Richard Petty reignites Danica Patrick controversy: He'll race her 'when she wins 200 races' - MotorSportsTalk

Richard Petty’s challenge to race Danica Patrick is still on the table.

But there’s now a caveat, Petty told The Tennessean newspaper during an appearance in suburban Nashville on Monday.

“When she wins 200 races we’re going to have a race,” said Petty, who holds NASCAR’s all-time wins record with 200 victories of his own.

Obviously, The King wasn’t overly impressed with Patrick’s career-best seventh-place finish at Kansas nearly two weeks ago.

“So far I haven’t been proven wrong,” Petty told The Tennessean about Patrick’s development as a Sprint Cup driver.

During an appearance at an auto performance show in Canada in mid-January, Petty began what became a war of words with Patrick and her team co-owner, Tony Stewart, saying the only way Patrick would ever win a Sprint Cup race was “If everybody else stayed home.”

Stewart offered to provide cars for a race with Patrick, who eventually said she’d be up to the task of racing Petty, who last drove a stock car competitively in 1992.

There’s been no comment from the Patrick camp on Petty’s latest salvo.

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Click here to check out the story and video of Petty’s interview with The Tennessean.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Richard Petty reignites Danica Patrick controversy: He’ll race her ‘when she wins 200 races’

SuperMotocross set to introduce Leader Lights beginning with the World Championship finals

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