Cale Yarborough wasn’t groomed to become a NASCAR stock car driver.
He didn’t come from a racing family and thus inherit the love of speed. He wasn’t skilled in any phase of stock car preparation. Make no mistake, he loved sports. But auto racing wasn’t his primary interest.
But watching cars go very fast had its appeal. So much so that a young Yarborough, born and raised in Timmonsville, S.C., snuck into the infield during races at nearby Darlington Raceway, where he was awed by the sight of fast cars and the sound of roaring engines.
When it came to racing, Yarborough seemed to be a natural. He was tough. He didn’t show fear. He was daring.
Evidence of that was plentiful, given some of the more harrowing episodes of his youth.
Once he was swinging over a large creek when the vine broke. He plunged into the water and landed atop an alligator, which he wrestled briefly before escaping.
Then there was the time he stood in his front yard and watched a lightning bolt strike a nearby tree. The lightning traveled down the trunk, across the yard and bounced off Yarborough’s chest. He was knocked down but picked himself up and walked away.
Yarborough unwittingly came across a rattlesnake, which did not appreciate the confrontation and bit him on the leg. It must have been a glancing blow because Yarborough was, remarkably, nearly unfazed.
The rattler was found the next morning – dead.
Yarborough took to boxing, where he excelled.
“There were several times when I just carried the other guy,” he once said.
He also played semipro football as a fullback. With his stocky build and short height – which gave him a low center of gravity – he was hard to tackle.
But it was racing that ultimately captured his interest. While other sports interested him, to have the chance to drive in a real stock car race on a NASCAR track enraptured him.
He competed in local events and was never one to follow the highway speed limits, Yarborough got an opportunity to compete at Darlington in 1957, when he was 18 years old. He finished 42nd in the Southern 500.
Years of sporadic starts followed at Darlington until 1965 when Yarborough managed to make 46 starts in 55 races with several team owners. He achieved his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Valdosta 75 Speedway in Valdosta, Ga., for owner Kenny Mylar.
Yarborough was gaining notoriety, not so much as a skilled competitor, but as a daring one whose significant talent was to charge to the front of the pack and stay there if possible.
Two of those who noticed were Glen and Leonard Wood, the leaders of the Wood Brothers team which had been competing successfully in NASCAR almost from the time of its inception in 1947.
The Woods, who did not pursue championships and competed in only select events, liked Yarborough’s style and picked him as their driver in 1967.
Over the next four seasons, Yarborough won 17 times in 76 starts for the Woods, including the 1970 Daytona 500.
By that time, Yarborough was an established star. He was one of the most popular drivers in NASCAR, due largely to his leadfoot style, which many compared to Curtis Turner, who also had driven for the Woods.
But something happened. At the peak of his career, Yarborough fell prey to the lure of open-wheel racing. At that time, under the banner of USAC’s sanctioning, vehicles known as IndyCars were considered the elite and their premier event, the Indianapolis 500, was recognized worldwide as one of the great sporting events.
NASCAR, on the other hand, was considered little more than a regional sport – and a hillbilly second cousin.
Yarborough wasn’t the first, nor the last, NASCAR regular to attempt Indy.
He lasted two years and was, to be polite, unspectacular.
Yarborough tried to re-establish himself in NASCAR by entering select events with such team owners as Hoss Ellington, Ray Fox and James Hylton in 1971-72.
“My attempt at USAC didn’t pan out,” Yarborough said, “And I was trying any way I could to get back into NASCAR. But it seemed the competitive rides were taken. I don’t mind saying I was worried.”
An unexpected series of events changed Yarborough’s fortunes. After a successful union in 1972, driver Bobby Allison and team owner Junior Johnson were at odds.
Which was hard to believe. Together they won 10 races in ’72 and nearly beat rival Richard Petty for the Cup Series championship. Many anticipated that Allison and Johnson were on a path toward a dynasty.
But the two were following a different route. They had their differences in 1972 and Johnson was unsure Allison would return. He searched for another driver and quickly noticed that Yarborough was free – and anxiously scrambling for a quality team.
Knowing that Yarborough would be his new driver, Johnson telephoned Allison early one morning.
“Are you going to drive for us next year?” Johnson asked. “Because if you are not, we’ve got the best stock car driver there is ready to take your place.”
Johnson was surprised when his “fear tactic” didn’t work.
“Then go and get him!” Allison responded.
Yarborough joined Johnson in 1973 and remained until 1980, an eight-year association that has been recorded as one of the best in NASCAR history.
Success started almost immediately, as Yarborough won four races in 1973 and a whopping 10 in 1974.
The highlight of their association came in 1976-78 when Yarborough won 28 races and three consecutive Cup championships. He was the first to do so and many thought he would be the last.
Not so. Yarborough’s record stood until 2006-2010 when Jimmie Johnson won five straight titles on his way to a career seven.
“I know Richard (Petty) has seven championships,” Yarborough said at the end of the 1978 season. “I would like to have that many. I really think that if Junior and I can keep doing what we have, I can reach that.”
But to keep doing what they were doing was not to be. Unexpectedly, Yarborough decided to leave Junior Johnson at the end of the 1980 season.
He no longer wanted to run for championships. He wanted to free himself of the competitive burden and run a limited schedule.
The story goes that his change of heart was created by one of his daughters, who complained that her broken bicycle had been unrepaired for weeks, despite her father’s promise to fix it.
“She told me I was never home,” Yarborough said. “And I realized she was right. I wasn’t serving my family.”
Yarborough joined M.C. Anderson in 1980 and for the next nine seasons, until 1988, he continued to win races with Anderson and Harry Ranier. By choice, he was never again a title contender.
The fact is, he didn’t need to be. With 83 wins in 31 years and a consecutive trio of championships, his Hall of Fame credentials had long been established.
Steve Waid has been in journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.
Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing. For several years, Steve was a regular on “NASCAR This Morning” on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography “Junior Johnson: Brave In Life.”
In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast.