Mike Hembree

Special for USA TODAY Sports

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Feb. 1, 2015

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Big Four. Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and David Pearson.

In the 1960s and 1970s, they built the foundation and set the standards for stock car racing as it is known today. They established the records while banging fenders and sparking fan fights in the grandstands, all the while showing the way for the dramatic NASCAR expansion that was to come.

All would race into the NASCAR Hall of Fame with ease, and all live vividly in the memories of many racing fans who came of age during their glory days.

In December, the oldest of the group, Pearson, turned 80. Petty and Allison are 77. Yarborough is 75. Key representatives of what is one of the nation's youngest professional sports, they ride gently now, the hard roads long gone.

Many who saw Pearson race in the old days when dirt tracks often were little more than bulldozer-trimmed backlots on the bad side of town would never have predicted 80 candles on his birthday cake.

Pearson was born Dec. 22, 1934 in the Whitney mill village near Spartanburg, a small town in northwestern South Carolina. It served as a hub city for Southeastern railroads, later became a textile manufacturing center and, in the last half of the 20th century, gained national — and often international — exposure as the home of one of the greatest automobile racers ever. Spartanburg would see few — if any — other sporting figures of Pearson's stature born in its environs.

He raced at NASCAR's highest level for 27 years. He retired in 1989 after winning Cup championships in 1966, '68 and '69 and totaling 105 victories with a race schedule that was small in comparison to the only man (Petty, with 200) who won more races. Pearson ran 574 races in his career; Petty raced 1,184 times.

Pearson once won 11 of 18 races in a season (1973), took the checkered flag ever so slowly in the greatest finish in NASCAR history (the Daytona 500 in 1976), was chosen as the Driver of the Century (the 20th) by a select group of NASCAR voters and built a large fan following.

Until recent health problems knocked him for a loop, Pearson looked like a man at least 20 years younger.

Pearson suffered an abdominal aneurysm in October and was hospitalized for more than a week. His recovery was slowed when he suffered what family members described as a mild stroke Dec. 9. Movement on his left side was impaired, but, according to the family, he is undergoing therapy and recovering well.

Some call Pearson the greatest stock car driver ever. Others might argue the point, and it is an issue that can't be solved by statistics and percentages. But to watch Pearson in his championship years with the Cotton Owens and Holman-Moody teams and later in his peak seasons with Wood Brothers Racing was to see a driver who was perhaps more natural in his environment than any other racer in stock car racing history.

He became known as the Silver Fox — both for great late-race strategy and for his premature gray hair.

"He could sense what was going to happen and be ready for it," said Leonard Wood, Pearson's crew chief during his 1972-79 run with the Wood Brothers team and a NASCAR star and Hall of Famer himself. "A lot of drivers drive no further than the end of the hood and don't see the danger ahead of them. He could figure out a lap ahead where drivers were going to be and what kind of trouble they were about to get in."

Maintaining his Spartanburg roots

Now, he's a fox in winter. The first of the Big Four to reach a ninth decade.

The retired Pearson had a routine before his recent health issues. He typically worked out at the Spartanburg YMCA in early morning, returned home to check the mail, had lunch with one or more local pals at one of his favorite local eateries, then did what he wanted the rest of the day.

Mixed in with the bills and checks in the daily mail at Pearson's modest ranch-style home north of Spartanburg are requests for autographs. They arrive from every state and several foreign countries, some addressed simply to "David Pearson, Race Car Driver, Spartanburg, S.C." This more than 25 years after he last drove a major-league race car.

He sorts the mail on a small desk in the house he bought in 1977. He never moved to the "big" house favored by so many other successful athletes. The Pearson home is located on a former peach farm, so there's plenty of room for a large racing shop and several other outbuildings — one an old country store that holds many of his racing trophies.

Pearson's Spartanburg-era disciples form a circle of loyalty. They meet him for lunch, walk with him at the YMCA, take Sunday afternoon spins on their motorcycles. Always, he is the center of it all, the reason they gather but seldom the rambunctious partier. Pearson doesn't drink alcohol ("Too expensive," he says, among other things) and hasn't smoked since the heart of his racing days.

