Stock Car History Online | Don Hunter Collection

DAVID AND ELMO

It’s July 14, 1963 at New Asheville Speedway in the mountains of North Carolina, and pole-sitter David Pearson is going door-to-door with independent Elmo Langley. There’s no end to the simplicity found in this photograph … neither car has a window net and both drivers are wearing short-sleeved T-shirts and open-faced helmets, for starters.

Pearson finished sixth in his Cotton Owens-owned Dodge, while Langley took 12th in the 20-car field. A crowd of about 4,500 watched Ned Jarrett score the victory. Langley served as NASCAR’s pace car driver beginning in the late 1980s until suffering a fatal heart attack during preparations for a 1996 exhibition race in Japan.