At Riverside in February of 1969, Richard Petty proved two things: He knew how to drive a road course, and he knew how to win in a Ford.

As the 1969 NASCAR season began to unfold, Richard Petty’s army of fans learned, often to their horror, that the reports were true. Richard had indeed bolted from the Plymouth camp and was now driving a Ford—still in familiar Petty Blue, but it was a Ford nonetheless. The year before, Petty had asked his Chrysler backers to switch his deal from Plymouth to Dodge to take advantage of the Dodge’s superior aerodynamic package, but the corporate bosses turned him down. Naturally, Ford executives were more than willing to bring him into their ambitious stock-car program. And so it was that Petty appeared at Riverside, the first NASCAR Grand National event of the calendar year, in a brand new Holman Moody Ford Torino.

Throughout his stellar driving career, Petty was known as a great all-rounder, not so much a road course sharpshooter. So it might surprise some fans to learn that six of Petty’s 200 NASCAR victories came on road courses: five at Riverside, California and one at Bridgehampton, New York. To pick up the first of his Riverside wins in ’69, Petty was able to capitalize on the mistakes of others, for example when RIverside maestro Dan Gurney spun off the course, and Mario Andretti, too. Petty slipped off into the dirt himself a few times, but he sill managed to prevail over AJ Foyt, driving another Ford. Courtesy of NASCAR All Out, here’s a wonderful old race recap that was originally presented by Falstaff Brewing back in the day. Enjoy the show.