{"id":10222,"date":"2024-01-02T19:52:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T19:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=10222"},"modified":"2024-01-02T19:52:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T19:52:40","slug":"nascars-original-tough-guy-cale-yarborough-84-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=10222","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s original tough guy Cale Yarborough (84) passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He gained notoriety as NASCAR\u2019s toughest competitor, a notion that only diverts attention from Cale Yarborough\u2019s many successes. The first driver to win three back-to-back Winston Cup titles, Yarborough also won the Daytona 500 four times and was a four-time starter in the Indy 500. Cale Yarborough passed away on December 31st<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cale Yarborough grew up in the community of Sardis, near Timmonsville in South Carolina. He lost his father in an airplane accident when he was aged 12. Yarborough was a semi-pro in high school football, playing as a fullback and linebacker, boxer and racer. Underage, he tried to sneak onto the grid of the Southern 500 but was caught and disqualified. Aged 18, he made his official debut in NASCAR\u2019s Southern 500 in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1963: Cale Yarborough ran 18 NASCAR Cup races during the year, all but four driving for owner Herman Beam. Yarborough finished in the top 10 seven times. (Photo by ISC Images and Archives via Getty Images\/NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wood brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yarborough wouldn\u2019t become a winner until 1965; at Valdosta Speedway in a Ford entered by Kenny Myler. His career took on another dimension. Driving for the Wood brothers, Cale Yarborough won his first Daytona 500 in 1968. By that time, he had also started in the Indy 500 twice. Tenth would be his best finish, in 1972. In 1971, Yarborough did a full year in Indycar, finishing inside the top-five on two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cale Yarborough, 1968. Photo NASCAR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Title runs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peak-Yarborough would come mid-seventies after Junior Johnson took over the Howard outfit that employed Cale Yarborough. In 1976, he won nine races and took his first national NASCAR championship title. In 1977, he followed up by finishing in every race, and never outside the top six. He won the title, ahead of Richard Petty, scoring 5000 points in the championship. Switching to Oldsmobile, Cale Yarborough won ten races in 1978 and became the first driver to take three championships on the trot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BRISTOL, TN – MARCH 25, 1973: Driving his Junior Johnson Kar-Kare Chevy, Cale Yarborough blew away the field in the ’73 Southeastern 500. Yarborough started the race from the pole and led every one of the race’s 500 laps at Bristol International Speedway. (Photo by RacingOne\/Getty Images\/NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd there is a fight\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1979, however, was the year when Cale Yarborough became a household name everywhere. That year\u2019s Daytona 500 was the first to be broadcast live, nationwide. On the last lap, Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough came together for a second time in that race. Both were leading by about half a lap. They came together as Yarborough was making his move to pass Donnie Allison. They tapped each other no less than three times before sliding down the infield to a stop. Richard Petty was as surprised as anyone to find himself the winner. In the meantime, the camera switched towards some out-of-car action in the infield, with CBS presenter Ken Squier announcing: \u201cAnd there is a fight<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 18, 1979: Track emergency workers try to break up a fight between Cale Yarborough, Donnie Allison and Bobby Allison after Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed on the final lap in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Photo by ISC Images, Archives via Getty Images\/NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bobby Allison \u2013 who had nothing to do with the crash \u2013 had stopped at the crash site on his cooldown lap after the finish, to see if he could pick up his brother. He was greeted by Cale Yarborough storming to his car. Some unpleasantries were exchanged \u201cand then he lunged at me with his helmet\u201d, Bobby Allison told the LA Times <\/a>in 2019. \u201cI was mad enough to fight, and I did,\u201d Yarborough said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1980: Cale Yarborough with the Junior Johnson Oldsmobile superspeedway car, which he used at Daytona, Rockingham and Talladega. (Photo by ISC Images, Archives via Getty Images\/NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No regrets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought I had to address this right now or run from Cale Yarborough all my life\u201d, Bobby Allison stated. Fists flew, as Yarborough took on both of the Allison brothers. NASCAR was a national phenomenon overnight. \u201cIt was great racing, great fighting and a great time,\u201d Cale Yarborough summed it up. \u201cThe only thing I regret was not winning that race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 19, 1984: Cale Yarborough?s 1984 Daytona 500 win, his second in as many years, came via his aggressive driving style and solid horsepower provided by crew chief\/engine builder Waddell Wilson. (Photo by ISC Archives via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two more Daytona 500 wins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yarborough would win the Daytona 500 on two more occasions, in 1983 and 1984. By then, Yarborough was no longer competing in all the races. He did do Le Mans, with a Chevrolet Camaro in 1981, an adventure that ended with a crash. Yarborough also took the IROC title in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BRISTOL, TN – MARCH 21: NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough sits in his car prior to the start of the NASCAR Legends UARA Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 21, 2009 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images\/NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Statements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cale Yarborough racked up 83 wins in the NASCAR Cup series. He shares the three successive championships with Jimmie Johnson<\/a> only. In 2012, Yarborough was inducted in NASCAR\u2019s Hall of Fame<\/a>. He passed away in Florence, South Carolina after an extended illness. Tributes rolled in. Mario Andretti posted on Instagram: \u201cI cherish the times I raced against him. He was a formidable competitor and an all-round good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASCAR CEO Jim France paid homage in a statement: \u201cCale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen. His combination of talent, grit and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Petty: \u201cHis rivalry and competitive spirit with The King will always be a renowned part of NASCAR history, showcasing their mutual respect and the intensity of their competition on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our own Jim Donnelly said this on Facebook: \u201cCale Yarborough was one of the toughest drivers to ever grip a steering wheel. You did not want to see this guy in your rear-view mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He gained notoriety as NASCAR\u2019s toughest competitor, a notion that only diverts attention from Cale Yarborough\u2019s many successes. The first driver to win three back-to-back Winston Cup titles, Yarborough also won the Daytona 500 four times and was a four-time starter in the Indy 500. Cale Yarborough passed away on December 31st. Cale Yarborough grew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[1438,1434,180,1436,1437,196,295,304,1025,1439,718,119,970,731,303,1440,920,1441,924,1435],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-10222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-bobby-allison","tag-cale-yarborough","tag-daytona","tag-daytona-500","tag-donnie-allison","tag-ford","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-iroc","tag-jim-france","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-le-mans","tag-le-mans-24-hours","tag-mario-andretti","tag-nascar","tag-oldsmobile","tag-richard-petty","tag-southern-500","tag-winston-cup","tag-wood-brothers","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cale-Yarborough-1972-NASCAR.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10251,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222\/revisions\/10251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10222"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=10222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}