Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cale Yarborough

R.I.P.

A hell of a driver, & from his interviews he seemed to be a good guy as well.

I remember him. RIP

The very first live broadcast of the Daytona 500 in 1979.

Yarborough & Allison kinda put NASCAR in the public eye in a big way. Cale is the one using his helmet.

Cale overcame a 3 lap down deficit to go for the lead in the 79 Daytona. It was very exciting to watch him, my first car race I’ve ever watched. The fight afterwards cemented him as my favorite driver until he retired.

I was a big fan of Cale’s as a kid. He was a fan favorite for a lot of folks. He really added a lot of color and personality to NASCAR. RIP to a great race car driver!

Damn, a legend gone.

Back in the day when racing was really racing.

Donnie Allison totally cut him off and caused that wreck. Supposedly when asked later, Yarborough said it was a fair fight, there were two Allison brothers and he had two fists. 😄

RIP

Imagine being about 30 years old in that era and not ever hearing of Cale Yarbrough or Foghat.

Just tooling around in a little red Pinto listening to Heart

RIP Cale.

As I recall, Bobby didn't feel that Donnie was capable of taking care of himself.

with names like Cale... and they go like Hale...

"and his face got to beatin' on my fist!"...

I remember seeing a NASCAR race on the television back in about 1966 or '67, it seems. I don't recall which race it was but I think it was Cale Y. who got airborne and sailed over the wall and the chain link barrier. It seems like it was coming out of turn four---wherever they were racing, but that was such a long time ago. I just remember wondering how far it was to the ground on the other side of the chain link. It musta been one helluva stop when he hit.

I was watching that race! Pretty climatic ending. Probably gained a lot of NASCAR fans that day! 😉 memtb

I was probably wedging my skinny butt into the bed of a metal Tonka dump truck and riding it down a steep hill in 19 and 79
Mama said “boy ya dont eat enough to keep a bird alive”

He wasn’t my favorite NASCAR driver……but, I respected the hell out of his driving ability! memtb

Yep.

sixteen... drivin' my 71 Riviera, chasin' tail, listnin' to Foghat... and Heart lol...

One of my favorites, Dad considered naming me Cale.
He didn't, but Karl was close.

Cale was one of the good ones. I liked NASCAR when drivers like him were racing. Don't watch it all today.

Yep. It suck’s nowadays.

Cale drove back when you could tell what make of car they were driving, and they weren't all spec cars, NASCAR was fun back then, you could carry a Rebel Flag, drink all the beer you could hold,fist fight and piss in the infield, there were good guy's bad guy's 43 cars in every race that had to qualify to get in the race the big races there was 51-52 cars trying to get in the race, now they are lucky to get 30-33, Cale the Allison's,Petty's Jr Johnson, made NASCAR. it's to bad the pansy asses got a hold of NASCAR and took the flavor and spirit out of NASCAR, RIP CALE. Rio7

The decline of NASCAR started when Jeff Gordon started racing, and NASCAR decided to change their image from "good ole rednecks" to the preppy Gordon types.

Nascar was over the day Dale died.

IMO, NASCAR knew the "working class" fans were on the way out (not enough disposable income anymore)... and tried to switch the fan base over to the wealthier "white collar" types... didn't work too good...

Yep... was for me anyway!...

holly farms chicken, Jr Johnson and Cale Yarborough

So the story went, After 3 championships in the Hardees Chevrolet, Ford offered Cale the regular deal of factory support & a million dollar bonus to switch. He said he went to GM & told them that. They had no or little response. He grinned & said that all they had to do was ask him kindly to stay & he would have without the million. But he didn't tell them that.

After the snub by GM he said he would have gone to Ford without the million. But he didn't tell them that either.

After that I still loved his driving style but needed a new driver. One that drove GM, was exciting to watch & to listen to. Didn't take long to notice the no. 3 car.

Nascar is nothing but a bunch of woke twits now.

Ain't it the truth LD, like so many other things. Some, just some institutions might be fine by not following along the agenda's.

Lots of sprit left the track that day.

+1 Like the old George Jones song says "who's gonna fill their shoes"

Your right Rio7

Nothing good lasts.

Several years ago, I had a good conversation with Humpy Wheeler about NASCAR’s decline. I pinned most of it on their closures of certain tracks (N. Wilkesboro) and limiting other tracks to only one race. This created a cultural change that was detrimental to the sport. He pretty much agreed and said he wouldn’t want to be responsible for selling out the CMS anymore. We both agreed that NASCAR had seen its best days many years ago.

I remember the Fans Against Gordon (F.A.G.) flags flying in the fans' campground across the road from the front gate at Talladega- - - -camped out there several years in a row!

And for me also

My wife is still pretty sad about Dale’s passing. She knew Dale’s daughter, Kelly, when we were in school. Dale was a pretty approachable guy around town, so this area of the state really misses him. DEI must be doing pretty well, as it is decorated pretty nice for the holidays. I guess Teresa is the sole owner of DEI now?

I was watching the race that day and became a Winston Cup fan What's not to like? Speed, wrecks and brawls. I'm a fan.

Went to several races, bought the t-shirts and hats, but the sport changed over the years. I agree, stock car racing died with Dale.

RIP, Cale

I just watched that race on you-tube it was 1965 it was the Southern 500 race at the Darlington race track ran every memoriol day .look on youtube they have every Southern 500 race ran from 1956 -80's .each show last about 25 minuits . they show and tell how far Cale flew in air that day over the rail but i dont remember. seen it last week end .well worth watching all the old drivers in true stock cars

here is just his crash at the 1965 Darlington race

the 1965 Darlington 500 race ,,it shows Cale's wreck over the rails ., this one shows the whole race in a 25 min. show they have most of every year of this race

I was a wee shaver when Cale was wrapping up. I remember the name well, but soon folks like Bill Elliott and Dale were taking over.

God speed Yarborough!

A real Wheelman. RIP

Cool videos, rem shooter. Back when the sport was raw.

I went to a NASCAR race at Darlington once. Like putting a tuxedo on a rattlesnake.

This ^^^^^^^^^^ in spades, he carried NASCAR in his back.

RIP, Cale..................he was one a helluva competitor.

Earnhardt was the best there ever was, probably the best there ever will be, got to meet him a few times.

The France family corporation has managed to pretty well kill NASCAR & turn it into IROC, where the drivers all just draw straws for their car to drive today.

MM

IROC

Not a crazy idea. Have NASCAR furnish identical cars, & let drivers draw straws. That didn't seem to bother Dale any. He kicked ass and took names in that series as well. Thinking a driver like Cale might have done the same.

Earnhardt was the whole reason I watched Nascar back then. If I couldn't watch it I was listening to it on the radio. Never missed a race if I could help it. It was changing slowly even with him there towards the end, but it changed at warp speed after he died, and I lost interest long ago.

Cale, was racing yet at the first race I went to, as was Donny and all the others. Those old guys put Nascar on the map, Earnhardt was the new up and comer at the time and took Nascar to another level. Those days are long gone. Fun while it lasted.

Surprisingly, Dale was a very strong contender in the 79 race with the fight, but who noticed at the time.

1989, first nascar race at Sears Point I bought a #3 hat and snuck into the pits, found Dale's trailer and cought his attention. He waved me over past the barriers and signed the hat. Still have it and it's pretty special to me.

Lee Roy was a pretty good racer too, though not spelled the same or related to Cale.

Cale/Kale/Polk Salad

Good racer, old school.