Cale Yarborough's name is synonymous with success in NASCAR racing. His three NASCAR Winstor Cup championships and 83 career victories make him a legend in the sport. Cale was born to race, but his friends say that he would have succeeded in any sport. Known as a daredevil, who loves a challenge, he will try just about anything. From his first solo airplane flight at age 13 to hang gliding: from boat racing to stock car racing. Cale loves to go fast. To quote Junior Johnson (another NASCAR legend) "Cale Yarborough is the best driver the sport has ever seen. When you strap Cale into the car, it's like adding 20 horsepower."
Cale won his First race in 1965 at the Valdosta 100 in Valdosta, Georgia. In 1968 he won the Daytona 500. He won the Daytona 500 again in 1977, 1983, and 1984. He is one of the most accomplished NASCAR drivers in history. He won the Winston cup season championship three consecutive times from 1976 to 1978. In so doing he became the First driver to do so. Winston Cup, which is based on points accumulated in races throughout the year, represents the highest level of stock-car racing. In 1977 Cale started and finished every race on the Winston Cup circuit, the first driver to accomplish this feat. In 1980 he started from the pole position (fastest qualifying time) in 14 races, setting a NASCAR record. At his retirement in 1988 Cale had won 83 races, ranking fourth at that time on the NASCAR list for career victories.
There was no one who tried harder than Cale to win the pole position. That's the reason he still ranks third today. "Running for the pole was like running for a win. I always tried to win. No one remembers who runs second, " he says.
The 5'7", 175 Ibs. Yarborough was a giant in a stock-car. He won 83 of 558 races. It's the fourth best percentage in NASCAR for anyone competing in more than 300 races. His 83 wins are fifth on the alltime list. He also won 70 pole positions.
Cale has accomplished some other impressive statistics. He is the only driver to win the Grand National (now Winston Cup) championship three consecutive years (1976-1978) and the only champion (1977) to be running at the finish of every race.
Of anyone leading at least 7,500 miles of race competition, Yarborough ranks second with 34.079.9 miles led and is first in percentage at 16%. He is less than 10,000 miles behind Richard Petty, who entered more than twice as many races as Yarborough. He is also second to Petty in leading the most laps (101) in a race.
Despite being a hard charger in every race, Calc failed to finish only 197 in his 558 races. In 340 of those races entered he led a least one lap—only two drivers have led more races.
Born on March 27, 1939 William Caleb Yarborough, today, is working on building his business empire with his wife of 33 years, Betty Jo and with his three daughters. A successful entrepreneur who owns car dealerships, fast food franchises and other business ventures, Gale's primary focus remains his race team, Cale Yarborough Motorsports. In his eyes his team's accomplishments are "yet to come." His goals are simple, and they have been instilled in the entire organization: to visit Victory Lane. to win poles, and to finish in the top-10 in points.
Yarborough is involved in the Executive Racing School at USA International Speedway and will be a special guest at the 2001 Salute to Racing event in Sarasota on January 6 & 7th.
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