by Ryan McGee

I had a chat with Tom Higgins last week. Who is Tom Higgins, you ask? He was the first beat writer in the history of NASCAR, penning stock car coverage for the Charlotte Observer for three decades. His first race was the 1958 Southern 500 and although he retired from the full-time NASCAR beat he continues to chime in whenever we young whippersnappers need some perspective.

Basically, he's the greatest NASCAR writer that ever walked the face of God's green Earth. So it was with great interest that I recently listened to his take on Kurt Busch's soon-to-be bolt from Roush Racing (he'll be gone by season's end, trust me).

Higgins said that people keep telling him that it is the most shocking driver move ever, and how unprecedented it is for a defending Cup champ to just up and leave the team that he won his title with. To that, Tom had one very swift response.

Ridiculous. Busch's diss would barely make the top five.

Which got me to thinking ... which of those silliest of Silly Season moves would make up the top five? So I started researching and typing. And so here you sit reading, as without further ado, adieu, ahem ... we present the five most shocking driver moves in NASCAR history.

5. 2005 — Busch Bolts

Ten years from now we may look back on Kurt Busch's decision to leave Roush Racing as one of the watershed moments in how drivers and car owners deal with each other. When the defending Cup champ suddenly announced that he would be leaving his title-winning team it was bizarre enough, but the fact that he wouldn't be making the move until 2007 was a negotiation tactic never before seen in the sport. Just a few days later, Jamie McMurray made what was essentially the same maneuver when he announced his intention to move to Roush, also in 2007.

Initially both Jack Roush and Chip Ganassi said their drivers would not be released from their contracts early, but have since decided to relent. Welcome to a new era of NASCAR, folks. The strong arm era.

4. 1979 — Pearson gets the Woods laid to him

In their first 142 races together, driver David Pearson and car owners Glen and Leonard Wood won 43 times, including the 1976 Daytona 500. But it was their 143rd and final race that proved to be more shocking than any of those victories.

Entering the Rebel 500 at Darlington in April 1979, Pearson was arguably the most talented driver in the sport and the Wood Brothers' pit crew was indisputably the fastest and most precise team in NASCAR history. But during the final round of pit stops, fans were left doing a double take as Pearson took off from the pits and both left side tires came off the famous No. 21 Mercury.

Pearson claimed his crew was only supposed to change four tires. The Woods said it was four all along. Pearson claimed they yelled "Go! Go!" The Woods claimed they had said "Whoa! Whoa!"

Amid a rain of conspiracy theories, the Silver Fox and the Woods parted ways after the embarrassing incident. "That deal triggered it," Pearson admits. "But it was the climax of a lot of little things. The split had been coming for a while."

3. 1980 — Cale cuts back

From 1974 through 1980, Cale Yarborough and car owner Junior Johnson teamed up to win 55 races, 32 poles, and three consecutive Winston Cup titles (1976-78). But at the close of the 1980 season, a year in which they won six races, a modern-era record 14 poles, and lost the Cup title to Dale Earnhardt by only 19 points, Yarborough announced that he was leaving the No. 11 Chevy.

"I was getting tired of chasing championships," Yarborough says now. "My kids were growing up and I was missing it. I still wanted to race, but I wanted to go somewhere that would let me run a limited schedule."

That place was with relatively new owner M.C. Anderson, with whom Yarborough won five races and four poles in only 34 starts during 1981-82. Johnson was clearly crushed by his good friend's decision, but forged ahead by signing on a brash young man from Owensboro, Kentucky named Darrell Waltrip. Which brings us to ...

2. 1986 — Darrell's Divorce

Waltrip slid into Cale's car and immediately sent his career into overdrive. He won the Winston Cup title in his first two seasons and added a third in 1985. But the relationship between D.W. and Junior was never as tight as the one between Johnson and Yarborough. Johnson liked to push his driver's buttons and Waltrip liked to push right back.

The deterioration of their marriage was hastened even more in 1984, when Johnson added a second car to his stable, driven by Neil Bonnett. In those days, multiple cars was seen as a burden to a team, not as the benefit bonanza that it is today. After losing the '86 title to Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip announced that he was leaving Junior Johnson and Associates for upstart Hendrick Motorsports.

"I'm getting off a mule and getting onto a thoroughbred," Waltrip declared.

"I've had a jackass driving my car," Johnson responded. "And now I'm rid of him."

1. 1983 — The King bids farewell to his Kingdom

Since NASCAR's first race in 1948, Petty Enterprises had been there nearly every weekend with a Petty family member behind the wheel. But by 1983 the sport was in the middle of a huge transition and Richard Petty wasn't winning in bunches anymore. In 1982 he had gone winless for just the second time since 1960 and his final win of 1983 had been tainted by two different major rules violations.

So at the end of 1983, The King did the unthinkable. He went to drive for someone else. After a near-deal with Rick Hendrick, Petty signed on with record company exec Mike Curb, taking STP and the No. 43 to a new shop. Kyle Petty stayed on to drive for Petty Enterprises, but would leave to drive for the Wood Brothers in 1985.

"It is putting too much of a strain on the shop to run my car and Kyle's," Petty said at the time. "This will ease the burden on them and me."

The next season he won two races to top out at 200 career wins, and then returned to drive for the family in 1986.

Honorable mentions: 1992 — Jeff Gordon ditches Bill Davis, 1965 — Ned Jarrett hangs 'em up, 1967 — Fred Lorenzen quits at the top of his game, 1994 — Dale Jarrett leaves Joe Gibbs to sub for Ernie Irvan

Busch Beat

Four Nextel Cup stars are looking to run the full Busch Series schedule in 2006. 2001 NBS champ Kevin Harvick is already committed to at least 18 of the 32 races next season, but is pursuing sponsorship that would allow him to fill out the calendar. Current Busch full-timers Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and Reed Sorenson are also willing to do the double. Bowyer and Sorenson are moving up to Cup next season.

Truck Stop

Ted Musgrave can't shake Dennis Setzer, who trails Ted by only 51 points with three races remaining in the 2005 NCTS season. Looking for an edge for either driver this weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway (Speed, Friday, 9:00 pm ET) depends on what you are looking for. Musgrave is the TMS career leader in races led (six) with six top 10s and an average finish of 8.1 in nine starts, but zero victories. Setzer has earned 11 top 10s and an average finish of 8.4 in 14 tries, but holds the edge in wins with two.

The Why We Call Richard Petty "The King" Fact of the Week

Richard Petty is still the all-time leading Cup winner in the Lone Star state with three victories at the now-defunct Texas World Speedway in College Station. NASCAR ran at the two-mile oval from 1969-81. He is the only Cup driver to win more than one race in Texas. There have been eight different winners in eight events at the Texas Motor Speedway, which opened in 1997 and Bobby Allison won the only other big league race in Texas, coming at the Meyer Speedway in Houston back in 1971.

---

Ryan McGee is the managing editor at NASCAR Images and Senior Producer of NASCAR Nation on SPEED Channel. He can be reached at his e-mail address: rmcgee@foxsports.com.