Pearson scored his first Cup win in the 1961 World (now Coca-Cola) 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was an upset of sorts, and it came with some heroics. The right rear tire on Pearson's Pontiac exploded as he approached the white flag with the lead, and he finished the race riding on the remains of the tire. His portion of the Charlotte winnings totaled $12,000, a huge sum in those days.

The friends who travel these days with Pearson — those who share his practical jokes and banter, the ones who will defend his hero status to the last one standing — will tell you that he hasn't spent any money since then. Pearson and five friends visited Las Vegas last year for a week of fun and frolic, and post-trip estimates were that he spent a maximum of $100.

PHOTOS: David Pearson's racing career

The money flowed as Pearson reached a high level of success in the big leagues of racing, and he took advantage of his fame to add to his bank account, accepting "appearance" money to drive Late Model cars at short tracks around the country. He was a big drawing card — the NASCAR superstar racing against the top locals.

Such was the situation at tiny Hartsville-Darlington Speedway in South Carolina during a race weekend at the nearby Darlington Raceway Cup Series track in 1981. Pearson and Dale Earnhardt Sr. were the visiting headliners for the race, which drew a big crowd because of their presence.

Pearson sat in his truck in the infield as the public-address announcer made the call for the competing drivers to report to their cars. He didn't move. There were two more announcements. Still, Pearson sat.

Only when the track promoter showed up with cash in hand — Pearson's appearance money — did he report to his race car.

Pearson has been smart with his money, investing in land and rental properties while avoiding the sort of wild spending that often accompanies new wealth. He and his late wife, Helen, raised three sons — Larry, Ricky and Eddie, and all three drove Pearson-family race cars, but Pearson didn't drop a load of money into his racing operations. Larry won two Busch Series (now Xfinity) championships. Ricky is crew chief for Spartanburg Xfinity driver Jeremy Clements, and Eddie also works for the team.

Choosing David Pearson's No. 1 fan is a task fraught with danger. His minions are spread far and wide and are still very much a force all these years down the racing road. But an argument can be made for Alabama resident Russell Branham, who has been a Pearson follower for 46 of his 49 years, named his son for Pearson and, in 2011, inducted Pearson into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Branham was 3 years old when he met Pearson, who had landed his small plane at Branham's Airport — operated by Rudy Branham, Russell's uncle — in Darlington, S.C., for a Darlington Raceway weekend. Pearson stopped to talk to the young boy, and a hero was born.

"I remember as a child being mesmerized by that white car and the gold foil number (21), going to races with my uncle and seeing that race car and being able to see the man himself when he would fly his plane to my uncle's airport," Branham said. "That was all overwhelming for a child. We'd go to races, and if the 21 car had problems or fell out, I was ready to leave. The rest of it didn't matter to me."

When he was 22 years old, Branham was hired as a sports writer for the Florence (S.C.) Morning News. He covered races at Darlington, Charlotte and Rockingham, N.C., all the while deepening his relationship with Pearson and the Pearson family. Then, in 1988, he was named public relations director for Pearson's racing team, which ran Larry on the Busch Series circuit. It was a dream job.

"The man achieved so much success and was such a talent, but when you visit him he never talks about racing, has never said he was the best," said Branham, now public relations director at Talladega Superspeedway. "He's a very simple, good man who just happened to be an extremely good race car driver."

Branham was at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee March 20, 2010 for one of the low points in the Pearson family racing story. Larry and David Pearson were participating in an old-timers race on the deceptively fast track. Larry's car slid sideways in a turn and was hit by the car of Charlie Glotzbach.

It was clear immediately that the wreck was a bad one. Branham and Ricky Pearson, who had been watching the race from pit road, ran to the crash site. Larry was briefly unconscious and woke up in extreme pain. The wreck left him with a fractured pelvis and severe hand and ankle injuries.

The race was stopped, and the Pearsons soon gathered at a nearby hospital, where Larry would undergo surgery. Months of tough rehabilitation followed.

