Fifty Years Later, Cale Yarborough Still Owns Bristol

Kyle Larson, freshly awake after breaking a 51-race winless streak with a victory Sunday near St. Louis, rolls on this week to one of his favorite tracks—Bristol Motor Speedway.

With the win, Larson made a major move in the Chase standings, climbing into second place. He’s only nine points behind leader Denny Hamlin entering Saturday night’s race at Bristol, the third event in the Chase. Larson has been a Bristol kingpin in recent years, scoring three wins and seven top fives in his eight BMS starts for Hendrick Motorsports. He has led 2,046 laps at a track notorious for kicking drivers to the garage after accidents.

Larson’s strong Bristol history brings to mind the sustained runs of another BMS great: Cale Yarborough.

Fifty years ago, before Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, and Rusty Wallace would stake claims to being the ultimate Bristol master, Yarborough was the ruler of all things NASCAR in east Tennessee.

Driving his Junior Johnson Kar-Kare Chevy, Cale Yarborough blew away the field in the 1973 Southeastern 500. Yarborough started the race from the pole and led every one of the race’s 500 laps at Bristol International Speedway.

Across eight seasons, from 1973 to 1980, Yarborough won nine of 16 races that were contested over one of auto racing’s toughest half-miles. Included were four straight wins. In the heart of that stretch, Yarborough won three straight Cup series championships in cars prepared at Junior Johnson’s Ingle Hollow, North Carolina shop.

Impressive beyond those victories is the manner in which Yarborough, a tough-as-tar South Carolinian who gave no quarter and asked for none—“He wanted to lead every lap,” Bobby Allison once said of Yarborough—claimed them.

In all of his nine Bristol wins, Yarborough led more than half of the race laps.

Particularly emblematic of Yarborough’s Bristol dominance is the Volunteer 400 50 years ago. On August 29, 1976, nearing the end of his first championship season in Johnson’s cars, Yarborough led 373 of the race’s 400 laps, finishing two laps in front of second-place Richard Petty and third-place Darrell Waltrip. Benny Parsons, who often described racing at Bristol as “flying jets in a gymnasium,” was five laps back in fourth. (As an aside, this was the race in which Joe Frasson finished last after completing five laps, then listing his reason out as “no tires.”)

Waltrip led the first 27 laps. Yarborough inherited the lead after a Waltrip pit stop and led the final 373 laps, cruising in front of the field like a bandit with no fear of being caught.

Cale Yarborough racing at Bristol Motor Speedway in the 1970s.

“We got in a groove and just kept the rhythm going,” Yarborough said afterward.

That line could describe much of his career at Bristol.

In his first win at the track in March 1973, Yarborough led all 500 laps, finishing two laps in front of Petty. In April 1977, he led 495 of 500 laps, “edging” second-place Dick Brooks by seven laps at the finish. His last Bristol win—a two-car-length victory over Dale Earnhardt in August 1980—had Yarborough out front for 379 of 500 laps.

Yarborough’s career total of nine wins at Bristol matched his total at Daytona International Speedway, making the two very different tracks his all-time victory leaders. Yarborough remains Bristol’s all-time top lap leader with 4,305. Earnhardt is second on that list with 3,751 laps led in 14 more starts than Yarborough.

On Saturday night, Larson will ride in Yarborough’s long Bristol shadow.

Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.