When NASCAR driver Kyle Petty stepped off his motorcycle after the first Kyle Petty Charity Ride in 1995, he was not planning on doing another.

“We were like, ‘it’ll never get any better than this,’ ” Petty said. “We’re not ever going to do it again – lo and behold, the next year everybody said, ‘Come on, let’s do it again.’ ”

The 28th charity ride will be May 4-10 this year and will visit Bowling Green on May 8.

Petty said for the first few years of the ride, he and other participants would visit and donate to children’s hospitals along their route, including Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Following the death of Petty’s son Adam in a racing accident in 2000, the ride began raising money for Victory Junction, a charitable organization started by Petty providing recreation activities and health care for children battling chronic illness.

“A lot of these kids are very sick,” Petty said. “We see really sick kids. There is a percentage of kids that we see that spend probably 20 to 40 days a year in a hospital.”

Petty said the inspiration for Victory Junction came when he and Adam visited the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut founded by actor and fellow racing driver Paul Newman.

Since the charity ride began nearly 30 years ago, over $21 million has been raised, according to the ride’s website. All the money raised now goes directly to Victory Junction.

“We’ve done north, south, east, west – we’ve done just about every direction,” Petty said.

This year’s ride is called the “AmerICON Ride.” It will start in Deadwood, South Dakota, and will travel through large cities including Omaha, Indianapolis and Louisville. The ride will visit the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green before heading to Bristol, Tennessee.

Petty said the ride has gone through parts of Kentucky before but never Bowling Green.

“We’re pretty excited about coming to Bowling Green,” Petty said. “We’re gonna have lunch and do a tour of the museum just kind of hanging out for an hour and a half, maybe two hours. (It’s) pretty cool to be able to be there. We’re looking forward to it.”

Along with the money raised for Victory Junction, the rides are known for the notable motorsports figures they bring out. Retired stock car driver Kenny Wallace will attend this year along with current NASCAR driver David Ragan and Max Papis, who has driven in Formula One, IndyCar and NASCAR races.

Many children who visited Victory Junction along with their families come out to see the rides, too. “It’s like a family reunion for a week,” Petty said.

The ride never has a fundraising goal, since Petty said a goal “means a limit and I have no limit.”

“If we raise $2 million, God bless us,” he said. “If we raise $2, God bless us. If somebody gives us a pig, we’ll make barbecue out of it and we’ll be blessed by it. That’s how simple it is.”