The mid-90s were a transitional time for Nascar—Jeff Gordon won his first Cup races, Dale Earnhardt won his last championships, and (as always) smaller teams were finding it tougher and tougher to compete on a regular basis. One such small team was Cale Yarborough Motorsports, which despite having a three-time champion as its owner, had struggled mightily since its founding in 1988.
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| The only known photos of the Mercury |
Meanwhile, another sign of Nascar being in transition was the narrowing down of manufacturers in the Cup series. 1992 had been the last year for Oldsmobile, while 1991 had been the last year for Buick. By 1994 teams were down to three choices: the Pontiac Grand Prix, the Chevrolet Lumina, and the Ford Thunderbird.
But what if someone tried to enter a fourth manufacturer?
That was what Cale Yarborough Motorsports tried, hanging Mercury Cougar sheetmetal onto a Ford chassis (remember, Ford owned Mercury) in anticipation for the 1993 second race at Talladega.
There was some logic behind the change—the rear window of the Cougar was of a different shape than the Thunderbird, one that seemed to allow less air to hit the spoiler. Less air hitting the spoiler meant less control but more speed—which could’ve been a major advantage at a superspeedway like Talladega.
Unfortunately, mother nature had other ideas.
The Yarborough team tried to test the new Mercury bodywork at Talladega’s sister track, Daytona, on July 21st 1993, but after a brief run by driver Derrike Cope, rain came, and the team was forced to pack it in. Unfortunately, not enough data had been collected to see if the Mercury would be competitive at Talladega, and the team wound up running their old Ford Thunderbird for that race, as well as for the rest of the team’s existence.
Cale Yarborough Motorsports remained a relatively uncompetitive operation for the rest of its existence, with its lone win coming in 1997 with driver John Andretti. In a bit of irony, Andretti had swapped rides the previous year with Yarborough driver Jeremy Mayfield, moving over from Kranefuss-Haas Racing—the same Kranefuss-Haas Racing that had tried to bring Lincoln back to Nascar.
Special thanks to NascarNick1999 for his video on the subject
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