NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough dies at age of 84
By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) -Cale Yarborough, who won three consecutive NASCAR Cup championships in a Hall of Fame racing career that included four Daytona 500 wins, died at age 84, NASCAR said on Sunday.
The news comes after NASCAR Vice President John Dodson in April said Yarborough «was not doing well» and asked fans to keep him in their prayers.
The South Carolina native won the NASCAR crown in 1976, 1977 and 1978, making him one of only two drivers in the sport's history to win three consecutive championships.
He claimed 83 wins and 319 top-10 finishes during his NASCAR career that spanned from 1957 to 1988.
The three-time Driver of the Year award winner won the Daytona 500 in 1968, 1977, 1983, 1984 and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012.
“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen,” said NASCAR Chair and CEO Jim France in a statement. “His combination of talent, grit and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book. He was respected and admired by competitors and fans alike and was as comfortable behind the wheel of a tractor as he was behind the wheel of a stock car."
Yarborough's NASCAR obit includes his actual victories in racing as well as yarns spun about the NASCAR legend «with varying degrees of truth behind it.» Tales included that he survived a lightning strike, flew and landed an airplane without training and once wrestled an alligator in a swamp.
Yarborough was at the center of an iconic NASCAR moment when in the final lap of the 1979 Daytona 500, Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed while racing for the lead.
The drivers emerged from their cars and exchanged blows in a fight that was broadcasted on television.
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