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Yarborough won 55 Cup Series races under Johnson’s direction between 1973 and 1980. Johnson bought the team from Howard in 1974 and even though the 1975 season was one of their most dismal with a series of crashes and blown engines, the next season was truly phenomenal, setting the stage for years of dominance in NASCAR’s premier series.
During those championship years, Yarborough, Johnson and their dedicated team based in Ingle Hollow, N.C., logged 28 victories, 70 top-five finishes and 104 top-10 efforts from 1976 through ’78. Those numbers set the mark as the best in the late 1970s, keeping every other team at bay during 87 Cup Series races run during that three-year period.
A fourth championship in five years fell short by only 19 points in 1980 to Dale Earnhardt, the sport’s newest phenomenon.
“I am very proud of the three championships,” Yarborough said. “Being associated with Junior, who was one of the toughest drivers that ever lived and who was a good friend, well, that made winning my first championship as a driver and his as a team owner that much better. It was great.”
Seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty remembers Yarborough as one of the most determined drivers in NASCAR history.
“Cale was tough at everything he did those years,” Petty said. “We ran second to Cale in 1976 but kind of fell away from that a bit the next couple of seasons. He and Junior Johnson had the best combination, but we won the championship in 1979. Cale just dominated everything. He sat on the most poles and he won a ton of races. It was just his time.
“He was tough to race against whether he won championships or not. Of all the drivers running, he was probably the most determined driver there was. He would be 14 laps behind or 14 laps ahead but he would pass every car he could see. He never gave up.”
Three-time Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip had some of his most intense battles with Yarborough during the late 1970s. So much so that Yarborough tagged Waltrip “Jaws” when the friendly feuds between them reached their height as movie goers flocked to the theaters to see the film by the same name.
Ironically, Waltrip replaced Yarborough in Johnson’s No. 11, winning three titles of his own.
“I raced against Cale Yarborough for a lot of years and I can tell you, he was tenacious behind the wheel everywhere he drove,” Waltrip said. “He was the guy that would be your biggest competition or biggest headache, however you wanted to look at it. But on top of everything, Cale didn’t know a thing about a race car. All he knew how to do was drive the wheels off of what was under him and get the best he could out of it.
“Those championship years when he won them, he could seemingly do no wrong,” Waltrip added. “He and Junior won everything and then that same magic came back to us when we won Cup championships in Junior’s cars in 1981, ’82 and ’85. It was a magical time when Junior was fielding race cars.”
By the end of 1979, Yarborough’s racing and business schedules were grueling, allowing him to be home only a couple of days per week. It was time to leave Johnson’s team and go back to a limited schedule in order to spend more time with his family.
“I had decided that I was going to cut back on my schedule and spend more time with my family,” Yarborough said. “That’s what I did and I’ve never regretted it. I would have loved to have won that fourth one, but I felt like I needed to spend more time with my family. That was more important than a fourth championship.”
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