Yarborough was the first to win three straight Cup Series championships. He finished his career with 83 victories, tied for sixth most with Jimmie Johnson.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Cale Yarborough used to sneak under the fence as a child at Darlington Raceway, planning for the day when he would dominate at the hometown track known as “Too Tough To Tame.”
“He got out of the car and walked away,” Yarborough’s wife of 62 years, Betty Jo, said this week. “He didn’t say a word about it.”
Yarborough’s NASCAR career will be remembered this weekend at the event he loved more than the others when the Cup Series closes its regular season with the Southern 500.
Yarborough’s name is over the Cup Series garage at the egg-shaped oval that’s stood about 20 minutes from where he grew up in Timmonsville.
Track organizers found Yarborough’s Oldsmobile Cutlass from 1978 that he drove …