David Gene Pearson (December 22, 1934 – November 12, 2018), nicknamed The Fox and later The Silver Fox, was an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner, who raced from 1960 to 1986 in the now NASCAR Cup Series. Throughout his career, Pearson raced under several car numbers, though he was most prominently known for driving the No. 21 Mercury Montego and Cougar for Wood Brothers Racing between 1972 and 1979 in the Cup Series.
Pearson won the 1960 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award and three Cup Series championships (1966, 1968, and 1969). NASCAR described his 1974 season as an indication of his "consistent greatness", finishing third in the season points having competed in only nineteen of thirty 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 two-hundred wins in 1,184 starts, while Pearson had 105 wins in 574 starts.
At his finalist nomination for the 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." 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-ten 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.
Background 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. 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.
Career
1960s Pearson began racing in NASCAR's Grand National series during the 1960 seasonFleischman, page 31 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.Fleischman, page 307 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. 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 twenty 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 to take the victory.
Pearson started in 19 races during the 1961 season and he had three wins to finish thirteenth in season points,Fleischman, page 32 winning his first NASCAR race in a Fox-prepared car at Concord Speedway.Fleischman, page 323 Later in the season, he won the Firecracker 250 at Daytona and the Dixie 400 at Atlanta.
Pearson started in only twelve of 53 events in 1962 yet managed to finish tenth in season points.Fleischman, page 33 Pearson began the season racing for Fox until Fox retired; he started for Petty Enterprises, Cotton Owens, and Bud Moore that season. He had seven top ten finishes and no wins. During 41 starts in 55 races, Pearson finished the 1963 season sixth in points for Cotton Owens. He held two pole positions and had no wins.Fleischman, page 34
In 1964, he had eight wins at Richmond, Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Occoneechee Speedway, Boyd Speedway, Lincoln Speedway, Rambi Raceway, Columbia Speedway and Hickory Motor Speedway.Fleischman, pp. 324–325 Pearson finished third in the championship, which was won by Petty for the first time. He qualified on the pole position for twelve events.
NASCAR banned the Mopar Hemi engine in 1965, so Petty and Pearson boycotted many races rather than compete with a non-competitive engine against Ford and Mercury drivers.Fleischman, page 35 Both competed in drag racing. Pearson drove a Dodge Dart station wagon nicknamed the "Cotton Picker" for Owens. NASCAR owner Bill France Sr. adjusted the engine rules later in the season to bring back Mopar drivers; Petty and Pearson ended up competing in fourteen of 55 events. Pearson won two of the final 21 races (Columbia and Richmond) to finish fortieth in the season points.
In his second full-time season, Pearson won his first of three NASCAR championships in 1966.Fleischman, p. 36 He won fifteen of 49 events, which was the second most in NASCAR history at that time. Early in the season, Pearson won at Hickory, Columbia, Greenville-Pickens, and Winston-Salem Speedway to complete four straight victories.Fleischman, page 325 Throughout the season, Pearson won at Richmond, Dog Track Speedway, New Asheville Speedway, Smokey Mountain Raceway, the second Greenville-Pickens race, Bridgehampton Race Circuit, Fonda Speedway, Bowman Gray Stadium, and the second Richmond race.
Pearson ran a partial season in 1967, competing in 22 of 48 races. He began the season racing for Cotton Owens before switching after the thirteenth race to Holman Moody. Pearson quit after there was a misunderstanding about who would drive the team's tow truck. Dodge decided to stop racing in NASCAR, so Pearson switched away from Owen's Dodges in favor of Holman Moody's Fords. He had two wins (Bristol, Greenville-Pickens), both for Owens, in a season that was dominated by Petty's all-time record 27 victories (including all-time record ten straight).Fleischman, page 37 Pearson finished seventh in season points.
In the second season of running the full schedule, Petty and Pearson each won 16 races during 1968; Pearson won the championship and Petty finished third.Fleischman, page 38 Pearson competed primarily for Holman-Moody, winning at Bristol, Richmond, North Wilkesboro, Asheville-Weaverville Speedway, Darlington, Beltsville Speedway, Langley Field Speedway, Charlotte, Middle Georgia Raceway, Bristol, Nashville Speedway, Columbia, Bowman-Gray, Asheville-Weaverville, Hickory, and Augusta Speedway. He added twelve pole positions.
Pearson won his third and final championship in his final season running the full schedule in 1969.Fleischman, page 39 The championship tied Pearson with Lee Petty for the most championships in NASCAR history (Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson hold the current record with seven titles each). He started out the season at the 1969 Daytona 500 by being the first driver to qualify faster than 190 miles per hour with a speed of .
In 51 starts, Pearson had eleven wins, 42 top-fives, and 44 top-tens. He earned a record $229,760 for his effort. Pearson completed 14,270 laps in 1969, which is the most laps ever in a NASCAR Cup season.Fleischman, page 309 He was one of eleven drivers to boycott the first race at Talladega after concerns with the tires; he rejoined the tour at the following event.
1970s
The 1970 season started with Pearson competing part-time, as he would for the rest of his career. Pearson led the Daytona 500 under caution with thirteen laps remaining and changed only his right side tires in a two-tire pit stop. Pete Hamilton did a four-tire stop and passed Pearson after the restart for the victory.Falk, page 62 In nineteen starts, he won a single race (Darlington) and earned two pole positions (Bristol, Darlington) to finish 23rd in points.
R. J. Reynolds began sponsoring NASCAR in 1971 and the Grand National series was retitled the Winston Cup Series. Holman Moody and Pearson split near the middle of the season after Pearson refused to take a 10% pay cut. He won two races before the split (Daytona Twin 125 and Bristol) and four-second-place finishes. Pearson finished the season by competing in seven races for Ray Nichels. He recorded one top-ten finish (eighth at the July Daytona race), but suffered mechanical problems in all of the other races. For the season he finished 51st in points after competing in 17 races with nine top-tens and eight top-fives.
At R. J. Reynolds' request, NASCAR began cutting down on the number of races in 1972 season by eliminating midweek races.Fleischman, page 41 It also dropped thirteen short tracks and had a 31-race schedule.Fleischman, page 54 Pearson began racing for the Wood Brothers that season. He raced in seventeen of the events and had six wins, which earned him a twentieth place finish in the season points. Pearson was racing against Bobby Isaac and Buddy Baker at the end of the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway when Jimmy Crawford spun into Isaac; Pearson won the race. He won later that season at the Firecracker 400, a race that he would win three straight times.Falk, page 70
While Pearson only started in 18 (of 28) races during 1973, he was named the NASCAR driver of the Year after finishing eighth in points. He won eleven of those eighteen races in the Wood Brothers Mercury.Fleischman, page 55 His 61% win percentage is the highest in NASCAR history.Fleischman, page 311 He had wins at North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham), Atlanta, Darlington, Martinsville, Talladega, Dover, Michigan, second Daytona race, second Atlanta race, second Dover race, and the second Rockingham race. The remaining seven races contained four Did Not Finishes (DNFs), two-second-place finishes and one third place. At the first Rockingham event, Pearson led 499 of 500 miles, giving up the lead only for a pit stop.Fleischman, page 56 He won eight pole positions with a 3.4 average starting position.