TRIBUTES/MEMORIALS TO LEGENDS

            Cale Yarborough                        

Cale Yarborough grew up in the small town of Sardis, S.C, just a hop, skip and jump from NASCAR's first paved super Speedway, Darlington. By the time Cale was 10 years old he knew every inch of the Speedway, no he didn't know every inch of the 1.366 mile slick, tricky asphalt track surface, he knew every inch of the fence surrounding the grounds to the Speedway. The young Mr. Yarborough spent much of his time looking for a hole in that fence that his young body could slip through during race week.  By the time he turned 18 Cale had been tossed out of the garage area at Darlington almost as many times as there are grains of sand on Daytona Beach.  Finally at 18, when the race officials were tending to pre-race duties, Yarborough slumped down in the driver's seat of friend Bobby Weatherly's Pontiac and started the race in 44th place, mechanical problems forced a 42nd place finish but the die was cast. He had tried catching alligators and water moccasins with his bare hands, he dove out of airplanes more than 200 times, he tried football, hell he even tried wrestling a bear, but nothing worked. Cale Yarborough was born to be a race driver.

       

Cale started racing in 1957, with a goal of becoming a NASCAR star. In five years there were 12 Grand National starts and only $535 in prize money. In 1965, Yarborough won once and finished in the top ten 34 times.

In 1966, he went with the Wood Brothers and by 1967, the legend was beginning to build. In Atlanta, Yarborough won his first 500 mile race. He went to Indianapolis, qualified the Bryant Heating Special for the 7th row in the Indy 500, then flew to Charlotte and won the pole in NASCAR's World 600. 1968 was really Yarborough's year as he won both Daytona races, the Atlanta 500 and the Southern 500. He continued to drive race cars and win races until October 4, 1988, when he announced an end to a driving career that spanned 31 years.

  

When he retired, Yarborough had logged 83 Winston Cup wins, 50 superspeedway victories and 48 superspeedway poles. He won three consecutive Winston Cup titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978. He was also the 1977 Driver of the Year.