Cale Yarborough dies at age 84
- Thread starter hrv
- Start date
Those boys were fun to watch before it became watered down for a number of reasons.
Wonder if he ever ran shine?
Not a fan of stock car racing but remember him from watching races on TV with my father.
Entertained a lot of people i imagine.
Entertained a lot of people i imagine.
Watching those guys and listening to Chris Economaki was the real deal.
Amen, one of the greatest drivers ever................
difficult year for racing legends. Another one gone. Godspeed to you Cale.
Just my $0.02
Just my $0.02
84…. Thats a good long life well lived.
Cale won 3 straight Nascar championships in a row and was the first to do that. 84 career victories including 4 Daytona 500s… He had that famous sound effect he made for rhe CBS in car video in the 1984 Daytona 500… Quite hilarious actually.
He wanted to have more time for his family and he actually told Darrell Waltrip his plans to leave Junior Johnson. Which was really a nice gesture to a fellow competitor. He helped Waltrip in getting a great car for his 3 championship runs.
That change in Cale’s race schedule in reality greatly cut down how many more wins he could have gotten. Not to mention likely 3 championships. But he wanted time with his family and time to tend to his businesses.
Cale was not a very good car owner in NASCAR. Which to be fair was not an uncommon experience for former great drivers. Richard Petty was not a very good car owner either and neither was Bobby Allison. Only Junior Johnson was both a hall of fame driver and car owner.
In 1998 at a large made for tv get together commemorating NASCAR 50th anniversary Cale made a true statement in regards to his number of wins vs Pettys 200… Cale said, “Richard ran a lot more races than I did.” True indeed.
Between Cale, Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison you had 4 of the greatest drivers ever to drive in NASCAR history. And they all drove in the same era at the same time. Amazing when you think about it.
Godspeed Cale… Your work on Earth is done.
Cale won 3 straight Nascar championships in a row and was the first to do that. 84 career victories including 4 Daytona 500s… He had that famous sound effect he made for rhe CBS in car video in the 1984 Daytona 500… Quite hilarious actually.
He wanted to have more time for his family and he actually told Darrell Waltrip his plans to leave Junior Johnson. Which was really a nice gesture to a fellow competitor. He helped Waltrip in getting a great car for his 3 championship runs.
That change in Cale’s race schedule in reality greatly cut down how many more wins he could have gotten. Not to mention likely 3 championships. But he wanted time with his family and time to tend to his businesses.
Cale was not a very good car owner in NASCAR. Which to be fair was not an uncommon experience for former great drivers. Richard Petty was not a very good car owner either and neither was Bobby Allison. Only Junior Johnson was both a hall of fame driver and car owner.
In 1998 at a large made for tv get together commemorating NASCAR 50th anniversary Cale made a true statement in regards to his number of wins vs Pettys 200… Cale said, “Richard ran a lot more races than I did.” True indeed.
Between Cale, Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison you had 4 of the greatest drivers ever to drive in NASCAR history. And they all drove in the same era at the same time. Amazing when you think about it.
Godspeed Cale… Your work on Earth is done.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Yes - Cale won 1976 / 1977 /1978 Winston Cup Championships. He won 1976 in his Chevy Chevelle Type S3 / won 1977 in his Olds Cutlass-442 / won again in 1978 Olds Cutlass-442. One of my all time favorite NASCAR drivers growing up. Used to have to wait for the Monday after the Daytona 500 for the replay to be shown on tv because no one aired the race "live" in those days.
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4WD
$50 site donor 2024
When ‘stock car’ meant something, right Toyota ?
Two time Golden Gloves boxing champ, earned a scholarship to play football at Clemson and decided to become a stock car driver instead. Junior Johnson once said, "Cale Yarborough is the best driver the sport has ever seen. When you strap Cale into the car, it’s like adding 20 horsepower.”
Growing up everybody liked Richard Petty, it was like pulling for the Yankees, I liked Cale b/c he was the underdog.
Growing up everybody liked Richard Petty, it was like pulling for the Yankees, I liked Cale b/c he was the underdog.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Me too. I liked them all , even the Pettys, but The King did have quite a few (well, many) advantages the others did not.
So I really liked n pulled for Cale, the Allisons and even David Pearson. The sport has seen lots of good guys pass thru but that was a magic time when Cale and the others were always out front and trading paint!
If you’ve had the opportunity to steer a traditional power steering box car that has slung a belt or attempted to park one when the engine has shut down we can be appreciative of Cale’s strength and determination. He finished second at Darlington with a car that had no power steering. The hose burst.
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