Pearson speaks candidly before making quick exit (cont'd)

Not impressed

Ask Pearson about today's bunch of drivers, and he's brutally honest. He can be nothing less.

The three he repeatedly mentions, and therefore apparently has the most respect for, are Gordon, Edwards and Busch. He praised Gordon and Edwards for "being smart." Of Busch, he added, "Kyle just loves to run wide open all the time. If they get a car to stay under him, he's gonna run good -- if he don't wreck."

“

Who ever heard of putting a quarter-pound of air in a tire and being able to tell a difference?

”

DAVID PEARSON

Oh, and then there is Mark Martin, who became the second-oldest driver to win a pole when he did so Friday.

"I would really like to see Mark Martin win the championship one time before he quits," Pearson said. "I've run with Mark quite a bit on short tracks and stuff. He's a good boy.

"He's in a good car right now, and I feel like his car is as good as the rest of 'em."

This from the same man who, when asked about Dale Earnhardt, candidly stated: "He was good ... real good. But he got a little wild every once in a while. He would have won the championship another time if it hadn't been for that."

Pearson likely would have won one or several more, too, if he had run a full-time schedule more often. He rarely did.

Just don't ask him to come to too many race events these days. He's not interested. He might watch on television, but even then he can't do it without getting a little agitated when a driver talks about a car not having enough downforce or needing to have a quarter-pound of air added to a tire.

"Half the time, I don't think they know what they're talkin' about," Pearson said. "Who ever heard of putting a quarter-pound of air in a tire and being able to tell a difference? Stuff like that, I think they're wrong. All they have to do is move up the race track or down half a car length, three or four feet, and it would be the same thing."

He said even when he comes around, his interaction with today's drivers is limited at best.

"Quite a few of 'em talk to me. But some of 'em I wouldn't even know," said Pearson, now 74 but still looking tanned and dapper with his streak of silver hair. "They could be right here, standing next to me, and I wouldn't know 'em as far as that goes.

"And some of 'em, when they go to Darlington, you'd be surprised how many of 'em ask me the best way to get around that place."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.