in the world and you think, 'My god, let's do it again next week.'"

And quite an unusual quartet it is: The controversial 1932 cult film "Freaks" kicks things off at noon, followed by the zoom-zoom-zoomy "Grand Prix," the film noir staple "D.O.A." and the Humphrey Bogart classic "Casablanca."

In town to tape introductions to each feature recently, the 46-year-old driver explained that his love of movies goes almost as far back as his passion for cars.

The North Carolina native doesn't remember the first film he ever saw, though he's pretty sure it was, fittingly enough, at the drive-in. But he does have vivid memories of the Hollywood photos and stories in his mother's vintage movie magazines.

"When I was growing up, my mother and her sister were huge movie fans," Petty recalls. "They grew up in the '40s and '50s, and they had boxes of movie magazines from that time. When I'd go to my grandmother's house, I'd go up in the attic and read them. I just grew up fascinated with those things."

He discovered two of the films he lists among his favorites in a more unlikely way. While driving for Felix Sabates' SABCO racing team in the 1990s, Petty was given a box of videotapes that included "Freaks" and "D.O.A."

"One day we had a rain delay at a race and we shoved 'Freaks' in," he remembers. "I knew absolutely nothing about the movie. I was mesmerized. That movie was so different than anything I had ever seen or envisioned — that anyone would make a movie about that, it just blew me away."

Ahead of its time

As you might expect, Petty had to include a racing film among his favorites for TCM. He says "Le Mans" with Steve McQueen is the greatest, "because it's all racing." But he chose "Grand Prix" for airing because its innovative driver's-eye-view camera angles ("those shots were 30 years ahead of their time") had such an impact on him the first time he saw it.

Perched next to TCM weekend host Ben Mankiewicz on the set at Turner Broadcasting's Techwood studio, Petty doesn't look much like a NASCAR driver. Wearing a tailored jacket and blue jeans, with his signature long braided ponytail, circle beard and wire-rimmed glasses, he more resembles a musician — or maybe a novelist. In fact, he not only loves movies, but music and books too.

Mankiewicz acknowledges that Petty's wide-ranging tastes surprised him. "He said one of the first classic movies that caught his interest was 'Fiddler on the Roof,'" the host says. "And when you think of the son of the greatest NASCAR driver ever, living in the rural South, you'd think he'd hate 'Fiddler on the Roof.' But ... if you like good stories well told, it doesn't make any difference."

Others from Petty's eclectic list of favorite titles that he initially sent TCM: the Gene Wilder kiddie musical "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"; the Audrey Hepburn bohemian romance "Breakfast at Tiffany's"; "Moulin Rouge," with José Ferrer as French painter Toulouse-Lautrec; and "Caddyshack."

Chatting on the set with Mankiewicz, Petty might be mistaken for a TV film critic, as he adroitly explains why "Casablanca" has the perfect cinema ending. But when he looks directly into the camera, flashing the wide, toothy, familial smile, it instantly registers that he is the son of racing legend "King" Richard Petty.

Drawn to music

Kyle Petty has been racing since he was 18, and nowadays is CEO of Petty Enterprises. But growing up, it was never a given that he'd follow in the footsteps of his father and his late grandfather, stock-car racing pioneer Lee Petty.

A star high school athlete, he was offered college baseball and football scholarships, and later briefly considered a career as a country singer. Ultimately, though, he stayed on in the family business.

"I think it comes from just being lazy," Petty says after the taping. "I grew up with it. I would come home from school and go to the race shop and hang out, and I learned so much just through osmosis."

Petty's 20-year-old son, Adam, was barely two years into the career that made him the fourth Petty generation in racing when he was killed in 2000 in a practice accident at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Since then, Kyle Petty has driven car No. 45 in Nextel Cup races as a tribute to Adam. But these days it seems his heart and energy is in raising money for children's charities, including Victory Junction Gang Camp for chronically ill children, founded in Adam's memory. (In July, Petty's friend and fellow racer Tony Stewart pledged a second $1 million donation to the camp in Randleman, N.C.)

Mankiewicz asks Petty if he ever discouraged Adam from racing. "No," he says without a pause. "He was like me. Off and on, and off and on, and then just on. You either gravitate to it or you don't. I always compare it to growing up on a family farm. If you had to work the farm, you learn it. And in the end, when it's time to leave, it's what you know, so you stay."