Cale Yarborough

fieldodreams79 · 31 Dec 2023, 23:53 (Ref:4190448)

NASCAR Legend, Cale Yarborough was 84. (1939 - 2023)

83 Career wins in NASCAR's top series (Grand National / Cup) makes him tied with Jimmie Johnson for sixth all time. He is also one of two drivers to win the Cup Series three years in a row, the other being Johnson.

He was also a four time Daytona 500 winner, four time Southern 500 winner, IROC Champ, four time Indy 500 starter and has one start in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He was a semi pro (American) Football Player and a Golden Glove Boxer.

Cale lied about his age and tried to enter his first race in his home state's Southern 500 at Darlington, in South Carolina. He was caught by NASCAR and disqualified.

1957 saw his first legit NASCAR start at the Southern 500, where he finished 42nd after starting 44th. After running less than a handful of Cup races over the next 5 years, he finally ran a full season and finished 19th in points for the 1963 season, partly with Holman Moody. He ran for a variety of different owners including the Wood Brothers, Banjo Matthews, Bud Moore and others over the next few years, winning his first Cup race in Valdosta, Ga in 1965.

Throughout the rest of 1960s, Cale ran mostly for the Wood Brothers and winning races, but never racing a full season, so he didn't finish high in the standings, but he won his first Daytona 500 in 1968 as well as the Firecracker 400, becoming the first driver to sweep the two Daytona races in a single year.

Cale had four Indy 500 starts in 1966 / 67 and again in 1971 / 72. After starting 24th, the 1966 effort saw him get taken out in the first lap incident that took out a third of the field, classifying him at 28th. He started 20th, but crashed out of the 1967 running after 176 laps, being classified 17th. 1971 he was classified 16th, bowing out at 140 laps with mechanical issues. His final 500 start came the next year in 1972. This time, after starting 32nd, on the last row of the grid, Cale was able to make 193 laps to finish in 10th place.

1973 saw Cale run his first full time NASCAR season, where he won 4 races, finishing 5th in points. The following year, he'd win 10 races, but finish 2nd in points, running for new team owner, Junior Johnson. Junior couldn't get a good sponsor for the 1975 season, so they failed to qualify for a few races and could only muster 3 total wins.

In 1976, with full sponsorship and behind the genius of Junior, Cale would win his first Cup Series title, winning 9 races, including the last 4 to cap off the Championship. 1977 saw Cale win 9 races and lead the series in points for essentially the entire season to win his second straight championship. Cale won 10 races in route to his third straight championship in 1978.

The next year, Cale would finish 4th in the championship and "only" win 4 races. He was also involved in the infamous 1979 Daytona 500, which essentially put NASCAR on the map in the USA. Fitting that he and Ken Squire leave us in the same year....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1b2...=Nascar1520888

He'd run with Junior until 1980 when he decided to run a limited schedule and was replaced by Darrell Waltrip. Yarborough won 55 races while driving for Junior from 1973 to 1980, compiling an amazing winning percentage of 26.57 percent.

Cale entered a Camaro in the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans but had a DNF as a result crash on their 13th lap in the 2nd hour of the race.

During his time with the Wood Brothers, Cale was essentially a factory Ford driver and with their success with the Cyclone, Mercury produced two special street versions of the Cyclone known as the The Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II and there were only two trim packages: the Dan Gurney Special - a white car with blue interior and trim and the Cale Yarborough Special - a white car with red interior and exterior trim.

I came along to motor racing and NASCAR during the twilight of his career and this is the Cale I remember.

Hell of a racer who had one hell of a career, that covered the better part of 3 decades.

**Adam43** · 1 Jan 2024, 00:33 (Ref:4190454)

Thank you for that.

**skycafe** · 1 Jan 2024, 02:04 (Ref:4190464)

Yes, Thanks for That!

Stunning summation of his career.

fieldodreams79 · 1 Jan 2024, 14:15 (Ref:4190511)

I forgot one win as a car owner with driver John Andretti at Daytona, of course, the 400 mile race in 1997. Below is a decent video, which highlights a little of his beginnings on dirt in South Carolina.

https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/1741507489584025927

**skycafe** · 1 Jan 2024, 17:48 (Ref:4190524)

Well, that was great too. I liked Petty's remarks about how hard Yarborough drove and how tough he was.

He caused a sensation at LeMans, thundering around in a honking big Camaro.

fieldodreams79 · 3 Jan 2024, 20:15 (Ref:4190710)

Seeing a lot of stories/posts and this is one of my favorites:

Cale Yarborough Won The Daytona 500 In A Show Car Borrowed From A Local Hardee's Restaurant
https://jalopnik.com/cale-yarborough...rro-1851133375

My man Awesome Bill with a second place!!

**FIRE** · 4 Jan 2024, 14:39 (Ref:4190765)

RIP

One of the big names in NASCAR.

**chunterer** · 5 Jan 2024, 08:56 (Ref:4190838)

R.I.P.

