As Cunning As a ‘Silver Fox’, As Good as Gold: David Pearson & the Wood Brothers

Throughout Wood Brothers Racing’s history, 20 drivers have collected a trophy with the team.

Additionally, 20 drivers on the NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list strapped into a Wood Brothers car at least one time.

Yet, the debate of who the best of that bunch is might not even be an argument.

Allow me to introduce you to an unflappable, nonchalant man: the one and only David Pearson.

Known as “The King of Cool,” Pearson possessed more talent in his thumb than several drivers have ever known and a persona that denied his competitors from being rubbed the wrong way.

Already entrenched as a force in the garage, Pearson joined the crafty Wood Brothers Racing team in 1972. By this point, he had already racked up three NASCAR Cup Series titles, 60 wins and enough fans to go around.

Yet, the walking giant of NASCAR was not one to showboat, letting his driving do the talking.

The partnership was instantly fruitful, further forging the legacy the Wood Brothers had built.

“We picked at each other all the time,” Leonard Wood told Frontstretch. “I’d call him a scoundrel, then [Pearson] transferred the name back over to me. He was just great to work with. Back then, you’d qualify whenever you wanted to during the day and if the cloud coverage came over, you wanted to go out and qualify. A cloud would come over and he’d be hiding, picking on me.

“He was one guy that you didn’t have to worry about whether or not he’s taking the right line or if the car wasn’t running. You ruled that out. You might as well work on your car, because it definitely wasn’t him.”

Pearson’s driving style is what captivated so many eyes, an unorthodox approach that separated himself from the competition.

“The way he drove, you could set a car up to roll free through the corner,” Wood said. “Other guys would be loose with it, so you could run a taller gear because it’s rolling free through the corner. [David] would have this taller gear, and like at Darlington [Raceway], he’d roll out of the gas early because that taller gear wouldn’t slow down. He’d just go in and take a set, pick up the throttle and blow you away down the straightaway.”

Perhaps no one had more inside knowledge and exposure to the enigma and awe of Pearson’s career than his son, Larry Pearson — one of David’s three sons.

“It was great,” Larry Pearson told Frontstretch about watching his dad at WBR. “He never ran a full schedule, and yet he won 43 races (with WBR). It was like a big family. It was a really fun time to go to the race track knowing that he had a really good chance to win the race. That’s what he did. He lived and breathed racing. If he didn’t think he’d have a shot to win, he wouldn’t do it. “

One track where you didn’t have to question whether or not Pearson would be competitive, as well one that embodied the tenacity of his approach, was Darlington Raceway — a track that truly separates the men from the boys.

Pearson was a 10-time winner at “The Lady in Black” (most of all drivers), while Larry Pearson can claim a win of his own, triumphing there in 1995 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

In his time with the Wood Brothers, David Pearson graced Darlington’s victory lane six times. So what made the Pearson family’s home track their playground?

“You had to drive,” Larry Pearson said. “You had to pay attention the whole race, every lap. It’s just a driver’s track. If you win Darlington, you’ve done something. Looking at the track in the grandstands, it looks fairly wide. But racing it? You had one, maybe one-and-half grooves. You have to run next to the wall, and obviously, you’re going to scrape it every now and then. To go fast, you have to.”

What one driver would consider too loose was just right for Pearson, who only needed the car to be close to good to have a shot. His laid-back approach was evident in his physical appearance, even wearing penny loafers at times when he raced.

Perhaps a calling card for a Pearson car was a cigarette lighter that sat in the automobile. And when fans said he looked like his performances were easy, they may not have been wrong, according to a story Wood recalls.

“He had a cigarette lighter in his car,” Wood said. “He blew by Buddy Baker and lit the cigarette as he passed him at the start/finish line at Darlington. Buddy was the type of guy to kind of get upset, but that’s what [David] would do. He’d work on your mind. You never knew how much David Pearson had left because he’d turn it on at the last minute, and they didn’t know what hit them.”

Wood said that a select breed of drivers are born naturals, knowing instinctively where to run. That defined Pearson, someone who could run any line, even if it didn’t seem right.

