The following year was a down season for Cotton Owens Racing for a very unexpected reason. At this point Owens was campaigning Dodges and was one of the Chrysler Corporation’s factory backed teams. But prior to the 1965 season NASCAR announced that the Chrysler Corporation cars could no longer run the Hemi engine because its high horsepower rating was upstaging their vision of a level playing field among the factory teams. Chrysler announced its intent to boycott NASCAR that year and instructed its teams to do the same.
Owens and Pearson spent the 1965 season drag racing. Owens built a Dodge Dart drag car, with a full sized Hemi loaded in the back of it, and ran it on nitro and alcohol based fuel in the Experimental Class. It was during this time that the now famous rivalry between David Pearson and Richard Petty actually began. Petty Enterprises was also honoring the boycott and also entered the world of drag racing with a Petty blue Plymouth #43 Jr. There were many much heralded grudge races between Pearson and Petty that year.
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Owens Racing returned to NASCAR in 1966 and the team hit their peak when Pearson won the NASCAR Grand National championship. They parted ways in 1967 but finished their time together with 27 wins in 170 starts.
Yet another prestigious moment came in 1970 when Buddy Baker became the first driver to hit 200 MPH, in a Cotton Owens prepared Dodge Charger Daytona, during a NASCAR sanctioned test at the Talladega Super Speedway.
Over the years some true racing legends drover for Cotton Owens Racing including Pearson, Buddy Baker, Pete Hamilton, Ralph Earnhardt, Bobby Issac, Junior Johnson, Benny Parsons, Fireball Roberts, Mario Andretti, Charlie Glotzbach and Al Unser. Oh yes, there was also this famous country music singer named Marty Robbins who spent some time racing an Owens car. In all, a total of 25 drivers climbed behind the wheel of an Owens car in 291 races while earning 32 wins. In total, as both a driver and a car owner, Owen’s NASCAR career statistics include 41 wins and 38 pole positions in 487 races.
On a lighter note Owens even built a winning race car for the legendary Elvis Presley. The king of rock n roll drove a Cotton Owens’ Racing Dodge Charger in his 1968 racing film “Speedway” which co starred Nancy Sinatra. The Dodge Charger’s performance in the movie was excellent. The same can not be said for Presley and Sinatra. Sorry about that Elvis fans.
In the years that followed Owen’s NASCAR career there were some distinguished awards that included:
1970- inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall Of Fame at Darlington Raceway.
1996- recipient of the “Car Owner’s of the 1960’s” award by the Old Timer’s Racing Club.
1998- named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers during NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 1998.
2000- presented with the Smokey Yunick Award for “Lifetime Achievement in Auto Racing.”
2006- recipient of the Order Of The Palmetto, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor of South Carolina recognizing lifetime achievement and service to the state.
2006- Pioneer of Racing Award from the Living Legends of Auto Racing.
2008-inducted into the International Motorsports Hall Of Fame.
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To fully understand and appreciate the level NASCAR racing has achieved in this modern era one has to understand and appreciate the efforts made by the sport’s pioneers that created what we enjoy today. It’s important for today’s young driving stars to have an awareness and respect for the NASCAR pioneers who paved the way before them and allowed them to live their great American dream. In this age of instant information there’s no reason for today’s NASCAR stars not to be aware of their predecessor’s contributions to the sport.
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