Notes:
Adam Petty was a member of NASCAR's most famous driving family, the first fourth-generation driver in stock car racing. Focused entirely on racing, Adam was the grandson of Richard Petty, known as "The King" of stock-car racing, with a record 200 victories and seven Championships (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1979) and the son of Kyle Petty, a Winston Cup regular for more than 20 years.

In 1998 Adam Petty won an ARCA race at Charlotte, driving a Pontiac, and in 1999 he contested the XFINITY series, leading 23 of his 29 races. In sight of the 2000 season, he moved up to the big cars of the NASCAR Busch Series. He lost his life in an accident which happened during practice for the Busch 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway, on Friday, 12 May 2000.

Adam Petty's car crashed head-on into the turn 3 wall. He was taken to Concord Hospital in Loudon, New Hampshire, where he succumbed to head injuries, particularly a basilar skull fracture. The accident was quite probably caused by a stuck throttle.

Eight weeks after Adam Petty's death, Kenny Irwin would suffer a very similar accident, also related to the same causes and at the same point of the track and, sadly, with the same consequences.

Adam Petty was 19-years-old, his body was cremated. He died just five weeks after his great-grandfather Lee Petty, three-time winner of the Grand National Championship in 1954, 1958 and 1959, who lived to see him racing but passed away on 05 April 2000.

Away from the track, Adam Petty volunteered at the Boggy Creek camp in Florida, where terminally ill and seriously disabled kids could get a fun activity holiday. After his fatal accident, Petty Enterprises created a camp for disabled children in North Carolina, the Victory Junction Gang Camp. The residential Summer camp is part of the non-profit organization called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, which was established by fellow race car driver and film actor Paul Newman in the late 1980s. One of the Victory Junction buildings is a huge representation of Adam Petty's #45 green-red-purple and yellow NASCAR car. Adam's brother Austin Petty works on day-to-day operations at the camp and even Richard Petty devoted a lot of his time to the project.

• North Carolina, Birth Indexes, 1800-2000.
• Book "The History of America's Speedways - Past & Present", by Allan E. Brown, third edition, first printing, November 2003, America's Speedways, PO Box 448, Comstock Park, MI, 49321-0448, United States, ISBN 0-931105-61-7, page 455.
• Book "The History of America's Speedways - Past & Present", 2nd. edition, by Allan E. Brown, Comstock Park, MI, United States, 1994, ISBN 0-931105-42-0, page 348.
• Magazine Autosprint, issue of 16 May 2000, page 63.
• Magazine MotorSport, issue of March 2014, pages 84/85.
• Newspaper Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME, United States), issue of Monday, 19 May 2000, page C1, article "Safety First" by Kalle Oakes, retrieved by website http://news.google.com/newspapers.
• Newspaper The Gainesville Sun (Gainesville, FL, United States), issue of Monday, 15 May 2000, page 2C, article "Adam Petty funeral today" [E1].
• Newspaper The Item (Sumter, SC, United States), issue of Tuesday, 16 May 2000, page 4 B, article "More than 1,000 attend memorial for Adam Petty", by Randall Chase (Associated Press) [E1].
• Newspaper Reading Eagle (Reading, PA, United States), issue of Wednesday, 19 July 2000, page D4, article "Kyle Petty to drive Adam's Busch car" [E1].
• Newspaper The Gainesville Sun (Gainesville, FL, United States), issue of Sunday, 13 May 2001, page 8C, article "Keller gains emotional win", by Mike Recht (Associated Press) [E1].
• Newspaper The Argus-Press (Owosso, MI, United States), issue of Saturday, 21 July 2001, page 9, article "Kyle Petty paints car black, returns to site of son's death", Associated Press wire story [E1].
• Newspaper TimesDaily (Florence, AL, United States), issue of Thursday, 17 June 2004, page 8 C, article "Camp NASCAR. Victory Junction honors Adam Petty, helps sick children", by Aaron Beard (Associated Press) [E1].
• Website The North American Motorsport Pages, by Richard Welty, page http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/NHIS.html .
• Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 21, posting by "ReWind", message http://forums.autosport.com/topic/9705-speeds-ultimate-price-the-toll/page-21#entry1472063 .
• Website Team Terrier, page http://www.teamterrier.com/Adam.html.
• Website Decades Of Racing, page http://www.decadesofracing.net/Petty.htm .
• Website USA Today, article, "Adam Petty (1980-2000)", page http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/petty.htm and article "Death halts Petty's pursuit of destiny", by Larry Woody, page http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/smbu008.htm .
• Website PageWise, article "Kenny Irwin biography", page http://tx.essortment.com/kennyirwinbiog_rwww.htm .
• Website Orlando Sentinel, article "NASCAR legend or rookie, skull injury still kills", by Ed Hinton, published on 08 April 2001, page http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-asec-driver040801.story?coll=orl-home-headlines .
• Website Find-A-Grave: Adam Petty.
• Website ESPN, page http://espn.go.com/auto/nascar/news/2000/0512/528532.html .
• E-mail by Andrew McPhee, dated 03 March 2004.
• E-mail by Jim Michels, dated 28 December 2004.
• E-mail by Hans Fohr, dated 29 April 2005.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 28 January 2014, citing [E1].