David Pearson (racing driver)

Pearson and Petty were the only two cars on the lead lap by a restart on the 311th lap (of 400).

Petty made up six seconds on Pearson in 20 laps before Petty had to retire with a blown engine.

Pearson held a three lap lead over Fireball Roberts and was leading late in the race until he ran over some Debris on the backstretch and blew a tire with only two laps remaining.

Pearson drove the car around the track slowly for the final lap at approximately 20 mph to take the victory.

David Gene Pearson (December 22, 1934 – November 12, 2018) was an American stock car driver, who raced from 1960 to 1986 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 21 Mercury for Wood Brothers Racing.

In 1952, he raced a 1940 Ford at dirt tracks and won $30 in an outlaw class race.

He kept winning and attracted the attention of Spartanburg's racing community, including Joe Littlejohn.

Pearson won the 1960 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award and three Cup Series championships (1966, 1968, and 1969).

He never missed a race in the years he was active.

Pearson began racing in NASCAR's Grand National series during the 1960 season shortly after winning the 1959 track championship at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

His first NASCAR start was the first 1960 Daytona 500 qualifying race and he finished 17th in a self-owned car that he had purchased from Jack White.

He started 22 events that season, finishing 23rd in season points and was voted the 1960 NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

His season was highlighted by a second-place finish at Gamecock Speedway (Sumter, South Carolina), a fourth-place finish at Hickory Motor Speedway and fifth after starting on the pole position at his hometown track at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg.

When Pearson bent the frame of his own race car early in the 1961 season, he began working as a house roofer in Spartanburg to support his family, which included two sons.

Darel Dieringer had a contract dispute with a tire company and was not able to compete in the inaugural World 600 at Charlotte.

Littlejohn was at the track, and he recommended that car builder Ray Fox hire Pearson.

Pearson was unsure if he should join the team, and Fox was not convinced that he should trust his car to the relatively untested 26-year-old driver.

After Pearson had a successful test run, he qualified the car with the third fastest time behind Richard Petty and Joe Weatherly.

Pearson raced his way into the lead early in the event and was the leader after the first round of pit stops.

He started in 19 races during the 1961 season and he had three wins to finish thirteenth in season points, winning his first NASCAR race in a Fox-prepared car at Concord Speedway.

NASCAR described his 1974 season as an indication of his "consistent greatness", finishing third in the season points having competed in only 19 of 30 races.

Pearson's career paralleled Richard Petty's, the driver who has won the most races in NASCAR history.

They accounted for 63 first/second-place finishes, with the edge going to Pearson.

Petty had 200 wins in 1,184 starts, while Pearson had 105 wins in 574 starts.

Pearson was nicknamed the "Fox" (and later the "Silver Fox") for his calculated approach to racing.

Pearson ended his career in 1986, and holds the second position on NASCAR's all-time win list with 105 victories; as well as achieving 113 pole positions.

Pearson was successful in different venues of racing; he won three times on road courses, 48 times on superspeedways, 54 times on short tracks, and had 23 dirt track wins.

Pearson finished with at least one Top 10 finish in each of his 27 seasons.

ESPN described him as being a "plain-spoken, humble man, and that added up to...."

Petty had high praises for Pearson, saying, "He could beat you on a short track, he could beat you on a superspeedway, he could beat you on a road course, he could beat you on a dirt track. It didn't hurt as bad to lose to Pearson as it did to some of the others, because I knew how good he was."

Pearson said of Petty: "I always felt that if I beat him I beat the best, and I heard he said the same thing about me."

Petty went further by saying that he believed Pearson would have pulled off 200 victories like him, if he ran the full schedules of NASCAR racing.

Pearson was born near Spartanburg, South Carolina.

When Pearson was young, he climbed a tree at the local stock car racing track (Spartanburg Fairgrounds) to see the races.

Pearson said, "I'd always been interested in cars, and I decided right then that was what I wanted to do with my life."

He worked with his brother in a car body repair shop and used the money earned to purchase a Ford coach.

Pearson removed the fenders to convert the vehicle into a street rod.

He jumped the car over ditches until he rolled it over.

His mother paid him to junk the car, and he used the money to purchase another car to build.

At his finalist nomination for NASCAR Hall of Fame's inaugural 2010 class, NASCAR described Pearson as "... the model of NASCAR efficiency during his career. With little exaggeration, when Pearson showed up at a race track, he won."