DARLINGTON, S.C. -- He didn't need a helmet, didn't need a firesuit. He climbed into the vehicle headfirst wearing jeans and a work shirt, his five pieces of Wrigley's spearmint gum -- one for each 100 miles -- taped to the dashboard, waiting for him. He strapped in, gunned the old Mercury to life, and headed for the exit of pit road. He was supposed to wait, and fall in line behind a pace truck and a show car being driven by Carl Edwards. But David Pearson, as his 105 career Cup victories would attest, waits for no one.

“

If I would have been with Wood Brothers the whole time I was racing, there ain't no telling how much I'd have won.

”

DAVID PEARSON

And with that, the NASCAR legend took to Darlington Raceway in a restored version of his trademark No. 21 Wood Brothers car, a vehicle that hasn't sniffed a racetrack in 35 years. Everything was in place -- the chewing gum, the cigarette lighter, the gold numbers, everything but the original seat, which is in a museum. That's where the car had been, too, until racetrack officials sent it to Leonard Wood, who got it running again so his former champion driver could take a few laps around the place where he won 10 times.

"It's a very rewarding moment to remember what this car had always done," Wood said, "and to see it come off the corner, it still looks the same way. I thought it looked racier than the cars now, but I may be prejudiced."

Pearson's just as racy, too. He and Edwards made five exhibition laps around the old egg-shaped track Wednesday, the younger driver in a No. 99 show car, the elder one in his restored classic. They traded positions, ran side by side, got up to about 100 mph. They didn't realize it was the final lap until they came out of Turn 4 the final time, with Edwards in front, and saw a checkered flag waving from the flag stand. Had Pearson known, he would have tried to beat him to the finish.

"I didn't know we were going to quit," said the 73-year-old former three-time champion, looking fit as ever with a suntan and his silver hair. "If he'd said one lap to go, I would have passed him."

That's vintage Pearson, that confidence bordering on arrogance, an unshakable belief in his own ability that helped him win more NASCAR races than anyone else but Richard Petty. After running events at Charlotte and Michigan in 1986, he retired -- his back was giving him too much trouble. "I went two years before I ever told anybody I retired," he said. "It was hard to do, it really was." Without the back trouble, he might have had a few more years ahead of him. In his last race, competing against drivers like Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace, he finished 10th.

Even now, in his eighth decade, he thinks he could still compete. He's not alone. "Oh yeah," Wood said. "I hear this all the time about how Pearson would do in this day and time. Pearson is a very competitive racecar driver. I think he could still get the job done. In fact, I think he believes he can still outrun them."

"I don't see why I couldn't," Pearson added. (Continued)