Preamble: The title comes from a book by Robert Sheffield’s 2010 novel “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran.” In the novel, he takes 25 pop songs from the 1980s and uses each song as a jumping off point to talk about his love of music and growing up in the 1980s. (If you’re more into hair metal than pop, you should also check out Chuck Klosterman’s 2001 book “Fargo Rock City.”) In “Talking to People Who Don’t Know NASCAR About Daytona, I’m going to take devote each entry in the series to one of my Top 10 favourite Daytona 500s. Instead of discussing who led what laps, etc. I’m going to describe to an audience (and probably a non-existence one) why I chose this particular race.
#7 – “The 1976 Daytona 500 – A King Dethroned by a Fox”
“The King” Richard Petty – NASCAR’s legitimate all-time winner, with 200 Cup wins, 7 championships and 7 wins in the Daytona 500 (and five prior to 1976).
“The Silver Fox” David Pearson – Second on the all-time wins list, three champions of his own but, heading into the 1976 Daytona 500, had never won the sport’s biggest race
Petty running for his family’s racing team in the #43 STP Dodge vs. Pearson’s #21 Purolator Ford with the Wood Brothers was about as close to a heavyweight bout as you could get in NASCAR. It was the Yankees and the Red Sox, Muhammed Ali vs. “Smoking Joe” Frasier, or, to put it in wrestling terms, Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant.
Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, Petty vs. Pearson was THE rivalry in NASCAR. It didn’t end in fisticuffs the way Joey Logano vs. Kyle Busch did. Neither driver intentionally wrecked the other the way Logano and Matt Kenseth did during their rivalry. Instead, Richard Petty and David Pearson just flat out raced each other. Their rivalry was built on mutual respect and both knew if they were going to win, whether at Daytona or Dover, Charlotte or Bristol, they were going to have to get past the other driver.
It was no different in 1976. By the time the end of the race began to play itself out, third-place Benny Parsons was two laps down. This race would be won by either the King or the Silver Fox.
Richard Petty was on point as the leaders took the white flag but Pearson was right there, within inches of the King’s back bumper. The King put a few feet of distance between him and Pearson as the duo went into the Turn 1.
But coming out of Turn 2 and heading down the backstretch, Pearson had used the draft to catch Petty. Midway down the backstretch, Pearson tried to use that same draft to slingshot past Petty.
Before the installation of restrictor plates, that was a move drivers could use on those superspeedways, using the airflow and momentum to pass the leader.
After 1987, that move would become largely mute. Dale Earnhardt, perhaps the greatest restrictor plate racer in NASCAR history, hated it because drivers would pull out and slam on the gas…and go nowhere. Without a drafting partner, cars just didn’t have the horsepower to gain enough momentum and advance.
In modern day superspeedway racing, they race in packs and often a driver will be forced out of line – into “the sucker hole” as Darrell Waltrip calls it – and not only not advance but will lose multiple spots until they can find a spot back in line.
But in the 1970s, the legends like Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Allison, etc. knew how to take advantage of the airflow and could make the slingshot work. And on the final lap of the 1976 Daytona 500, David Pearson made the slingshot work and went into Turn 3 with the lead.
The problem was that a lapped car ahead of him and Pearson had to go high to get around him. That allowed Petty to close on Pearson and then dive to the bottom to retake the lead in Turn 4.
Or so he thought.
Another difference between racing in the 1970s and today is Richard Petty and David Pearson did not have spotters. It was up to the driver to ensure one had cleared the other. And Richard Petty had not quite cleared David Pearson.
The initial contact between the #43 and the #21 sent Pearson into the wall, just before the entrance to pit road. Petty fishtailed and slid into the wall just past the entrance. He continued to spin through the infield grass and came to rest some 75-100 yards from the start/finish line. The car had stalled and would not refire.
Pearson, meanwhile, collided with a car coming down pit road. That turned out to be fortuitous for the Silver Fox, as it turned his Ford Mercury in the right direction. He was able to keep the car in neutral and when it re-fired, he was able to make his way towards the finish line.
Pearson’s speed as he crossed the finish line to win the 1976 Daytona 500 was perhaps the slowest in NASCAR history and certainly the slowest in the history of the Daytona 500. Afterwards, he posed for photos in Victory Lane with his war-torn #21 Ford Mercury, the entire front end looking like… well, as if he had slammed it into a concrete wall. But David Pearson, a three-time NASCAR champion, was now a champion of the Daytona 500.
And if it’s possible to feel bad for a 7-time winner of the race, you have to feel bad for Richard Petty. When you look back at Petty and the Daytona 500, by his own accord, there are three things he’s remembered for – winning the race a bunch of times, his horrific wreck in 1988 (where he barrel-rolled down the front stretch), and losing to Pearson in 1976. Even his win in 1979 would be overshadowed by the fight that took place afterwards.
But that’s another story.
johnmilner.ca 