Though his fame would be eclipsed by his son Richard, Lee Petty was a very successful race car driver in his own right and a pioneer during the early days of the sport. His legacy includes not only his son, better known to NASCAR fans as “The King” Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises has fielded race teams for four generations.

Lee Petty was one of the first to take a businesslike approach to the sport of stock car race in an era when many teams and drivers still supplemented their income via bootlegging and running moonshine. He raced in the very first NASCAR stock car race ever on June 19th, 1949. Among his many firsts in the sport is the dubious distinction of bringing out the first caution flag in NASCAR history. To chronicle his achievements in the sport in a nutshell, he won 50 Cup races, including the first one ever on a paved track. He also caused his share of trouble and was never afraid to mix it up. He once hit Curtis Turner over the head with a wrench after a race, and another time got into a fistfight during the pre race festivities. Lees two sons quickly joined the skirmish but the fight was ended by Mrs. Petty (Richards grandmother) swinging her purse”made heavier than the typical pocketbook by the .44 handgun she carried inside.

His greatest accomplishments on the track were three NASCAR championship victories. He also brought his son, Richard, into the ‘family business’ and after a rocky start in his first season the Petty offspring would go on to win 200 NASCAR races. That mark may never be broken and earned Richard Petty the sobriquet of ‘The King’.

Lees career was cut short by a nasty accident at the 1961 Daytona 500, where his car hit a guard rail and flipped a few times. Lee suffered a number of broken bones and internal injuries. He raced a few more times, but hung it up for good in 1964. He left the management of Petty Engineering to his sons Richard and Maurice and spent his time enjoying friends and family and playing golf. He played frequently until a few months before his death in 2000 at age 86 after surgery to treat a stomach aneurysm.

Lee Petty holds a few NASCAR records that may never be broken. He finished in the top five 231 times out of 427 races, and still holds the mark for best average finish for a full time driver at 7.6th place. Making this level of success all the more impressive, it was done in an era before big money sponsorships, on poorly maintained tracks and against legitimate criminals who spent most of their time bootlegging moonshine. The fact that Petty enjoyed so much success in that era is a credit to his toughness, dedication and courage.

The Darlington Raceway in upstate South Carolina is considered one of NASCAR’s most challenging tracks. It’s shaped like an egg and has earned the moniker ‘the track too tough to tame’. That applied to everyone except David Pearson, who won 10 races and took 12 poles at Darlington. These records will likely never be challenged, let alone broken. Pearson’s ability to get around the track was almost instinctive. In fact, he made it look easy.

David Pearson was born on December 22, 1934 in Whitney, SC”a textile town near Spartanburg. Like most of the locals, his parents worked in the local cotton mill and did their best to provide. David dropped out of school after the 10th grade to work in the mill, but soon quit that life as well–he was drawn to racing cars and began running at short tracks in the Carolinas. He ran his first race on 9/19/52 in Woodruff South Carolina. Within a few years, he won his first championship at the Greenville”Pickens Speedway in 1959.

Pearson never really sought much more than this local fame and success, but a couple of his friends and some fans had loftier ambitions”they began raising money to buy a car to compete in the NASCAR Grand National series (which was the forerunner to todays Sprint Cup series). With the financial backing from friends and family, David began racing a limited schedule on the Grand National circuit and was named the 1960 rookie of the year. In 1961, he became the first driver to win on 3 of 4 superspeedways in the same year (Charlotte, Daytona, Atlanta). Success beget sponsors, whos dollars allowed him to afford better cars and crew. This brought about championships”he won three Grand National titles in 1966, 1968 and 1969.

In 1972, he started driving for the Wood Brothers in the #21 car that he was to make a legend. In 1973, he won 11 races in 18 starts”an incredible feat even by todays standards. He cut back his schedule in those years to focus on superpeedways. Through the end of the 1970s, Pearson won 43 races. In addition to his mastery of Darlington, he posted remarkable numbers all over the circuit. He is one of two men to have won more than 100 races, and his 105 is second only to The King Richard Pettys 200 wins. Hes also second on career poles (113) to Petty. Head to head, however, he has a slight edge over NASCARs legendary King: in races where he and Petty finished 1-2, Pearson won 33 to Pettys 30. His 11 consecutive poles at Charlotte is a feat that will likely never be matched. Another record that may never be broken is his 18.29% winning percentage, as well as his record of starting from the pole in 20% of the races he ran.

In March, 2000, SC Highway 221 through Spartanburg County was renamed David Pearson Boulevard in his honor. He lives in Spartanburg to this day. Pearson still takes to the track occasionally–he and current NASCAR driver Carl Edwards were the first to race on the newly repaved Darlington Raceway last Spring. And he’s still known as ‘The Silver Fox’, a nickname given to him for his prematurely gray hair.