Pearson is #2 on the all time NASCAR win list (behind Petty, of course) so he certainly was well known. However, his prime years were from the mid-60s to the mid-70s (he retired in 1986) so while Petty is still active in the sport it's understandable that people under a certain age don't know as much about Pearson.
Wow. That brings back memories of a car my friend had in high school. Nineteen hundred sixty-eight Ford. As I recall, his was a Fairlane 500, but it pretty much shared that exact body style. Can't count the times we went hooning around in that car, even if it was just a junkyard 302 mated to a 4-speed.
And yeah, David Pearson was about as big a NASCAR name as ever was, IMO, and I'm no NASCAR fan.
“There is nothing can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those sanguine groundless hopes, and that lively vanity which makes all the happiness of life.”
-- Mary Worley Montagu --
'The Silver Fox' was one of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. If I asked you who Brian Piccolo or Y.A. Tittle was, would you say nobody, cause you never heard of them?
racerfink wrote: 'The Silver Fox' was one of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. If I asked you who Brian Piccolo or Y.A. Tittle was, would you say nobody, cause you never heard of them?
i have no idea who those people are..
GTXVette wrote:novaderrik wrote:Broaden Your Horizon, Look Those Names Up. What You Learn can Be A Character Building Experience. Also The Knee Jerk Reaction I Posted has been Deleted.racerfink wrote: 'The Silver Fox' was one of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. If I asked you who Brian Piccolo or Y.A. Tittle was, would you say nobody, cause you never heard of them?i have no idea who those people are..
Don't be so condescending.
You just told him he's blinkered and needs character-building because he's not familiar with a couple of race car drivers from yesteryear.
They aren't race car drivers.
I only know who Pearson was based on a documentary I once saw on speed.
racerfink wrote: They aren't race car drivers.
See, I need some character improvement too.
GTXVette wrote:novaderrik wrote:Broaden Your Horizon, Look Those Names Up. What You Learn can Be A Character Building Experience. Also The Knee Jerk Reaction I Posted has been Deleted.racerfink wrote: 'The Silver Fox' was one of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. If I asked you who Brian Piccolo or Y.A. Tittle was, would you say nobody, cause you never heard of them?i have no idea who those people are..
i have no need to look them up, but that doesn't make you a better person than me..
How well a racer is known outside of racing fans does not dismiss their importance to their sport. And by "big names" I mean drivers whose name will actually add value to an old race car. These are generally few: Petty, Earnhardt, Andretti, Shelby. Names the average person you grab off the street will know.
That said, get a couple of big Pearson fans with deep pockets in the same room at an auction and who knows. The collector market is fickle...
In reply to Ian F:
I guess it's just where I came from but I've known who Pearson was for as long as I can remember. I find it hard to believe that he is not as much of a household name as Petty, Earnhardt, Andretti and the like. In my mind he is.
I've lived in the same town as Pearson for almost 30 years and have never run into him. He doesn't seek fame and was as good a driver as Petty. He had 105 wins vs 200 for Petty, but drove half the races. He didn't run a full schedule in the 70s.
I agree that children should learn about Pearson in grade school. Had he stayed more active further into the Wide World of Sports era he would be every bit as big as Petty and AJ Foyt. He would never be Mario big. I'm pretty sure if you showed up on a remote island with the first car they'd ever seen and sped through the only village on that island someone would say "Who do you think you are? Mario Andretti?"
They raced on dirt until 1970 and I'm pretty sure that is a leaf spring car so no panhard bar. They didn't cut the schedule down until about 72.
Is this like old rednecks schooling the young rednecks? 
No racecar driver should be known by grade school. American kids could benefit from learning more about science and math though. I guess you could use nascar/racing to teach physics 
In reply to yupididit:
You could say that I guess. But as a young kid NASCAR was on the TV every Sunday and I was instantly hooked. Occasionally they would broadcast a Trans AM race or an IMSA race, and I was instantly hooked on that as well. All those race car drivers were my hero's, I remember most of them.
Growing up in New York I was the only one that wasn't into stick and ball sports. My dad raced stock cars and always had books and magazines around. I learned to read before kindergarten thanks to them and have been an avid reader all my life. He is mildly dyslexic so when I wanted to read he picked things up for me. It frustrated my teachers that I was always one of the best readers, tested very well but preferred reading about cars and racing instead of more intellectual material.
There were some teams running truck arms, mostly GM ones. A lot of guys were slow to adapt and ran the factory set up. The Petty's ran leafs and torsion bars into the 70s as well. I know more than I should about this. I probably should have done more math and science learning.
Wally wrote: There were some teams running truck arms, mostly GM ones. A lot of guys were slow to adapt and ran the factory set up. The Petty's ran leafs and torsion bars into the 70s as well. I know more than I should about this. I probably should have done more math and science learning.
It was probably because it was easier to cheat that way 
I heard stories about how they'd put fail-prone materials on the torsion bar adjuster, and some sort of sliding link arrangement on the leaf springs, so it would be legal in pre-race tech, but as soon as they started racing it would drop to a lower ride height.
Later they would just "jack it up on the big ole' shocks and it would sit high"... Richard Petty's autobiography is a good read.
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