Parade of Champions V

[ricklou]

Many consider him to be the best Stock Car driver ever and his career does not discount that thought

They do not call David Pearson the Silver Fox for nothing. David had a bag of tricks that was very deep. His best trick was getting into other drivers heads and quite a few heard voices. "Where is David ?","Is he on the lead lap ?"



Three championships and 105 victories put Pearson into an exclusive club that has few members.



David decided to cut back his schedule in the early 70's but his rivals could not tell. In 1973, Pearson's first year with the Wood Brothers he won 11 out of 18 races entered including a 5 race winning streak and a 4 race win streak. Pearson was white hot.

Darlington was but a hop and a skip for this South Carolinian as Pearson racked up a record 10 checkered flags at the famed speedway.



When they mention the All Time Greats David Pearson is right there, just ask Richard Petty.

[pb1945]

Just looking at that nose shot you would think the Dodge was a lot better aero wise. Noy so really those Torino's were tough to get by.

I think I remember something about the rear window on the Dodge upsetting the car. Didn't NASCAR allow them to put a flush window in the car ?? Does anyone remember ??

pb

[pmossberg]

I haven't been able to find anything about the rear window. But from allpar.com:

"Most racers agree that the Charger was cleaner aero wise since the rear had a spoiler of sorts built in, with the roof line seeming to cut the air better, aiding in cornering at racing speeds. Richard seemed to express as much in that regard. By then, 1972, the cars were far from stock. The Charger body probably lent itself to better hidden tricks, such as a cleaner roof area smoothing into the air dam truck, than the Road Runner."

The excerpt above is from an article on all.par.com. The full article is here and is a great read:

www.allpar.com/racing/petty-plymouth-racing.html

[songsmith1950]

If Pearson is not in this first batch with Richard there should be an investigation.
Great read and great pics. You should do this for a living.

[ricklou]

Yes Paul, the allpar link is great. I know it very well. I am not sure that Nascar let the Dodge teams treat the rear window but there was an issue with the recessed grille catching too much air. Then they came up with a flush grille.

Dodge did smooth the rear window of the Daytona for the reason you mentioned.

Before the factories got radical in the late 60's the 1966 Belvadere was a nice clean design that Petty took full advantage of. To me this is what Nascar should be looking at right now instead of the cars now that are so aero sensitive.

The COT and the previous car are so dependent on aero that the draft is largely ineffective. A flat front end with no valance promotes drafting and on the smaller superspeedways puts it in the drivers and mechanics hands.

The Superbird and the Daytona were also aero beast's. They were bad fast but extremely difficult to drive. For instance I have never heard Richard say the the Bird was his favorite car.