Daytona's 1969 and 1971 Twins

David Pearson is the second winningest NASCAR Cup driver of all time. His 105 wins rank second only to the King, Richard Petty. Included in Petty's 200 wins are seven Daytona 500 victories. Seven! Pearson captured only a single trophy in the Great American Race. The one he nabbed, however, was certainly one for the ages: the 1976 Daytona 500.

Though the 1976 500 ranks as Pearson's best known Daytona victory, his win tally includes two additional February wins.

Pearson rolled into Daytona in February 1969 as the defending champion from 1968. Driving the blue and gold Holman Moody Ford, he piled up 16 wins and 36 top 5 finishes in 48 starts. Petty also won 16 races with his Plymouth in 1968 yet finished third in the points.

Things looked a bit different the following February though. Pearson returned in his #17 Ford...

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...but Petty was now in the Blue Oval camp as well after doing the unthinkable and leaving Plymouth.

 

Buddy Baker captured the pole for the Daytona 500 on February 9th with a speed of 188+ MPH. Bobby Issac laid down the second quickest lap locking him and Baker into the front row for the 500. Qualifying continued in the days to follow to set the line-up for the twin qualifying races. 

On Wednesday, February 19th, Pearson became the first driver to break 190 MPH. Though the fastest lap was now his record, Pearson had to start 15th in his qualifying twin because of when the lap was set. 

From 1959 through 1968, the qualifying races were 100 miles each. Beginning in 1969, the races were extended to 125 miles. The idea was the cars would have to pit at least once for fuel rather than stretching fuel mileage to run the full race distance without a stop.

Baker took the green from the top spot earned by his pole-day run in the first of the two twins on Thursday, February 20th. After a couple of laps out front, however, he pulled his Cotton Owens Dodge behind the wall to preserve the car for the 500. Pete Hamilton, the 1968 Rookie of the Year, took over the lead and held it for 14 laps in the #1 A.J. King 1969 Dodge Charger. A few years later, Hamilton's Charger became a late model sportsman car for Dave Marcis - and eventually a show car for Goody's Headache Powders and R.J. Reynolds.

As Hamilton pulled the field around the 2.5 mile superspeedway, Pearson made his way through the field from his 15th place starting spot. He went to the point on lap 18 and stayed there for six laps until surrendering the lead to pit. Cale Yarborough then set the pace for 19 laps in the Wood Brothers Ford. With six laps to go, however, Pearson's powerful Holman Moody Ford caught and passed Yarborough. The #17 led the remaining laps to capture the win.

The victory was Pearson's 47th career Grand National / Cup win and his first at Daytona since the 1961 Firecracker 250. Pearson could not extend his good fortune from the 125 to the 500. He finished sixth, two laps down to winner LeeRoy Yarbrough.

Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal

Two years later, Pearson was back at the Beach with Holman Moody. The #17 had Purolator Filters on the side as a sponsor - a company that joined him in the years to follow with the Wood Brothers.

     

A.J. Foyt captured the pole for the 500 in the Wood Brothers' car. Isaac once again qualified second as he did two years earlier. Pearson's qualifying time placed him in the second twin rather than the first one that he won in 1969.

Isaac started from the pole in the twin as a result of his pole day second fastest time. Buddy Baker started alongside him in the Petty Enterprises #11 factory-backed Dodge.

 

Credit: Al Consoli

Though he started fourth, Pearson rocketed to the lead on the first lap and held it for the first three laps. The two powerful Hemi-powered Dodges of Isaac and Baker then diced for the next 20+ laps with neither leading more than a couple of laps at a time. 

With about 20 laps to go, Pearson went back to the front. Baker's Maurice Petty-built Hemi, however, refused to concede to Pearson's Ford and stormed back to the front to lead for nine laps. 

Pearson drafted Baker's Dodge and once again took the lead with 10 to go. Baker pursued Pearson's 17 doggedly and eked out the lead once again - but only for a single lap. Pearson found the extra oomph he needed and led the final fix laps to win his second twin in three years.

 

The win was Pearson's 59th victory of his GN/Cup career. As was the case in 1969, Pearson's success on Thursday did not transfer to the 500. He finished fourth to the King. Petty captured this third Daytona 500 trophy as Pearson continued to seek his first.

TMC

A conversation with Tiger Tom Pistone

Tom Pistone was an iconic NASCAR Grand National racer who drove from the mid-1950s through the late 1960s. Originally from Chicago, he raced many late model events and claimed championships at Solider Field. Yes, that Solider Field. The home of the Chicago Bears hosted stock car races throughout the 40s and 50s.

