Johnson stands shoulder to shoulder with Yarborough
Carl Edwards did all he could to try to steal this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup championship from Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR’s season-closer at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. Edwards led the most laps and scored his ninth win of the year – more than any other driver – but it wasn’t enough to catch Johnson who finished on the same lap in fifteenth place. After 36 races and ten months of racing Johnson wound-up beating Edwards by 69 points.
So Johnson has achieved a rare feat, joining the great Cale Yarborough as the only other man in NASCAR history to win three championships in a row. Yarborough was a bull-necked superstar of the sixties and seventies who won 83 races and took 70 poles in a career lasting thirty-two years from 1957 through 1988. Yarborough is ranked fifth on NASCAR’s all-time winners list and third among pole winners behind only Richard Petty and David Pearson.
Hailing from rural Sardis, South Carolina, not far from the Darlington Speedway, Yarborough earned his three championships in 1976, ‘77 and ‘78 driving for Junior Johnson’s team. Yarborough and former driver and one-time whiskey runner Johnson made a perfect team of true southerners who won races through pure aggression. During his trio of championship years in Johnson’s cars Yarborough won twenty-eight races, soundly beating Richard Petty to the title in 1976 and ‘77 and defeating Bobby Allison in ‘78.
Yarborough also won the Daytona 500 four times, driving the Wood Brothers’ Mercury in 1968, Junior Johnson’s Chevrolet in ‘77, and Harry Ranier’s Chevrolets in 1983 and ‘84. He also won five Southern 500s at his beloved Darlington.
In his prime, Cale was one of the most aggressive drivers I’ve ever seen. During the 1979 Daytona 500 he famously tangled with Bobby and Donnie Allison while battling for the lead early in the race. In getting back to the pits and repairing his car Yarborough lost three laps and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anyone drive more ferociously and use the yellow flags more aggressively to regain all three laps. At the end he was battling for the lead with Donnie Allison but on the last lap as Cale prepared to make his move the pair came up on Bobby Allison.
What ensued was a classic moment in NASCAR history as Donnie Allison blocked and then hit Yarborough’s car and both wound up spinning out of the race. With the race lost (to Richard Petty) Yarborough and Allison scrambled out of their crashed cars to be joined by Bobby Allison for a televised three-way scuffle. The fight is credited with launching NASCAR to major league sports status in the United States capable of drawing strong national TV ratings and generating massive rights fees.
Jimmie Johnson is a very different character. Born and raised in suburban San Diego, California, Johnson started racing on moto-cross ‘bikes when he was five years old, then went dirt track and off-road racing and dreamed of racing Indy cars like his hero Rick Mears. Johnson is a classic example of NASCAR’s modern breed that grew up outside the South. He’s a quiet, considerate fellow who maintains an apartment in New York City as well as a home on Lake Norman in North Carolina.
So far, Johnson has won 40 first division Sprint Cup races, including the 2002 Daytona 500, and is ranked 15th on NASCAR’s all-time winners list. After equalling Yarborough’s rare tally of three championships in a row Johnson has raced his way among NASCAR’s legends. But at 33 he’s in the prime of his career with many more wins possible and a few more likely championships, too. He deserves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Cale Yarborough.
Filed under: Blogs, NASCAR, Other reports
He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic.
Dave Cubbedge:
November 18th, 2008 3:26pm
I have never quite caught on to the NASCAR points system and I am not a fan of the ‘chase’. Years ago, I put the “Can-Am” points system to NASCAR results and I don’t think there were too many times when the actual Cup champ and my “champ” were the same person. And although I am against Bernie’s new “medals” approach to determining a champion, I do feel that the one who won the most races should have proper consideration when all’s said and done. Having said all that, hats off to Jimmie, he did the best job under the current rules and is an advertisers’ dream when it comes to selling goods.
Don Capps:
November 18th, 2008 8:21pm
Kudos to Jimmie Johnson for matching Cale Yarborough’s feat of three consectutive championships. It was not easy then (despite some of the talking heads on television trying to make it seem so) and it is not easy now. Whether one likes the “chase” concept or not (and I, for one, don’t), the rules were the same for everyone and Johnson came out on top three times in a row.
The various points schedules devised by NASCAR over the years for its premier division — Strictly Stock, Grand National, Winston Cup, Nextel Cup, and now Sprint Cup — have tended to reward consistent finishes in the top dozen or so in the field. From 1952 until the end of the 1967 season, it was prize money that generally determined the points awarded.
When I did a complete rundown on the 1964 Grand National season, the which holds the dubious distinction of the longest regardless of how you measure it, I found that thee were 16 different points schedules used during the season. The points schedule that was posted in the generic NASCAR programs for the 1964 season usually did not match what was actually awarded in the actual races.
Just for the record: There were 62 GN events between the first event at Concord, NC on 10 November 1963 until the final one at Jacksonville, NC on 8 November 1964. The 62 GN races does not reflect the various qualifying races (only the two Daytona qualifiers paid points, but not the two races also held on pole qualifying day) and trophy dashes held as part of the GN races.
Each and every points system has its drawbacks as well as its advantages. Over the years I have come to regard the various points systems from a disinterested — or academic — viewpoint and not giving much (if any) thought to their merits. I am a historian, not a journalist or “fan” when it comes to such things.
The only current racing series I have had much interest in over those that NASCAR provides — trucks, Nationwide, and Cup. Even after the unification as the IRL or ICS or whatever it is now called this year, way too late for me. I gave up on F1 eons ago. However, anticipating another long tour back in the desert begining in mid to late January, this might be when I finally abandon the contemporary racing scene for good. During my previous 21-month tour, I sort of kept up with things, but found myself not being all that involved, if you will. I would check the internet for the results and that was pretty much that.
Maybe this is as good a place as any to write something that is on my mind:
When Motor Sport changed hands, the new crew cut off the complimentary copy that the previous publisher, Stuart Forrest, had been sending to my base of operations at Camp Arifjan (I go all over the Central Command area from my office there) in Kuwait. I would read it — I had a subscription so a copy was arriving at the house back in the States — and then pass it on to someone else. My brothers in arms from the Land of Oz were, generally, the folks that ended up with them after I read an issue. Two years later and I am still a bit miffed about it.