“I remember Dale Inman [Richard Petty‘s crew chief] was at Rockingham, and David Pearson is driving for us,” Wood recounted. “He’s running around there on the bottom. That’s what you wanted to do. So [Inman] says, ‘What do you think we can do to make our car run higher,’ rubbing it in to me, you know? It so happened that day that David ran it high, and that was a good spot for our car. We won the race and beat him. His wouldn’t run up there.”

Inman’s playful jab illustrates a lighthearted side to what was one of the most hard-nosed, yet cordial, rivalries in motorsports history.

When you think of rivalries in sports, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics come to mind in the NBA. Maybe you think of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Perhaps the long-standing feud between the Montreal Canadians and Boston Bruins comes to the surface.

For NASCAR, the Petty-Pearson rivalry embodied the 1970s. The duo finished first and second 63 times. Who held the advantage? That would be Pearson, who barely eclipsed Petty by winning 33 of those instances. Yet, contrary to the connotation of what many think “rivalry” means, there was no ill will between the two.

“I would say it was the utmost respect for each other,” Larry Pearson said of his father’s feelings about the rivalry. “Richard wasn’t the only one he had to beat. Most of the time, it came down to those two, but you had Cale [Yarborough]; you had Bobby Allison, who was a great driver himself; Darrell [Waltrip] was coming along at that time. For some reason, it always came down to Daddy and Richard. Daddy beat Richard 33 times. It was a good rivalry, but it was a clean rivalry. They never had words for each other.”

The pinnacle of the rivalry came in the famous 1976 Daytona 500.

With both drivers throwing haymakers at each other in the closing laps, the final lap was one of both chaos and poetic beauty. With the competition out of sight, the two both used slingshot passes on each other before colliding exiting turn 4.

Both cars spun into the outside wall and came to a rest in the infield. Petty was less than 100 yards away from the start/finish line, but despite persistent attempts, could not get his car re-fired.

Meanwhile, Pearson limped home to score his lone victory in “The Great American Race” in one of the all-time greatest finishes.

“I think it was Eddie Wood that came over the radio with a lap or two laps to go, and Daddy said he couldn’t pass him,” Larry Pearson said. “Well, apparently he got a good draft because was able to get him and pass him entering turn 3, and Richard slid back under him. Richard thought he had cleared him, went to move up, and they crashed. Daddy pushed his clutch in to keep the motor running and was able to cross the start/finish line. It was a big moment for everybody. I was standing in the pits, and it was a very, very good time for everybody.”

The race still replays in the minds of those who witnessed it that day, with younger generations only able to watch in awe as they view re-runs of the event.

As it is said, all good things must come to an end. The Pearson-Wood Brothers partnership ended by accident in 1979. Ironically, it occurred at Pearson’s best track: Darlington.

“Word has it he was fired,” Larry said. “He was not — it was a mutual agreement. There was just some miscommunication during a pit stop. They only had one radio, and Eddie Wood was wearing the radio. They were talking about how they had to beat Darrell [Waltrip] out of the pits, and they went over and changed the right sides.

“[David] was concentrating on Darrell, who pitted ahead of him. When they changed the right side, they ran around and was doing the left side, and there was a guy taking the lug nuts off the left side while they were changing the right side, and he didn’t see him because there was a guy standing in front of the car cleaning the windshield.

“When they dropped the jack, they ran around to the left side, and he took off. Eddie Wood was saying, ‘Woah, woah, woah,’ and Daddy thought he was saying, ‘Go, go, go.’ So that was the whole story.”

As abrupt and shocking of an ending as it was, both parties resented it in the aftermath, left to wonder what could have been. Still, the two sides maintained a close relationship with one another throughout Pearson’s life.

Overall, Pearson visited victory lane 43 times with WBR, the team’s winningest driver, including an 11-win campaign in 1973 that saw Pearson finish worse than third only four times.

The 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee passed away in 2018. Yet, he left behind a legacy that continues to reverberate throughout the garage, and one that propelled the Wood Brothers to what they are today.

Larry Pearson recounted a time his father once said it was a mystery how many races the two sides could have won together had he driven for them from the start.

Nevertheless, he produced a legacy larger than life. There was no driver more crafty, perhaps no such accomplished driver more humble, than “The Silver Fox.”