Third generation Nascar driver Kyle Petty will sign and sing at Roosky’s on Oct. 29

Former NASCAR driver and current NASCAR analyst for NBC Sports Kyle Petty will stop by Roosky’s Bar & Grill for a meet-and-greet and musical performance after the NASCAR race on Saturday.

Petty is from Randleman, North Carolina, and followed his father, Richard Petty, and his grandfather Lee Petty into a NASCAR racing career. His son Adam Petty was in a crash at a practice race and died in 2000.

Kyle Petty raced his past race in 2008, but he continues to be involved in the racing scene in different ways.

In fact, it never even crossed his mind to do anything other than race, he said.

“It’s like with the Campbells,” he said, referring to the family behind the Martinsville Speedway. “Clay [Campbell, Martinsville Speedway president] grew up and knew he was going to run a racetrack … from the time I was young I knew I was going to be a racecar driver.”

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Martinsville Sheriff Steve Draper set up the meet-and-greet for Petty in Roosky’s, 54 West Church St., which, Draper said, is easily handicap accessible.

“I can’t honestly tell you when I met him,” Petty said about Draper who, he added, has been a staple at the Martinsville Speedway NASCAR races since he can remember.

Petty will be working the pre- and post-race work for the Xfinity race and after, Draper will escort him as quickly as possible over to Roosky’s for the event. Best case scenario, Draper said, the event will start at 6:30 p.m., but it will depend on when the race ends.

Like many “creative people” who were able to focus entirely on their passions during the pandemic, Petty wrote a book during the pandemic, he said. He insisted that he wasn’t classifying himself as a creative person and was just using that as a comparison for when he wrote his book, but his creativeness would be up to the readers.

“Swerve or Die” is about growing up racing, his son and stories about his time racing. He said the content of the book covers both sad and happy topics and some that land in between.

He described the writing process as just sitting down and writing everything he could remember that has happened in his life.

Petty has done book signings and meet-and-greet events before at both small bookstores and bigger retail stores such as Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, but he said there is, and always has been, something special about Martinsville.

“It is what the fans make of it and what you make of it,” Petty said. He said it’s a bit like how he imagines being a comedian is in that the audience’s reaction to you molds the way the event will go.

Two major things that make Martinsville special are, Petty said, the fans and the historic speedway. Many of the fans who come out are local and people who just grew up with racing and the speedway as a part of their lives, he said. The speedway is to Martinsville what the subway and the Yankees are to New Yorkers, he added.

The speedway, though it may seem small, is one of the hardest tracks to race on, he said. Having to stop and accelerate some many times in a lap in such a short period of time is “a lot of action that goes on in a short period of time.”

“It’s like river dancing for four hours,” Petty said. He said the cars have changed and the racers have changed, but the track remains the same since the late 1940s when it was built.

“It’s the racetrack that connects 2022 to the beginning of the sport,” Petty said.

Petty will play his guitar and sign while visiting Martinsville as well. He plays what he describes as Americana and folk music and said that when he plays music, he is playing all his own music that can’t be heard anywhere but in live performance.

Books can be pre-ordered to Books and Crannies via booksandcranniesva.com through choosing the “deliver to store” option. Books will also be available for purchase at the event, but are not required to get a signature. Petty said he would sign any item that people bring to the event.

Monique Holland is a reporter for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 276-734-9603.