Born in 1944, Glidden began his drag racing career in the 1960s driving a Ford 427 Fairlane in Stock and Super Stock competition. He worked as a mechanic at Ed Martin Ford in Indiana, where sponsorship from the dealership supported his early racing efforts. He turned fully professional in 1972 after purchasing a Pro Stock Pinto from Jack Roush and Wayne Gapp, quitting his job to race full-time.
Glidden's debut Pro Stock season in 1972 ended with a runner-up finish at the Supernationals, where he lost to Bill Jenkins. His first national event win came the following year at the U.S. Nationals, where he ran a national record 9.03 seconds at 152.54 mph. He won back-to-back Winston championships in 1974 and 1975, establishing himself as the series' dominant force.
After a dip to sixth in points in 1976 and a runner-up in 1977, Glidden won his third title in 1978 driving a Ford Pinto and then a Ford Fairmont, compiling seven national victories that season and breaking the previous Pro Stock single-season win record of six. He retired the undefeated Fairmont in 1979 in favor of a Plymouth Arrow and opened the year by winning the Winternationals, going undefeated for 14 races and 50 rounds before fouling at the Mile-High Nationals.
He won his fifth championship in 1980 on the final race of the season, catching Lee Shepherd only after Shepherd suffered a mechanical failure. Shepherd then dominated 1981 through 1984. When NHRA changed its displacement rules in 1982, Glidden was forced to race with a difficult-handling car, but still managed a win at the Springnationals.
Glidden's most dominant stretch ran from 1985 through 1989, during which he won five consecutive Pro Stock championships — an unmatched feat in the class. He drove Ford Thunderbirds through much of this period, a car that became the defining machine of his career. In 1986, his Thunderbird was destroyed in a six-barrel-roll crash after his parachute caught a gust of wind after a pass at the Southern Nationals, yet Glidden walked away unhurt and won six of the last seven events to claim the title.
In 1987, he won eight races and qualified number one at all 14 events he entered. He reached the finals ten times that year, winning a record 42 rounds of competition. His 1988 season saw the car transition from a Thunderbird to a Ford Probe, with which he recorded a then-national-record elapsed time of 7.277 seconds.
His tenth and final championship came in 1989, when he won nine events — his most productive season ever — closing out the decade with 49 wins over the 1980s alone.
Glidden won multiple events in the early 1990s and captured his 85th and final national event win at the Mopar Nationals in 1995, after missing most of the season due to open heart surgery. He retired after two races in 1997, dissatisfied with his sponsorship arrangement. In retirement, he worked on Ford's engine program for its Winston Cup efforts and served as crew chief for several drivers. A brief return at the 1998 U.S. Nationals — a race he had previously won nine times — ended in failure to qualify.
Glidden's ten Pro Stock championships remain unmatched in the class's history, and his five consecutive titles from 1985 to 1989 represent a sustained dominance rarely seen in motorsport. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2001, an NHRA panel ranked him fourth among the Top 50 Drivers of 1951–2000. His wife Etta served as his long-time crew chief, and sons Rusty and Billy were part of the team throughout his career, with all three appearing on the Car Craft Magazine All-Star Drag Racing Team multiple times.