Tiger Tom made a handful of starts in NASCAR's Grand National and convertible series from 1955 through 1957. He did not race in either series in 1958 but signed on with car owner Carl Rupert to race about half the 1959 Grand National season - including the inaugural Daytona 500.

One of my favorite cars of Tom's is his mid-60s #59 Ford sponsored by Shoney's Restaurants. Though I don't have any memories of the car in the era it raced, our family were frequent diners at Nashville's Shoney's Big Boy drive-in when I was a kid.

I've lonnnnnng since bailed on Shoney's as a dining option. But I'll still give them props. My mother was looking for a job and was willing to develop new skill to function in a technology-enabled workplace. She landed at Shoney's and wondered if it would be a short-term gig. Instead, she worked in their corporate training department for about two decades; dedicated herself to learning all about Microsoft Office apps, HTML, learned to troubleshoot her PCs at the office and home; spent countless (and uncompensated) hours on nights and weekends; and was even featured in their Annual Report in the late 90s for her contributions to the company's training initiatives.

But I digress...

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes to speak by phone with Pistone about his memories from the first 500. While I wasn't able to record the call to get absolute quotes, the comments below represent the gist of his remarks. (In an weird sort of way, I kind of hope I do mess up something. It might give me to chance to reconnect with him again to get the story straight - and perhaps cover a new topic.)

For the first Daytona 500, Tiger Tom raced a 1959 Ford Thunderbird sedan purchased as race-ready from Holman Moody for $5,900. His third place finish in his qualifying twin placed him fifth in the starting line-up. When the checkers fell, Tom's T-Bird finished a very respectable 9th five laps off the lead. Of the top 10 finishers, only Pistone and sixth-place finisher Jim Reed are still with us in 2013.

Photo courtesy of Chrissy Pistone

Tiger Tom raced a couple of times on the old Daytona Beach sand and street course - in 1956 and 1957 - in NASCAR's short-lived convertible series. But his arrival in February 1959 at the new superspeedway was his first time to see the new track. He had not visited it all during its construction.

He said the track was pretty easy to drive from the get-go. The greatest challenge was learning about the draft and figuring out to manage it well. Pistone said before the race weekend was complete, most drivers figured out the draft pretty quickly. 

Despite having run convertibles in 1956-57, he chose to go with the hardtop sedan for the 500. He said the convertibles were simply too slow on the new high-banked superspeedway.

Tom said he hadn't been out of the city of Chicago many times at that point in his life. He was unsure what trips to the South would be like. He wondered if southerners would like him. He remembers flat-bed towing the race car to Florida, passing farm houses, meeting people along the way. He said he didn't know a lot of history back then and wasn't really sure about the whole Yankee vs. southerner debate.

Pistone said two qualifying sessions were held to set the fields for the twin qualifying races. He claims he had by far the fastest times in both rounds - until Cotton Owens showed up and bested his time. He said the cars ran about 20 MPH faster than the Firestone tires were equipped to run. The full-treaded tires started coming apart with the high speeds, and the drivers had to adapt to better manage their tire wear. Pistone believes had be been better able to manage his tires as Lee Petty did that he may well have been able to win the race.

He said his team didn't have much leisure time and certainly not much money for their round-trips to the beach and back to Chicago in the second half of the 1950s. So they didn't have time to visit DIS while it was under construction. And they certainly didn't stick around long after the race wondering who'd indeed won the race: Johnny Beachamp or Lee Petty. If a racer doesn't have the trophy in one hand and his other arm around the beauty queen, he may as well just load up and begin preparing for the next race.

Pistone was very complimentary of NASCAR's first president, Bill France Sr. Big Bill supported Tom in his racing, encouraged him about participating in NASCAR events, arranged a shop in Daytona to work in, provided lodging, etc. Without France's support, Tom said he likely would not have made it in the sport. Despite some initial misgivings about how he and the South might get along, Tom took to the area and moved his family to Florida in 1965.

In 1991, Charlotte Motor Speedway created a quarter-mile track in the grass area between pit road and the frontstretch dogleg. The original purpose of it was to host a Winston Legends race for old-time drivers to race in scaled-down versions of their old cars and painted in colors recognizable to fans of their era. Tom not only returned to race in the event but also told a few old school stories along the way.


Tom still interacts a good bit with race fans - especially when made aware of someone's interest by his daughter, Chrissy. He runs a racing parts business and helps his grandson with his budding racing career. Pistone can also be found on Twitter. If interested in learning more about him or reaching out to ask a question or thank him for the racing history to which he contributed, here are a few channels.

Twitter: @TigerTomPistone
Parts business: pistonetigertom.com
Pistone Racing: pistoneracing.com
RacersReunion.com: stockcar.racersreunion.com/profile/TigerTomPistone

TMC