David Pearson, NASCAR’s ‘Silver Fox,’ dies at 83
By Zack Albert NASCAR.com November 12, 2018 at 8:38 pm
David Pearson, a three-time champion in NASCAR’s premier series widely regarded as one of the sport’s finest drivers, died Monday. He was 83.
Pearson was welcomed into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011 as the top vote-getter in the shrine’s second induction class. His cause of death is unknown at this time. His family had reported that Pearson suffered a stroke in December 2014.
Nicknamed “The Silver Fox” in a nod to both his late-race guile and prematurely gray hair, Pearson won 105 races in NASCAR’s top division, placing him second only to Richard Petty’s 200 victories on the all-time list. Perhaps more remarkably, Pearson never competed in a full season and his win total came in 574 starts — less than half of Petty’s 1,184.
In a Sports Illustrated poll in 1999, a panel of 40 longtime experts in the sport voted Pearson as the magazine’s NASCAR Driver of the Century. The 1976 Daytona 500 winner was named one of the sport’s 50 Greatest Drivers during NASCAR’s 50th anniversary season in 1998.
“David Pearson’s 105 NASCAR premier series victories and his classic rivalry in the 1960s and ’70s with Richard Petty helped set the stage for NASCAR’s transformation into a mainstream sport with national appeal,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a statement. “When he retired, he had three championships — and millions of fans. Richard Petty called him the greatest driver he ever raced against. We were lucky to be able to call him one of our champions. The man they called the ‘Silver Fox’ was the gold standard for NASCAR excellence.
“On behalf of the France Family and everyone at NASCAR, I want to offer sincere condolences to the family and friends of David Pearson, a true giant of our sport.”
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