The King And The Fox

  The mists of time fog the memory of many races.

  But not the 1976 Daytona 500.

  Never, ever.

  No matter that 30 years have passed, recollection of that race remains as vivid for those who saw it as if the event had unfolded only days ago at Daytona International Speedway.

  There goes David Pearson sling-shotting past arch-rival Richard Petty on the backstretch during the final lap.  There's Petty ducking beneath Pearson in turn three and pulling abreast coming off turn four.

   There are the two cars making slight contact entering the tri-oval homestretch, then--almost unbelievably--spinning and slamming into the wall.  There are the badly-damaged cars looping onto the grass separating the racing surface and pit road, both machines appearing to stall agonizingly short of the finish line.

   Then, one of them gets moving, ever so slowly toward the waiting checkered flag.

   Meanwhie, the crew fielding the other car has dashed out to the grass to give its driver a push.

   Who will get there first?  King Richard or Pearson, NASCAR's storied Silver Fox? 

   The date was Feb. 15, 1976, a day that will remain forever a treasured part of NASCAR lore for the action it produced between the two winningest drivers of all time.

   Some observers rate it the most exciting finish in NASCAR history.  Certainly it's in the top three simply because of the competitors involved and the stage on which the drama played out.

   Over the years Petty and Pearson forged one of the great rivalries in all of sports.  They were to eventually finish 1-2 more than 60 times.  Which driver was best led to heated debates among Petty and Pearson devotees.

   Mostly, the two had raced with grudging respect for each other.  But a bit of tension had developed. 

   In the 1974 Firecracker 400 on July 4th at Daytona the wily Pearson pulled what Petty thought was a dangerous maneuver that enabled Pearson to edge Petty for the victory.  Then, in the '75 Daytona 500, the lapped Petty gave Benny Parsons the drafting help he needed to overtake and beat Pearson.

   Now, a year later, it was mano-a-mano in stock car racing's biggest show with 22 laps to go on the 2.5-mile track.

   It was about at this point that ABC-TV switched its "Wide World Of Sports" cameras to Daytona for coverage of the 500's conclusion.  Live, flag-to-flag television was still three years away.

   Pearson was leading in the maroon-and-white Wood Brothers No. 21 Mercury when live pictures flashed onto TV screens across the nation.  Petty swept his blue and red No. 43 Dodge into the lead with 13 laps to go.

   The two remained in tight, nose-to-tail formation as an estimated 125,000 fans stood, screaming in excitement.

   Leonard Wood, who helped field the Mercury owned by his brother Glen,  remembers that Pearson radioed the crew.  "David said he was wide open," Wood told author Bob Zeller for his official history of the Daytona 500.  "He said that was all he could do, which was typical of him.  He'd rather say that he couldn't than he could, but we still felt like he was going to try to pass him (Petty)."

   The move came on the long, fast backstretch.  The aerodynamic phenomena known as "the draft" hurtled Pearson past Petty. 

   But all the speed that Pearson had built carried his car high in the third turn, and Petty pounced, pulling the classic move of darting immediately inside into the middle groove.

   As the cars rocketed off the fourth turn they were side-by-side, Pearson on the outside, Petty on the inside.

   I remember thinking to myself, "NASCAR just may have its first dead heat!"

   Then, Petty edged slightly in front and appeared to have cleared Pearson.  Petty drifted right toward the favored line for racing through the tri-oval.

   This is when it happened.

   Petty wasn't quite far enough ahead, and his right rear fender made contact with Pearson's left front.

   Pearson smacked nose first into the wall, clipping Petty in the process and sending him spinning, too.  The front ends of both cars showed significant damage as they essentially limped toward the grass.

   Pearson wound up at the entrance to pit road, where he was tagged by the car of Joe Frasson, who was trying to take evasive action.  Petty came to a stop about 25 yards nearer the flagstand.

   It seemed that neither would be able to get going again, and that Parsons, running a lap behind, would inherit a second straight Daytona 500 triumph.

   Then Pearson began to move at a speed variously estimated from 5 mph up to 20.  As he angled across the grass and edged past Petty, the latter's frantic crewmen had left the pit in the vain hope of pushing the dented Dodge to the line.

   "When I started spinning, I just instinctively pushed the clutch in to keep the motor running," said Pearson, whose savvy and coolness had led to a nickname, "The Fox."  It became "Silver Fox" when his dark hair grayed prematurely.

   As Pearson reached the apron near the flagstand, Parsons went flashing by.

   "I thought to myself, 'Oh, Lord, ol' Benny has done it to us again,'" recalls Pearson.  "Then the crew radioed and told me that Benny was a lap down.  I knew then I'd finally won the Daytona 500.  I was beginning to wonder if I ever would."

  Petty was penalized a lap for getting the crew's push on the last lap, a violation of NASCAR rules.  However, he still finished as the runnerup.

  As Petty, besieged by fans, walked toward the garage immediately following the wild, hectic action, the late reporter Tom Tucker was at his side.  "Physically I'm in good shape, mentally I must be out of my mind," Tucker later quoted Petty in a book, "Daytona, The Quest For Speed" that he co-authored with Jim Tiller.  "As I caught up to David I had 'er wide open.  As I got up to his rear fender, my car started to push to the right.  It was that floating stage in the draft.  No way you'll get it corrected at that point.  He broke loose and we got sideways.  He went into the wall...I drifted left, then back into the wall."

   As Pearson motored toward Victory Lane, Petty shouted to him.

  "I apologized for runnin' into him," said Petty.  "It's all I could do."

   Says Petty in retrospect:

   "I thought I had cleared David in the tri-oval and pulled back in.  I clipped him just enough to wreck both cars.  I thought I might actually spin to the finish line, but didn't quite make it and my car stalled.

   "This is the most obvious of several Daytona 500s I should have won, but didn't.  It all balances out, I guess, 'cause I won a couple I shouldn't have."

   These were the 500s of 1979 and '81.  Petty finished his career in 1992 with seven Daytona 500 triumphs and 200 victories overall, the most alltime.

   Pearson retired in 1986 with the single Daytona 500 win and 105 triumphs overall, second on the alltime list.

   In the intervening three decades since the fantastic finish of the '76 Daytona 500 an amusing anecdote persists about the coolness under fire of David Pearson.

   As the climatic crash sent the cars swirling around, the story goes, an astonished Wood Brothers crewman shouted into his radio, "There's a wreck off turn four!"

   To which Pearson is alleged to have calmly replied, "Yeah, I know.  I'm in it."