Cale Yarborough Death: NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France announced on social media on Sunday that NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough had died at the age of 84.
“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen,” France said in a brief statement. Cale stood out from his peers on the track and in the record books because he was talented, tough, and determined. Fans and competitors alike looked up to and revered him. He was just as at ease driving a tractor as they were a stock car.
“On behalf of the France family and NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Cale Yarborough,” it said.
The New York Post says that rumors about Yarburough’s health getting worse started to spread in April.
ESPN says Yarborough was the first person to win three straight NASCAR Cup titles in 1976, 1977, and 1978. He was one of the most successful drivers in NASCAR history. He was the champion until 2010 when Jimmie Johnson won his fifth race in a row.
He also won four times in the Daytona 500 and four times at his home track in Darlington, South Carolina, in the Southern 500.
He was born William Caleb Yarborough on March 27, 1939, in Sardis, South Carolina. His father was a tobacco farmer. In 1957, Yarborough raced in his first NASCAR event, the Southern 500. He retired from racing in Atlanta in 1988, after more than 30 years. He has 83 wins, which is tied with Johnson for the most in NASCAR history.
Yarborough may be best known for something that happened at a race he lost.
He was driving in the first Daytona 500 which was shown across the country in its full-on TV in 1979. On the last lap, he was racing against Donnie Allison when both of them lost control of their cars and went off the track. Both men got away without getting hurt. But Allison’s brother and fellow driver Bobby Allison, who was looking from the sidelines, got into a fight with Yarborough.
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That year, Richard Petty won the Daytona 500, but the fight made the race famous.
I had the fastest car and set it up so that I could pass him on the last lap. I might have made a mistake there. “Maybe I should have gone on and passed him and won the race easily,” Yarborough told the New York Times after the race. “I was trying to make a scene.” It turned out to be a show, which was a shame. No other NASCAR event has been as good as that one.
The next day, he allegedly made peace with the Allisons.
Yarborough left behind three children.
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