"Before the race, I had given Larry some chewing gum in a green pack," Branham said. "He told me, 'You know, if something happens to me today it's your fault (green is considered an unlucky color by many racers).' At the hospital, we all went in to see him before the surgery. He looked up at me and called me a bad name. 'This is all your fault,' he said. It was hilarious.

"David was visibly shaken. ... I think Larry's wreck drew all of them closer than they ever had been."

Respect from rivals, owners

It was not the first time David Pearson had faced tough family issues. In 1989, Helen was diagnosed with cancer. She died two years later, spending most of that time at home with David at her side. Pearson's wide world shrank to the confines of the home.

"David told me that's the hardest thing he ever went through," said Danny Pearson, David's younger cousin. "A lot of people don't understand that side of David. He's always going on and joking around, but deep down I'd put David's heart against anybody's."

Although he has been described as basically shy, stoic and subdued, Pearson hasn't been able to camouflage a deep desire to win, to be the best.

This was the marvelous nature of Pearson's racing career. He saw absolutely no need to lead every lap — just the important ones, in particular the last. In many of his 105 Cup wins, he floated in the background for 90 percent of the race, only to charge toward the front with 25 laps to go.

He proved repeatedly that the race is not always to the swift.

Pearson often has given credit for late-race advances to Leonard Wood, his crew chief, saying Wood made car changes or tire choices that made the No. 21 better and faster as races progressed. Wood deflects credit to Pearson, saying the driver would spend the first three-quarters of a race preserving his equipment and gauging the strengths of his competitors before breezing past them in the twilight laps.

"The rest of us, we couldn't stand to be back there in fifth or 10th when we knew the car could be leading," said Hall of Famer Bobby Allison. "David could. He had taken care of his car and protected his tires, and so his car was really way better to go those final laps than the rest of our cars were."

PHOTOS: 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees

Petty, one of the most decorated drivers in motorsports history, often has called Pearson the best driver he raced against.

"He was one of the most relaxed drivers ever," Petty said. "He just went out and did his thing. He didn't drive on adrenalin. Bobby and Cale did, but that was their personalities. Pearson was relaxed. He had confidence that he could do whatever he needed to do. He didn't have to strain to drive."

Across their careers, Pearson and Petty finished one-two in Cup races 63 times. Pearson won 33 of those.

Of the many times Petty and Pearson met on racing's high ground, none is more memorable than their spectacular finish in the 1976 Daytona 500. They were first and second roaring into the fourth turn of the final lap as a Daytona crowd and an ABC television audience sat enthralled.

Their cars collided exiting the fourth turn, and the impact sent both smashing into the outside wall. Petty's car spiraled along the frontstretch before stalling on the grassy area separating the track from pit road. Pearson also looped onto the grass — with one big difference. He had the presence of mind to engage his car's clutch, thus keeping the engine alive.

While Petty struggled to restart his engine, Pearson chugged back onto the track and crossed the finish line at about 30 mph to score his first (and only) Daytona 500 win.

Pandemonium reigned. As Pearson drove his battered Mercury along pit road toward victory lane, Maurice Petty, Richard's brother and the team's engine builder, ran alongside Pearson's car, apparently thinking Pearson had wrecked Petty intentionally.

"Maurice and Dale (Inman, Petty's crew chief) came out and about threatened to whip us like we had something to do with it," said Glen Wood, the No. 21 team owner (another Hall of Famer). "I think somebody finally told Maurice it wasn't David's fault. Richard admitted later on that he just wasn't clear. He thought David would back out, and David didn't."

Every day he arrived at a race track, Pearson took everything in stride. "He was supposed to win," Eddie Wood, Glen's son and now one of the team's co-owners, said. "That's always — always — how he looked at it."

After his recent health issues, Pearson's sons revealed that they would be taking the keys to his new truck, concerned that it wasn't safe for one of the country's greatest drivers to drive. "I'll just go buy another one," Pearson said.

Eddie and Len Wood are about 20 years younger than Pearson, who was the team's driver as they began taking more active roles in the No. 21 operations.

"We'd look forward every morning to him coming to the track just so we could talk to him," Len said. "Whatever he said was gold. We believed it. He was our hero.

"Still is."

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