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Sprint Cup
CUP: NHoF Inductee Pearson Loved And Revered By All, Especially The Pettys
SPEED premieres a one-hour David Pearson Hall of Fame biography on Friday at 11 p.m. ET...
David Pearson will be enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 23. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
NHOF INDUCTEE PEARSON LOVED AND REVERED BY ALL, ESPECIALLY THE PETTY CLAN
KYLE PETTY RECALLS GROWING UP AND TRAVELING WITH “THE SILVER FOX” AND HIS CHILDREN
SPEED™ PREMIERES ONE-HOUR PEARSON HALL OF FAME BIOGRAPHY MAY 6 AT 11 P.M. ET
The wise adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” fits well in racing, but it wasn’t a proverb that Richard Petty ever needed to heed during his legendary battles with 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee David Pearson.
The record books show Petty and Pearson finished first and second to each other a staggering 63 times. However, while they were arch rivals on the track, Kyle Petty says he and his three sisters viewed “The Silver Fox” as anything but the hated villain in black. Pearson was a friend and companion to the Petty family and the father of some of Kyle’s most cherished childhood friends all those years on the road.
As SPEED will chronicle in its one-hour NASCAR Hall of Fame biography special on Pearson premiering May 6 at 11 p.m. ET and during its 8 p.m. ET broadcast of the May 23 Induction Ceremony, Pearson was a quiet man who shirked the spotlight but always managed to find it by virtue of 105 victories and three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships. Perhaps more attention-grabbing for Pearson, though, were his legendary clashes with Richard Petty, inductee to the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“Every battle was a battle with Petty and Pearson,” said SPEED analyst Kyle Petty, Richard’s son. “They ran first and second 63 times and swapped those spots in countless races. That was just typical Pearson/Petty racing. It was as much Pearson/Petty as it was Petty Enterprises/Wood Brothers, which was how we all viewed it. That era is what made the sport what it is today. Those two guys’ weekly battles were the fabric of the sport and launched the sport from its very beginnings to what we have today. Look back at the newspapers from those days and Pearson/Petty was all they wrote about. We sit here today and people talk about rivalries, but they’re usually talking about one that’s 40 years old because not too many worth mentioning have come along since then.”
Pearson and Petty defined and perfected a NASCAR rivalry.
“When we talk about how much we need rivalries in the sport, the Pearson/Petty rivalry should be held up as a great example of how two guys can be fierce rivals on the race track but also have a ton of respect for each other off the track,” Kyle Petty said. “If you ask Richard Petty who the best driver he ever saw drive was, he’d say David Pearson. It’s as simple as that. That was a different type of rivalry than we sometimes talk about today. We all think good rivalries involve guys talking junk and mouthing off at each other, but not necessarily always getting it done on the race track, but those two guys definitely got it done on the track, too.”
While Pearson was the driver most likely to steal victory from Richard Petty, Kyle Petty says his father’s primary opponent wasn’t a persona non grata among his family circle. Pearson was a respected and trusted friend, as were his children.
“There was a huge group of us kids that ran around together - Larry, Ricky and Eddie, Pearson’s kids, and Bobby’s (Allison) kids, Davey, Clifford, Bonnie and Carrie, and Donnie Allison’s kids,” Kyle Petty recalled. “So many of us hung out and stayed together at the hotels when our fathers went off to race. Some people might have expected us to hate each other or talk junk about the other’s father, but we all were close friends. We really thought Pearson was a good guy. He wasn’t the enemy. He and Bobby and Donnie would sit by the hotel pool and we’d all hang out together. It was a totally different sport and time than now. I never hated Bobby Allison or David Pearson. I loved David Pearson when drove that 17 car for Holman Moody because it was gold and blue. I was used to seeing straight Petty blue all the time, so to see a car painted a little differently was always fun.”
The Pearson and Petty children may not have harbored any ill will against the others’ parent, but they did concoct a friendly challenge all their own.
“The fiercest rivalry we had was at Martinsville, where they used to have a scoreboard down in turns one and two, and every 15 laps, a guy would walk down and change the scoreboard,” Kyle Petty reminisced. “At the end of the race, the Pearsons would get up and put 21 or 17 on it. Then we’d run over there and put the 43 on all the top-five positions. Then they’d put the 17 across the board. That back-and-forth was as heated as it ever got with us, and it was all in fun. We were just kids cutting up.”
Kyle and his siblings rooted for their father over Pearson, but he says they didn’t single out Pearson.
“I wouldn’t say we wanted The King to beat Pearson more than anyone else,” Kyle Petty explained. “You just wanted your father to win. Ricky and Larry (Pearson) felt the same way. We all watched in the infield and we all wanted our dad to win. But it wasn’t about beating somebody – it was about beating everybody. Pearson was the guy, especially on the speedways, that you knew you had to beat in order to win.”
Although decades have passed since Pearson and Petty faced off on the track, their rivalry remains unparalleled.
“Nothing I’ve seen since the mid-‘70s comes close to what The King and Pearson and their teams did on the race track,” Kyle Petty stated. “It would be like Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports going head to head every week with Carl Edwards or someone like that all season – it just doesn’t happen anymore. It’s 2011 now and we’re still talking about them.”
