Owens Dodge team, now in their fourth year and hitting full stride on the NASCAR circuit. With David Pearson as his primary driver and Cotton now out of the driver's seat and working full-time under the hood, they would go on to claim 15 victories on the Grand National tour and capture the NASCAR Championship, with 26 Top Fives and 33 Top Ten finishes, and 7 Pole Positions in 42 starts. Pearson was almost unstoppable in 1966, winning 15 times, including sweeping both races at Hickory, Winston-Salem, and Richmond. In 42 starts, he was running at the end 34 times. And of those 34, he finished out of the Top Ten just once. He was in the Top Five 26 times, including thirds in the Daytona 500 and Southern 500. With Owens' mechanical wizardry and the Hemi engine powering the COG Dodges they were nearly unbeatable that year, and their successful partnership made hometown Spartanburg very proud indeed. Other notable drivers would climb behind the wheel for Owens in 1966–67, including Buddy Baker, Bobby Isaac, Bobby Allison, Darel Dieringer, Ray Hendrick, Sam McQuagg, and open-wheel Hotshoe Mario Andretti who would come South for the big race at Daytona and looked to Cotton to put him in a ride capable of winning. And winning was becoming commonplace at Cotton Owens Garage during its heyday of the mid-1960s. 1968–1970 The end of the 60s saw the Cotton Owens Garage campaigning Dodges in a variety of form factors designed specifically for maximum performance at different tracks, including the Charger 500 and Charger Daytona that turned NASCAR racing on its head and forever changed the way aerodynamics would affect motorsports competition. Drivers of this era include "leadfoot" Buddy Baker, Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach, Sam Posey, open-wheel star Al Unser, and another fellow Spartanburg native by the name of James Hylton. Glotzbach would serve as the primary driver in 1968, with 19 starts and 1 victory at the Charlotte 500, as well as 9 Top Fives, 11 Top Tens, and 3 Pole Positions. Buddy Baker would be the COG primary driver in 1969 and '70, with 29 starts, 1 Win, 13 Top Fives, 17 Top Tens, and 1 Pole Position. Baker's lone win in a Cotton Owens Dodge would come at the Darlington Southern 500 in 1970, a race Cotton wanted to win so badly but which had eluded him as a driver and owner for