Cale Yarborough leaves Junior Johnson for MC Anderson (1981-82)
Join me throughout this year as I take a look at when some of the sport’s biggest stars drove some unusual cars! (Presented in no particular order).
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| Courtesy NASCAR Legends/Pinterest |
Why? It seemed strange—why would Cale Yarborough leave a team where he’d finished first or second in points six out of the past eight years to run a part-time schedule? Well, the answer was simple—Yarborough didn’t want to miss watching his daughters grow up, and a partial Cup schedule allowed him to spend more time at home.
How successful were they? Quite successful—Cale won five races in two part-time seasons for Anderson, including the 1982 Southern 500.
What was the aftermath? Yarborough continued to run part-time schedule, now doing so for Rainer-Lundy Racing, from 1983 through 1986, winning two Daytona 500s in the process. He’d retire after two final years in his own car.
Ranking on the Strange-O-Meter? 3 consecutive championships out of 10—as odd as it might have looked in 1981, Cale would spend the rest of the decade running part-time, oddly enough in cars 27, 28, and 29.
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