David Pearson of Spartanburg, S.C., fought off Cale Yarborough of Timmonsville, S.C. in the closing laps Sunday (April 29, 1973) and captured the $61,080, 18th annual Virginia 500 Winston Cup NASCAR Grand National race at Martinsville Speedway.

And how did the happy winner feel?

"Surprised," laughed Pearson. "We've been trying to win this one ever since I started racing. Glen (Wood) has won one but this is my first one."

Ironically, Wood of nearby Stuart, had a previous victory here in 1968 when Yarborough drove his Mercury to a Virginia 500 win. But for Pearson, who had won 69 Grand National races prior to his victory, it was his first Martinsville win.

The two South Carolina stars were set for a wild finish with the fans on their feet when Yarborough spun coming off the fourth turn with eight laps to go as he tried to pass Pearson. Yarborough finally wound up in second place, almost a half a lap behind in Junior Johnson's Kar-Kare Chevrolet.

"I didn't see Cale make the move toward the inside," Pearson said. "All I saw was when he spun out. I didn't see him hit the dirt on the edge of the track. But if he was going to get by me, I guess he had to go to the grass, because I sure wasn't going to let him get inside me. I was as low as I could get."

Pearson said he used his brakes and stayed as low on the track as he possibly could in the late going.

"If he wanted to get around he either had to go high or hit me," Pearson said. "I guess he could have hit me and gone around about anytime but Cale was too good a sport to do that. If Cale had ever gotten in front of me, he'd have been gone. His car was quicker than mine but I wasn't going to pull over and let him by.

"If he hadn't messed up there toward the end I don't know what would have happened. If he had gotten by me, there would have been no way for me to catch him. But he didn't and I won. That's all that's important to me right now."

Pearson, who had put the Wood Brothers' Purolator Mercury on the pole with a record speed of 86.369 miles per hour, won $11,000, $10,000 for first place and $1,000 for the pole.

Yarborough picked up $10,000 for second place, including a $5,000 bonus for leading the most laps in the 500-lap, 262.5-mile race on the .525-mile track, richest of its distance in NASCAR history.

Bobby Isaac of Catawba, N.C. finished third, five laps down in the Bud Moore Sta-Power Ford while Buddy Baker of Charlotte, N.C. was fourth, six laps behind in Harry Hyde's K&K Insurance Dodge.

Besides Yarborough and Pearson, Baker was the only other leader of the day, taking the front two times for a total of two laps. Yarborough was in the lead three times for 314 laps and Pearson led five times for 184 laps, taking the lead for good on the 437th lap.

It took Pearson three hours, 44 minutes and 26 seconds to go the distance and an off the record average speed of 70.251 miles per hour. There were nine caution flags for a total of 60 laps but no serious wrecks.

Among the dropout victims were Bobby Allison, whose Chevrolet was cut down by a hole in the oil pan after 30 laps; Donnie Allison, whose Chevrolet developed an oil leak after 45 laps; Dave Marcis, whose Matador blew a head gasket after 114 laps; and 12-time Martinsville winner Richard Petty of Randleman, N.C., whose STP Dodge broke a valve spring after 334 laps.

Pearson now has won the last four races he has entered, taking Rockingham, Atlanta and Darlington before winning here. He thus becomes the circuit's top money winner with $61,375 and has led 1,077 of the 1,841 laps he has run this year.

And despite his three wins this year on larger tracks, the Martinsville battle turned out to be his toughest triumph.

"Lord yes," the weary driver added. "this was the toughest of the four so far. I've got blisters all over my hands today and I usually don't have them. This race is harder than Darlington. I'd rather run 500 miles at a big track than 500 laps here because this track is so demanding on you physically."

Pearson had handling problems all day.

"We changed something every time we stopped but the car still wasn't right at the end," he said. "Part of the problem is that this car is set up for the big tracks, not short tracks like Martinsville. Most of these guys have cars especially for the short tracks but we don't see any need for that because this is the only short track race we run all year."

Needless to say, car owner Glen Wood was pleased. "Two wins here are nice," he said. "It's great to run here and I like to win here because I've got a lot of friends and neighbors who come to Martinsville for every race. And two victories at Martinsville is a pretty good record."

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