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."

Pearson came by the trait honestly, having gotten many of his superstitions from his father.

"He's terrible ... he's not as bad now," Pearson said. "I'm probably still a little worse now than he is, but he used to come home every week telling me things that were bad luck."

There are those who might assume that David Pearson cast a big shadow for Larry and brothers Eddie and Ricky, that it was hard for Larry to live up to his father's legacy in the sport. For Larry Pearson, however, there is no such psychobabble.

David Pearson had an incredible career in racing. So be it. As a former Busch Series champion, Larry's name is right there in the record books alongside the three titles won by his father on what is now the Nextel Cup circuit. That's good enough for Larry.

Never was there a point, Larry Pearson insists, that he got tired of comparisons to his father.

"I always wished that I could be as good as him," Pearson said matter-of-factly. "In my mind, he was the best and still is ... he and [Dale] Earnhardt. There's nothing wrong with being compared to him. All I could do was go out, race and try to win every race I was in. He had three Cup championships, and I knew I could never do that. I knew I could never get 105 wins. I didn't mind being compared to him."

The Busch Series in which Pearson raced and the Busch Series that exists today are not the same. Of course, that goes, really, without saying.

"No sir ... nowhere close," Pearson said. "I don't really know what's happened to it. I know the Cup Series has come 180 degrees. It's nothing like it used to be. It's very political now. I've been to a few Busch Series races. Most of the drivers stay in their hauler. They don't get out. They don't walk around very much. They don't socialize with other drivers, and get out and joke and have a good time. There may be some of that, but I haven't seen it."

Once Pearson won his two championships in 1986 and '87, his family owned operation took a stab at the Cup circuit in 1989. Starting all 29 races that season, Pearson collected two top-10 finishes, the best a sixth early in the year at Richmond.

The Pearsons lost their sponsorship at the end of the year, and Larry ran just nine Cup events in 1990. The transition from such success in the Busch Series to struggling in Cup, Pearson admits, was a difficult one.

"You've got to understand ... I really, really loved the Busch Series," Pearson said. "I really, really had a good time. We were competitive. We had a shot to win every race we went to. We moved up to Cup, and obviously we struggled. I was a rookie. The team was a rookie. The engine builder was a rookie. Everyone was a rookie. It made it hard for us. We were used to going to tracks and winning, or at least finishing in the top five every week."

Pearson eventually returned to the Busch Series and won a 1995 event in Darlington, a track where his father had been so successful. Today, he'd like to go shake down a car for Ricky, who serves as crew chief for Busch Series upstart Brent Sherman and McGill Motorsports.

In fact, he begs to do so. So far, though, no dice.

"I've been trying like crazy to get [Ricky] to let me take the car over to Greenville-Pickens and let me run it a few laps, just to see what's going on," Pearson began. "They've got really, really super-good cars. ... I would like to get in the car, just to more or less help [Sherman] out, to try to get him to feel what the car's doing a little bit more."

Check this out. Pearson has even called brother Ricky during races. Really. Seriously. He has.

"I get so mad, I call Ricky on his cell phone during the caution flags during the race," Pearson said. "It upsets me so much to see them running at the rear, when I know the type of equipment they have. I know the cars are there."

Ricky's reaction to such mid-race interactions with his brother?

"Well ... I can't repeat what he says," Pearson laughed. "He's not mad at me for calling. He's mad because of the way they're running."