SAD NEWS: Cale Yarborough Has Died January 1, 2024 NASCAR Legendary NASCAR driver Cale Yarborough, named one of the sport’s greatest drivers with three championships, has died. He was 84 years old. Yarborough won four Daytona 500s and three Cup Series championships from 1976-1978. Yarborough held the record for most consecutive Cup Series championships before Jimmie Johnson won five in a row. The former NASCAR driver and Johnson are tied for sixth on the Cup Series’ all-time win list with 83 victories a piece. Yarborough was involved in one of the most famous fights in NASCAR history after the 1979 Daytona 500. After Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed, the two drivers fought in the first Daytona 500 broadcast from start to finish. It was a massive moment for the sport that threw it into the mainstream spotlight. Yarborough was inducted into the NASCAR Hall-of-Fame in 2012 as a part of the third class of honorees. He was also honored at Darlington Raceway in 2016 as the track the garage in his name – a garage he had snuck into as a youth growing up in nearby Sardis (SC). He was a star football player at Timmonsville High School and was offered a football scholarship to Clemson University. It was racing cars that Cale loved more than football and he decided instead to pursue a career in stock car racing. His father, Julian, instilled in Cale a love of flying and fast cars and took him to Darlington to watch the building of the raceway there. He raced in his very first race in a soap box derby at the town square in Darlington. Yarborough is survived by his wife of nearly 63 years, Betty Jo, three daughters, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services are private.
