David Pearson ran his last races for Holman-Moody in 1971. He only started 17 races, and only 9 races with Holman-Moody, which were in the first 16 races of the year. After that, he ran Ray Nichels cars in some of the remaining events (which only once made it to the finish). He won two races, picked up 8 top-5s (47%), 9 top-10s (53%), and two poles. That effort earned him 51st spot in the standings.