Richard Petty remembers first visit to Daytona in our new book, 'High Banks & Heroes'

Editor's note : "High Banks & Heroes," a book detailing Daytona International Speedway and its signature event , the Daytona 500, will be available this fall and currently available for pre-order . The book is a collaboration between The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Pediment Publishing. Below is the book's foreword, provided by seven-time NASCAR champ and seven-time Daytona 500 winner Richard Petty .

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Daytona International Speedway. None of us had ever seen the place, not even a picture. We’d just heard about it.

GREAT AMERICAN BOOK Celebrate a fast-paced history of the Daytona 500 with new book; foreword by Richard Petty

We went in through the tunnel in Turn 4 and as we came out into the infield, it was just massive. The first and second corners looked like a wall. Everything else was just flat. We were used to little dirt tracks. Darlington was the biggest thing we had ever run.

None of us had ever seen a 2.5-mile race track like Daytona. It was almost overwhelming. Of course, I was just a 21-year-old kid, so anything new was good. And I knew from that first time I saw it, Daytona was going to be good for me.

When we went to Daytona, I had just started driving. I was still learning at every race. My first race at Daytona was the convertible race. I remember we came up on lapped traffic and just pulled out and went around them. The next thing I knew, I looked in the mirror and those lapped cars were running right along with us!

I’m sitting there and I said to myself, “I know what I’m going to do.”

It was the last few laps and, as we came off Turn 2 onto the backstretch — I think I’m running third — I pulled out and just blew by the first two cars. I thought, “Man, this is easy!” Then, I went through Turns 3 and 4, and as we came off the corner, they went back by me! I just made my move too quick.

Guys like my dad, Fireball Roberts and Curtis Turner, they were used to nudging or waiting for someone to slip to get by them, but Daytona was a completely different kind of racing. I didn’t have the experience they had. I didn’t have the old habits. I didn’t have to unlearn old ways. I was learning new. I never lost that. For me, Daytona always felt like my first time.

I came along at the right time, when NASCAR and racing were changing. Daytona was the start of the Superspeedway Era.

We’d go to Daytona every February, and each year, Daytona got bigger and bigger and more important. I won my first race there in 1964 and it changed everything. If I hadn’t won another race that whole year, I was still a “winner.” I never forgot that.

Daytona and I grew up together in a lot of ways. The more people heard about Daytona, the more people heard about Richard Petty. I was fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 seven times, and each one was special. But I think about the ones I lost just as much, especially 1976 with me and David Pearson.

Bill France had the vision and the dream. He knew from the beginning that Daytona had to be special. It was special then and it still is now. When you think of horse racing, you think of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs. Golf? You think of The Masters at Augusta. IndyCar Racing? You think of Indianapolis. When anyone thinks of NASCAR, Daytona is always at the top of that list.

I don’t know where the sport would be if there was no Daytona. I know for sure it wouldn’t be what it is today. As for me, every year as I pass through that tunnel in Turn 4 and come out into the infield, I’m right back to being that 21-year-old kid again.

I love Daytona.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Richard Petty remembers first visit to Daytona in our new book, 'High Banks & Heroes'