Visits to the Richard Petty Museum in Level Cross, NC and the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC

In addition to the historic sites and zoos that I visited during my Greensboro, NC; Columbia, SC; and Cowpens National Battlefield Road Trip, I also stopped at the Richard Petty Museum in Level Cross, NC and the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC.

The Richard Petty Museum

The Richard Petty Museum in Level Cross, NC is housed in what was the shop where many of the cars that took the Petty family raced were built. The original garage where Lee Petty built and maintained race cars is at the back of the facility and is a Historic Landmark. The museum houses trophies and mementos from Richard Petty’s career along with cars raced by Lee, Richard, Kyle, and Adam Petty, and much more. The collection of cars includes the car that Richard Petty won his 200th race in as well as the car that he ran his last race in. You can also stick your head into Petty’s Garage, their custom speed and restoration shop.

The Richard Petty Museum and Shop

Exhibits at the Richard Petty Museum

The North Carolina Transportation Museum

The North Carolina Transportation Museum is housed in the former Spencer Shops, Southern Railway’s largest locomotive maintenance and repair facility in the southeast. The museum tells the story of the Spencer Shops and features exhibits on the history of transportation from railroads to automobiles to aviation. There is an amazing collection of restored and under restoration locomotives and rail cars; there’s even a shop to maintain and restore them in the Spencer Shops roundhouse. There are plenty of antique and restored classic cars. The museum is also in the process of restoring a former Piedmont Airlines DC-3, N56V, the “Potomac Pacemaker.” Everything at the museum, from the buildings the exhibits are in, to the exhibits themselves are pieces of history.

The Spencer Shops at the North Carolina Transportation Museum