Buddy Baker said when Pearson puts out his cigarette he is coming to the front. All these old guys drove cars that couldn’t be driven by today’s current drivers. Bias ply tires with the right rear hanging out in the corners at 170+. The brief time when Pearson was a car owner (retired) with his son driving was telling in many ways. The son was practicing on the track and couldn’t get the car up to speed. Pearson’s team tried different adjustments etc.. Finally David Pearson gets in the car and turned several laps that were fast enough to have put the car in the top five quickest cars of the previous year’s race. He tossed his son the helmet and said, it ain’t the car…Me too. I liked them all , even the Pettys, but The King did have quite a few (well, many) advantages the others did not.
So I really liked n pulled for Cale, the Allisons and even David Pearson. The sport has seen lots of good guys pass thru but that was a magic time when Cale and the others were always out front and trading paint!