HAMPTON, Ga. -- The Silver Fox made a rare public appearance Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Like in so many of the races during his career, he was there one minute and gone the next. He stayed just long enough to pose for pictures with one of his old cars -- the No. 21 Mercury that he used to drive for Wood Brothers Racing -- and tell a few stories along with his former car owner and chief mechanic, Leonard Wood.

“

I never went into any race that I didn't think I could win.

”

DAVID PEARSON

He professed admiration for current drivers Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, admitted a desire to see Mark Martin claim a championship before the 50-year-old driver retires for good "because he's a good boy," and questioned the wisdom or current NASCAR rules.

Then David Pearson prepared to take off.

After admitting he hadn't been to a Sprint Cup race all year, Pearson made it clear he didn't intend to stick around for this Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.

"I'm fixin' to leave here in just a few minutes. I'm going back home," said Pearson, who lives in Spartanburg, S.C.

Pearson drove from 1960 through 1986, winning three championships despite rarely running a full Cup schedule. With 105 career victories and 113 poles, only the legendary Richard Petty -- one of his old adversaries who made many more starts -- ranks ahead of him in either category.

But unlike Petty, who remains involved as part-owner of a race team and a full-time goodwill ambassador for the sport, Pearson rarely comes around despite frequent invites to join NASCAR's weekly parties.

Asked why, Pearson grimaced and replied: "I don't like none of the rules, and the way they run it. It ain't right for somebody to tell you what springs to run, what shocks to run, and what tires, and what gear to run. That's where Leonard outsmarted everybody else."

Golden years

To be sure, Leonard Wood and his brother, Glen, were adept at giving Pearson some of the best equipment to compete with during many of Pearson's best years. But despite his nickname, it was Pearson who had the golden touch behind the wheel.

The No. 21 Mercury on display Friday had been restored to the tiniest detail. About the only thing missing was a half-pack of cigarettes taped to the dash. That just wouldn't be politically correct now, but that's the way Pearson rolled back in the day.

David Pearson

Career Results

Years	27
Starts	574
Wins	105
Top-5s	301
Top-10s	366
Poles	113
Avg. Start	6.2
Avg. Finish	11.0
Titles	3

He would have a pack of Wrigley's Spearmint gum taped to the dash, along with the cigarettes, and a lighter stashed someplace where he could reach it to light up during cautions. For the longest race on the Cup circuit -- the 600-miler at what was then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway -- he might tape an extra stick of gum and a couple extra smokes to the dash.

"Well, I did smoke at that time. I had some cigarettes taped to the dash, and some gum," Pearson said. "I had one piece of chewing gum for every 100 miles. It was the only thing that would keep my mouth moist. Believe it or not, but Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum was the only thing that would work. Everything else would get hot and crumbled up in my mouth, and wasn't no good. But that Wrigley's would stick together."

Apparently, it helped keep him calm and collected. For a time, the Charlotte race paid a bonus not only to win the pole, but also for the lap leaders at each 100-mile increment of the longest event on the circuit. Pearson not only won 11 consecutive poles during one remarkable stretch, but while the 100-lap bonuses were being paid out, he made a habit of running up front when it counted, then falling back, then getting back up in time to earn the extra dough.

"[The Wood brothers] would tell me when the money laps were coming up, and I would take off and run up front," Pearson said.

Pearson was the epitome of cool. It was said that he was always fast, yet never seemed in a hurry.

"Well, that's part of the game. You've got to relax," Pearson said. "That's the main thing. If you can relax in that car and don't get all tensed up, you're gonna run better. You won't get as tired or nothin' else.

"I always stayed within striking distance. If you can do that and relax, you don't have to burn the tires off the thing going into the corners. I never went into any race that I didn't think I could win."

Leonard Wood said he knew early on that Pearson was something special -- even before Pearson was driving for him. Pearson drove for Wood Brothers Racing from 1972 through '78, after he already had won his three series championships for others in '66, '68 and '69. During the '68 and '69 seasons combined, he won 27 races and finished second 30 times.

"Some drivers you can teach all you want to, and make good drivers out of 'em," Wood said. "But some of them are born with a technique of entering a corner and exiting it that others just don't have -- and he was one of 'em.

"David Pearson was the type of driver where anything you did to make the front-end grip better, he'd run faster. A lot of drivers when you make front-end grip better, they turn it too quick, it kicks back out ... and then they have to slow it back down to straighten it back out."

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.