Recently David Pearson has befriended Carl Edwards and Carl will call David from time to time for advise.

Carl called David after all the talk about drivers being unhappy with the new car and some taking a shot at Pocono Raceway.

Some of what David said to Carl cannot not be printed. We probably should cut these guys some slack, they are under alot of pressure and have reporters and cameras in their face constantly. But when champions starting cracking on a race track like Pocono I take exception. Long and hot is good once in awhile. A hot 500 mile race seperates the men from the boys.

Back in the day they used to settle it in the pits and on the track, now there are referees and video going at all times. Everyone will know about it right then.

The pressure now must be tremendous to perform and win for some of the drivers with 20 million dollar sponsors to keep happy. There are more competitive cars on the track also.

In recent years it seems that most of the Nacar races, not just the Cup Series have issues near the end of an event. Maybe nothing has really changed, dont know for sure but this is stock car racing and something is bound to happen.

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Back in the day it got serious when Fireball Roberts lost his life due to what happened at Charlotte in 1964. Firstly the safety of those cars was brought into question concerning the fuel tank and relating apparatus. There is a vague unsubstantiated story about what happened to Roberts that day and probably will never be told but it seems that someone did a number to Fireball on the back stretch, we know the rest.

There are two bad boys from the day and the modern era, we may never know the up and up, but we know.

Curtis Turner, if Curtis was in the lead and another driver attempted to pass, Turner would put him into the wall. Fred Lorenzen knew this before the Rebel 300 at Darlington in 1963 and pulled off a pass that prevented Curtis from wrecking him. This is one of the greatest moves in Nascar that I am aware of. There is more of Curtis.

Fonty Flock told a story of what happened after one of those races back in the day. Somebody wasnt happy after this event and dropped a crowbar on Turners head, the spectators of this happening thought Curtis was dead as he lay in the mud, he lived but this problem was solved. Flock would not divulge names or dates because the man who held the crowbar was and or still maybe alive. Fonty passed several years ago and is also one of the all time greats.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. Dale was brought up the old way as his father gave him little but taught his son the finer arts of the deal. Earhanrdt was a master of the bump and run and many drivers know this. Dale was like Curtis Turner in that if you were racing him for the win there was going to be a problem and that meant you were going for a ride.

Earnhardt put Sterling Marlin into the fence at Bristol in the spring of 1987. Marlin's car was trashed with a pretty big fire. This was blatent but nothing was done about it as Dale won this race. Earnhardt's history was quite animated at Bristol over the years but no more of Bristol.

Dale did a number to Rusty Wallace at Talladega in the early 90's coming to the checkered flag, they were side by side and not running for the win but for third or fourth place at best. Rusty had a real bad end over end to the point that Earnhardt turned around to check on him. Just one of those racing deals. 

Competition brings adrenalin and high emotion. things do happen as the whole story is rarely to be told. Regardless, Earnhardt would put a bumper on another driver period. The human nature of life and sport will never be solved but deep down we know.

As expected the  classiest is there. Who would go to a rival camp and apologise after a mess up ?

Richard Petty did this after wrecking David Pearson on the last lap of Daytona in 1976. To see the connection is rare. Yes, Pety had years of winning but to apologise by walking into David's victory lane says alot about the man.  

It is about respect and knowing where we are as we all fall from time to time but hopefully we learn from mistakes to our good.

May we all turn back  a few pages and know are faults as we know are blessings.

Just racin