How the 1976 Daytona 500 Drama Left Pearson, Petty and ABC TV Scrambling

• The highlight of the David Pearson-Richard Petty rivalry of the 1970s occurred in the 1976 Daytona 500.

• ABC TV had joined the race in process and viewers witnessed one of the best finishes in the sport’s history.

• The network also was scheduled to televise the Winter Olympics from Innsbruck, Austria, that afternoon.

Richard Petty and David Pearson were the giants of NASCAR in the mid-1970s, two superb drivers who had used skill, cunning and heavy right feet to win dozens of races.

They often were the two survivors at the front at the end of races, and their 63 one-two finishes built high drama for race fans even as they came to respect each other greatly because of their frequent bouts on track.

The highlight of the Pearson-Petty theatrics occurred in the 1976 Daytona 500. It was the nation’s bicentennial year, and NASCAR planned to start the season with a bang. No one knew at the green flag how much of a memorable race it would be.

As happened so often then, the pretenders fell by the wayside, and the decision came down to Petty and Pearson with a few laps to go. Fans in the stands stood, and the ABC television audience—the network had joined the race in process—was in for one of the best finishes in the sport’s history.