There are some jobs that you just don't want.

You don't want to crawl through sewers. You don't want to clean the slaughterhouse. You don't want to handle Barry Bonds' public relations.

And you'd think that you'd be far too nervous to teach teenagers how to drive every day, day in and day out. But now that he's no longer driving a racecar, that's exactly what Larry Pearson is doing these days ... teaching driver's ed in Spartanburg, S.C.

Heaven help us all.

The thing about Pearson, a two-time Busch Series champion and one of three sons of NASCAR legend David Pearson, is that he loves his job. He enjoys working with the kids and gets a kick out of discussing his racing career with them and their parents. Ninety percent of them, he says, already know how to drive, for the most part, by the time they get to him.

Yeah ... but what about the other 10 percent? Pearson says with a laugh that those few lessons "can get a little nerve wracking sometimes," and tells the story of one young man who couldn't quite figure out the difference between the brake and gas pedals ... and that's a big difference. It made, Pearson continues, for a fairly interesting session.

Sometimes, parents familiar with Pearson's racing career will kid him and tell him not to be teaching their children how to do donuts or burnouts.

"My answer to that is if you'd hit as many walls as I have, you would understand that I don't intend on having any more crashes," Pearson said.

His career as an instructor began in Columbia, S.C., at the Department of Motor Vehicles, through which he "took all kinds of tests." Once certified, the Pearson Driving School began in 2000 and truly got rolling the following year. Pearson has been "wide open" ever since, working seven days a week, except for a week's vacation and holidays.

There was a time in Pearson's career when he was one of the most superstitious drivers ever to crawl through the window of a racecar. After a race he won, the next time out, he wore everything exactly as he had during the victory. Yes ... his underwear was even numbered. He had a lucky hat.

He always put everything on left-side first. Left leg of his driver's suit, left arm, left driving glove. Black cats. The number 13. Whatever ...

To this day, Pearson is still superstitious, although maybe not quite as badly as when he raced.

"I still put X's on the windshield every time a black cat crosses in front of my path ... yes, I do," Pearson said. "I still do have the same socks and the same underwear that I wore when I raced back in '86 and '87. Obviously, I do not wear them now ... but they are tucked away neatly in my drawer." (Continued)