Cale Yarborough, NASCAR legend who won 3 straight titles, dies at age 84

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Cale Yarborough, the first driver to win three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships and the winner of 83 races over a career that spanned from 1957-88, died Sunday. He was 84.

Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012 (the third induction class), Yarborough ranks tied for sixth with Jimmie Johnson in career victories and fourth in career poles with 69.

“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen,” NASCAR Chairman Jim France said. “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 and Johnson, who won five consecutive titles from 2006-2010, are the only drivers to win three consecutive titles in Cup history.

His three championships came while driving for Junior Johnson, but Yarborough won races for five organizations throughout his career, which got its big boost in 1966 when landed with the Wood Brothers racing team. He won the Daytona 500 four times – in 1968, 1977, 1983 and 1984 – second to only Richard Petty, who won the Daytona 500 seven times.

Yarborough is also known for his involvement in one of the sport’s iconic moments: a fight with Donnie and Bobby Allison at the end of the 1979 Daytona 500. It was the first 500-mile NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag and it had a captive audience as snow covered much of the northeast.

Yarborough’s story was one of a climb from a South Carolina farming family to one of racing’s greatest drivers. 

“I’m just so proud to be a part of it and been so blessed to climb that long ladder from the bottom step,” he said after his 2012 Hall of Fame induction. “Now I’m standing on that top step. Can’t go any higher, but can’t nobody push me off, either.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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