NASCAR: David Pearson’s Five Most Significant Wins
By Mike Hutton
The next installment of our NASCAR Most Significant series, highlighting a driver’s five most significant wins, features Hall of Fame member David Pearson.
Trying to settle on just five memorable finishes from Pearson’s incredible career win total of 105 is no easy task. Clearly, one could find many more memorable wins than those listed here. However, for this series, we have consistently tried to include a driver’s first Cup series win, his first win at a track at which he seemed to dominate and certainly any memorable, “legacy” NASCAR moments which occurred during a win.
Pearson’s win total is second all-time only to Richard Petty, and may never be eclipsed. The closest active driver to Pearson on the all-time win list is Jimmie Johnson at 78. If Johnson were to win his typical 5-6 races per year, it would still take him 5-6 more years to surpass Pearson, and many believe that he will not compete (or compete at his current level) that long.
Pearson’s accolades are many. He is a member of the National Motor Sports Press Association Hall of Fame (1991,) the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1993) and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Court of Legends (1998.) He was named the “Top Stock Car Driver Of The Century” by Sports Illustrated in 1999 and was a 2011 inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
While Richard Petty has the all-time record of 200 wins, Pearson’s win total, top 5 and top 10 finishing numbers are higher (by percentage.) He often ran only a partial schedule. In fact, in each of the years that he did run a full schedule, he also won the championship (1966, 1968 and 1969.) He was the NASCAR Rookie of the Year in 1960.
Please share your memories of the “Silver Fox” by commenting below or reaching us via our social media channels.
Next: #5 - 1973 Firecracker 400 From Daytona