What if Richard Petty hadn't become a racecar driver?(NASCAR)

In a phenomenal career that spanned 34 years, Richard Petty started 1,177 races--127 from the pole--and posted 200 victories, winning seven championships in NASCAR's top division. Petty's accomplishments on the track, combined with his unrelenting dedication to the sport and its fans, gained him the title of "King." But what if Richard Petty's family had stopped him from entering the dangerous sport of stock car racing?

What if ...

In addition to changing the points system, NASCAR moved Daytona 500 to the end of the year?

With NASCAR's new points system, the Daytona 500 truly becomes the Super Bowl of racing. Sure, only a handful of drivers have a shot at the title, but only two teams play for championships in other sports. The problem with putting the championship on the line at a restrictor-plate track is apparent on Lap 11 ... and 30 ... and 51. The Big One turns into The Big Three as drivers take more chances to win the title.

Nextel Cup cars still had the same body and chassis as cars coming off the assembly line?

Bill Elliott racks up a record 17th Most Popular Driver Award, rather than having the award named after him and yielding his ride to rookie Kasey Kahne. Because the cars aren't as evenly matched, veteran drivers hold an unmistakable edge over marketable young faces.--Kathy Sheldon

 
           HISTORY ...                         ... REVISED 
 
1 On July 18, 1958, 21-year-old     1 Richard Petty joins his maternal 
Richard Petty makes his NASCAR      grandfather on the Toomes' family 
Grand National debut in Toronto.    farm near Randleman, N.C. Petty 
His father, Lee, who has one        raises livestock and grows tobacco. 
series championship to his credit   During the next decade, Petty 
and is on his way to winning a      builds the largest farm in Randolph 
second, initiates his son by        County. He and his brother Maurice 
knocking him into the wall.         start a trucking firm to deliver 
                                    goods in the Southeast. 
 
2 Lee Petty wins his third title    2 Lee Petty wins a third title in 
in 1959. Piloting the No. 43,       1959 and holds off Rex White for a 
Richard competes in 21 of 44        fourth championship in 1960. Petty 
races. Together, they become the    wins the second race of the 1961 
first father-son combination to     season and takes the points lead 
finish first and second in a Grand  going into the Daytona 500. But 
National race when Lee beats        when the 46-year-old patriarch of 
Richard to the checkered flag in    the Petty Clan suffers a punctured 
Atlanta. Richard runs his first     lung, broken collar bone and 
full season in 1960 and collects    fractured left thigh in the 
the first of his record 200         qualifier for the event, there is 
career victories on the half-mile   no one to carry on the Petty 
dirt track at Charlotte. The        dynasty. ...