JOLIET, Ill. – Richard Petty is nearly deaf now. Questions to him often need to be repeated. When he’s talking to the vertically challenged, the angular Petty sometimes has to lean over and aim an ear toward the source of the sound.

That Petty, 71, can hear at all is pretty remarkable considering that back when he was in his prime, ear protection for NASCAR drivers was considered unnecessary at best and unmanly at worst.

But listen Petty does. And grin. And pose with drunks and shake hands with strangers and make people’s days. Still.

Petty, The King, the man who is far and away NASCAR’s most victorious driver and whose face is his sport’s face, will never be accused of exclusiveness. What many do call him is NASCAR’s living, breathing, interacting treasure.

Friday night, on the eve of the 50-year anniversary of his first start as a driver, he was honored at a testimonial dinner in downtown Chicago. Lots of nice words were said about him.

People – racers and fans – have been honoring him and saying nice things about him at racetracks for decades.

“He is one of the people most instrumental in NASCAR being where it is today, and all of us being able to do what we are doing has a lot to do with what Richard Petty did,” driver Mark Martin said Thursday.

What Petty did started on July 12, 1958, in Columbia, S.C. That was the day of his very first race and it was 10 days after his 21st birthday-which is no coincidence as his father, Lee Petty, told him he could not get into a race car until he was 21.

His Sprint Cup (then called the Grand National series) career started at, of all places, the Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto – a week later, on July 18, 1958.

The Cup debut is explained the way all events in Petty’s life are explained – that North Carolina drawl that adds color and veracity to the story.

“We went to Canada and I was running around there getting laps and my dad knocked me in the wall,” Petty said. “So I wound up in the wall and he ended up winning the race, so it wasn’t all bad.”

During the next 35 years, Petty would win 200 races, seven championships, seven Daytona 500s, 10 straight races and a spot alone on the top rung of NASCAR fame.

His career ended with the Cup season-ender in Atlanta in 1992.

Jeff Gordon was at that race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He remembers it well because it was the first race of his career and also because it made for one of his first memories of The King doing his thing.

“I’ll never forget standing on top of that trailer in the garage area and watching,” Gordon said.

“I don’t know if it was our practice or another practice or what it was. I remember Richard walking through the garage area signing every single autograph. He was mobbed.”

Friday afternoon, Petty cracked opened the door of one of the haulers owned by his team-Petty Enterprises-and stepped out into the wilting heat at Chicagoland Speedway.

The cowboy hat with the feathered band, the wraparound sun glasses, the large silver belt buckle and the smile and the attitude were all in place.

He wasn’t exactly mobbed, but he sure wasn’t shunned.

Petty lost the edge on his driving skills in the 1990s. It was obvious Friday that he has not lost what Gordon described as being “so generous and nice and just trying to do everything he could for every person.”

One of the people he did that for Friday was Jim Liston of Sturgis , Mich. Petty signed the back of Liston’s garage pass. Liston looked around as if he were looking for somebody to high-five. Proud of that?

“Oh, yeah,” Liston said. “I just walked up, he signed. See? And told me to have a good day. Man.”

Got plans for the credential?

“Framing it.”

Probably not a bad idea.

Petty is unique in all of sports. He’s not just a major star;he’s the major star. He’s the Babe, Gretzky, Ali, M.J., Tiger of his sport. About the only difference is that those one-name wonders’ places in history are debatable. Petty’s is not, some say.

His 200 victories are almost double that of No. 2, David Pearson (105).

“I rank Richard Petty with the icons of other sports,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president and former president of Darlington Raceway , who spoke at Friday’s testimonial. “He is the Babe Ruth of our sport, and I don’t think his record of victories will ever be broken. Not his seven championships and seven Daytona 500 wins. Unbelievable. He was in another league, just like the icons of other sports.”

The icon of auto racing still walks the beat both in spirit and in body.

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(c) 2008, The Kansas City Star.

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-07-11-08 2243EDT