Adam Petty
Adam Kyler Petty (July 10, 1980 – May 12, 2000) was an American stock car racer from the famous Petty racing family. Born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in High Point, North Carolina, he was the fourth generation of Petty drivers in NASCAR. He began racing in the ARCA series in 1998 and won his first ARCA race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He moved to the NASCAR Busch Series in 1999, driving the No. 45 Chevrolet, finishing 20th in points with a best finish of fourth.
In 2000 he started a few Busch Series races and earned a Cup Series start at Texas, but his engine expired during the race. On May 12, 2000, during a Busch Series practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Petty’s throttle stuck and his car crashed into Turn 3, killing him instantly from a basilar skull fracture at age 19. His death, along with Kenny Irwin Jr.’s death eight weeks earlier, helped push NASCAR to improve safety, including a steering wheel kill switch and, later, the adoption of the HANS device and SAFER barriers.
His father, Kyle Petty, continued racing and used the No. 45 car in his memory. In October 2000, the Victory Junction Gang Camp was created in his honor to help seriously ill children. Adam Petty is remembered as one of the early fourth-generation athletes in modern American professional sports, and the No. 45 car remains closely associated with the Petty family in racing history.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:53 (CET).