Another legend gone.

mstets · 14 Jan 2024, 05:19 (Ref:4191812)

Quote:

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Seeing a lot of stories/posts and this is one of my favorites:

Cale Yarborough Won The Daytona 500 In A Show Car Borrowed From A Local Hardee's Restaurant
https://jalopnik.com/cale-yarborough...rro-1851133375

My man Awesome Bill with a second place!!

I was in Cale's pit when he won that day in 1983. I was working for Gordy Oftedahl's Pontiac supported Tran Am/IMSA team at the time and we had the 500 weekend off between the 24 hours and the Miami GP. I'm sure the ticket was provided by Pontiac. I didn't remember (or possibly didn't know) that the team normally ran Chevrolets. Not sure if I was in the pit because of Pontiac connection or just because I was a Cale fan. Thanks for the post, fieldofdreams79.

fieldodreams79 · 14 Jan 2024, 05:30 (Ref:4191814)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstets

I was in Cale's pit when he won that day in 1983. I was working for Gordy Oftedahl's Pontiac supported Tran Am/IMSA team at the time and we had the 500 weekend off between the 24 hours and the Miami GP. I'm sure the ticket was provided by Pontiac. I didn't remember (or possibly didn't know) that the team normally ran Chevrolets. Not sure if I was in the pit because of Pontiac connection or just because I was a Cale fan. Thanks for the post, fieldofdreams79.

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing!

I was bumming around YouTube tonight with my son and we watched this clip because of your post. Fantastic!!

https://youtu.be/YEqLhhI5BWU?si=dko68L_HrRGMhwny

mstets · 14 Jan 2024, 09:45 (Ref:4191837)

I wish I could remember more about the race. I remember Ricky Rudd being introduced as the pole winner because he was a new name to me at the time. Looking at the results I am surprised to see Tom Sneva, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Kyle Petty. I remember being disappointed in Waltrip's pace early on (as I was a Junior Johnson fan) and him crashing in turn 2 (IIRC). I think the car was sponsored by Pepsi. In the video you posted (thanks for that) it shows a #7 in 7-11 colors. What team was that? Kyle was #7 in the race but the car in the video doesn't look like a Grand Prix to me. The Pontiacs appear to be more aerodynamic than the Monte Carlos but I'm aware that you can't quantify aero by eye. The Cale crash in qualifying reminds me of Mario's testing crash at Laguna Seca in 1987. Cale jumped out of the car and asked: how was that first lap? When the team got to Mario after the rear wing came adrift and he crashed heavily in turn 2 and the car was evidently broken in half, (see pages 91-92 of Adrian Newey's "How to Build a Car"), Mario's first words were reported to be "my Goddamn watch has stopped". Another interesting thing in the Daytona results that I would have bet money against is two Chrysler products in the race: a Dodge Mirada driven by Rick Baldwin and a Chrysler Imperial (!) driven by Buddy Arrington.
Looking again at the video you posted I am struck by how much smaller in frontal area the Wood Brothers #21 appears to be in comparison the Cale's Pontiac.

Sorry about the thread drift.

fieldodreams79 · 15 Jan 2024, 20:59 (Ref:4192026)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstets

I wish I could remember more about the race. I remember Ricky Rudd being introduced as the pole winner because he was a new name to me at the time. Looking at the results I am surprised to see Tom Sneva, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Kyle Petty. I remember being disappointed in Waltrip's pace early on (as I was a Junior Johnson fan) and him crashing in turn 2 (IIRC). I think the car was sponsored by Pepsi. In the video you posted (thanks for that) it shows a #7 in 7-11 colors. What team was that? Kyle was #7 in the race but the car in the video doesn't look like a Grand Prix to me. The Pontiacs appear to be more aerodynamic than the Monte Carlos but I'm aware that you can't quantify aero by eye. The Cale crash in qualifying reminds me of Mario's testing crash at Laguna Seca in 1987. Cale jumped out of the car and asked: how was that first lap? When the team got to Mario after the rear wing came adrift and he crashed heavily in turn 2 and the car was evidently broken in half, (see pages 91-92 of Adrian Newey's "How to Build a Car"), Mario's first words were reported to be "my Goddamn watch has stopped". Another interesting thing in the Daytona results that I would have bet money against is two Chrysler products in the race: a Dodge Mirada driven by Rick Baldwin and a Chrysler Imperial (!) driven by Buddy Arrington.
Looking again at the video you posted I am struck by how much smaller in frontal area the Wood Brothers #21 appears to be in comparison the Cale's Pontiac.

Sorry about the thread drift.

No, that's good stuff. Love the personal account!

Cleaning out my parents garage and found an old toy

mstets · 25 Jan 2024, 07:47 (Ref:4193263)

I can't pin down the year/model of that car. Wish I had more of the model kits I built - I think my mom trashed most of them when I was in college. Still have a 6 wheel Tyrrell, a Zakspeed Mustang, and an M8D McLaren.