About SPEED™
SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 82 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.
About FOX Sports Media Group
FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill. Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports. In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.com and scout.com, reaching over 20 million unique visitors monthly. Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.
KYLE PETTY RECALLS GROWING UP AND TRAVELING WITH “THE SILVER FOX” AND HIS CHILDREN
SPEED™ PREMIERES ONE-HOUR PEARSON HALL OF FAME BIOGRAPHY MAY 6 AT 11 P.M. ET
The wise adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” fits well in racing, but it wasn’t a proverb that Richard Petty ever needed to heed during his legendary battles with 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee David Pearson.
The record books show Petty and Pearson finished first and second to each other a staggering 63 times. However, while they were arch rivals on the track, Kyle Petty says he and his three sisters viewed “The Silver Fox” as anything but the hated villain in black. Pearson was a friend and companion to the Petty family and the father of some of Kyle’s most cherished childhood friends all those years on the road.
As SPEED will chronicle in its one-hour NASCAR Hall of Fame biography special on Pearson premiering May 6 at 11 p.m. ET and during its 8 p.m. ET broadcast of the May 23 Induction Ceremony, Pearson was a quiet man who shirked the spotlight but always managed to find it by virtue of 105 victories and three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships. Perhaps more attention-grabbing for Pearson, though, were his legendary clashes with Richard Petty, inductee to the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“Every battle was a battle with Petty and Pearson,” said SPEED analyst Kyle Petty, Richard’s son. “They ran first and second 63 times and swapped those spots in countless races. That was just typical Pearson/Petty racing. It was as much Pearson/Petty as it was Petty Enterprises/Wood Brothers, which was how we all viewed it. That era is what made the sport what it is today. Those two guys’ weekly battles were the fabric of the sport and launched the sport from its very beginnings to what we have today. Look back at the newspapers from those days and Pearson/Petty was all they wrote about. We sit here today and people talk about rivalries, but they’re usually talking about one that’s 40 years old because not too many worth mentioning have come along since then.”
Pearson and Petty defined and perfected a NASCAR rivalry.
“When we talk about how much we need rivalries in the sport, the Pearson/Petty rivalry should be held up as a great example of how two guys can be fierce rivals on the race track but also have a ton of respect for each other off the track,” Kyle Petty said. “If you ask Richard Petty who the best driver he ever saw drive was, he’d say David Pearson. It’s as simple as that. That was a different type of rivalry than we sometimes talk about today. We all think good rivalries involve guys talking junk and mouthing off at each other, but not necessarily always getting it done on the race track, but those two guys definitely got it done on the track, too.”
While Pearson was the driver most likely to steal victory from Richard Petty, Kyle Petty says his father’s primary opponent wasn’t a persona non grata among his family circle. Pearson was a respected and trusted friend, as were his children.
“There was a huge group of us kids that ran around together - Larry, Ricky and Eddie, Pearson’s kids, and Bobby’s (Allison) kids, Davey, Clifford, Bonnie and Carrie, and Donnie Allison’s kids,” Kyle Petty recalled. “So many of us hung out and stayed together at the hotels when our fathers went off to race. Some people might have expected us to hate each other or talk junk about the other’s father, but we all were close friends. We really thought Pearson was a good guy. He wasn’t the enemy. He and Bobby and Donnie would sit by the hotel pool and we’d all hang out together. It was a totally different sport and time than now. I never hated Bobby Allison or David Pearson. I loved David Pearson when drove that 17 car for Holman Moody because it was gold and blue. I was used to seeing straight Petty blue all the time, so to see a car painted a little differently was always fun.”
The Pearson and Petty children may not have harbored any ill will against the others’ parent, but they did concoct a friendly challenge all their own.
“The fiercest rivalry we had was at Martinsville, where they used to have a scoreboard down in turns one and two, and every 15 laps, a guy would walk down and change the scoreboard,” Kyle Petty reminisced. “At the end of the race, the Pearsons would get up and put 21 or 17 on it. Then we’d run over there and put the 43 on all the top-five positions. Then they’d put the 17 across the board. That back-and-forth was as heated as it ever got with us, and it was all in fun. We were just kids cutting up.”
Kyle and his siblings rooted for their father over Pearson, but he says they didn’t single out Pearson.
“I wouldn’t say we wanted The King to beat Pearson more than anyone else,” Kyle Petty explained. “You just wanted your father to win. Ricky and Larry (Pearson) felt the same way. We all watched in the infield and we all wanted our dad to win. But it wasn’t about beating somebody – it was about beating everybody. Pearson was the guy, especially on the speedways, that you knew you had to beat in order to win.”
Although decades have passed since Pearson and Petty faced off on the track, their rivalry remains unparalleled.
“Nothing I’ve seen since the mid-‘70s comes close to what The King and Pearson and their teams did on the race track,” Kyle Petty stated. “It would be like Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports going head to head every week with Carl Edwards or someone like that all season – it just doesn’t happen anymore. It’s 2011 now and we’re still talking about them.”
About SPEED™
SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 82 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.
About FOX Sports Media Group
FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill. Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports. In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.com and scout.com, reaching over 20 million unique visitors monthly. Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.
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