Hall Of Famer Yarborough Finally Finds Driver With Right Style

Everybody in NASCAR seems to be happy that Cale Yarborough finally won a race as a car owner - especially John Andretti.

Yarborough started his own team in 1987 near the end of his Hall of Fame racing days.

“I didn’t think it would be easy,” said the man who stands fifth on the all-time victory list with 83 and is the only driver ever to win three consecutive championships (1976-78). “But I didn’t think it would take 11 years, either.”

Andretti gave Yarborough his first win as a team owner two weeks ago at Daytona, a track where Yarborough drove the first 200 mph lap and won 12 poles and eight races.

The road to that victory has been long and circuitous, starting with Yarborough driving the car for two seasons, then Dale Jarrett and a long list of others. Andretti has raced eight times, starting last season.

“We were trying to find the right one,” Yarborough said. “It just took some time.”

Yarborough is the quintessential Southern man, born and raised in South Carolina and as much a part of NASCAR’s top stock car series as the Darlington track just down the road from his home in Sardis, S.C.

Andretti, the nephew of longtime Formula One and Indy-car star Mario Andretti, was raised in the North and got most of his racing education in the open-wheel cars he came from just five years ago.

A lot of people have wondered how such apparent opposites could succeed together.

“I guess I feel a lot like it’s me out there in the car when I see John race,” Yarborough said. “He just wants to get out front, lead laps and win. That’s the way I was.

“I’ve wrecked a lot of cars,” he added. “But I wrecked them going to the front. And I won a lot of races being greedy. I think John can win a lot of races, too.”

Tough repeat

Jeff Gordon will certainly be among the favorites in today’s Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono International Raceway, but the odds are against him.

Gordon, who won at the Pocono track in June, would be only the fourth driver to sweep both races on the 2-/12-mile tri-oval in the same season since a second event was added to the Winston Cup schedule in 1982.

Bobby Allison made it seem like an easy feat when he swept both events that year. Since then, however, only Bill Elliott in 1985 and Tim Richmond in 1986 have managed to win both races.

Stat of the week

Roush Racing teammates Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Ted Musgrave rank first, second and fourth in Winston Cup points earned over the past six races. Dale Earnhardt is third in points during that stretch.

In the overall standings, Martin is third, Burton fifth, Earnhardt sixth and Musgrave 10th.