2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee - Cale Yarborough

Hometown: Timmonsville, S.C.

Competed: 1957-88

Starts: 562

Wins: 83

Poles: 69

As competitive as the sport has always been, NASCAR has had very few dynasties. Cale Yarborough’s reign in the late 1970s, though, was one of them.

His string of three consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships from 1976-78 was unprecedented – and unmatched until 2008, when Jimmie Johnson was crowned champion for the third straight year. Johnson would win a fourth consecutive title in 2009.

During his three-year dominance, Yarborough won 28 races – nine in 1976, nine in ’77 and 10 in ’78. His final championship points margin in those three years was never fewer than 195 points and was as much as 474 in 1978.

Those three years made Yarborough’s career, but he enjoyed success before and after. The fiery competitor was the series championship runner-up in 1973 and ’74 and again in 1980.

Yarborough totaled 83 victories in his 31-year career, ranks fifth all-time. His 69 poles rank third all-time. And he won the Daytona 500 four times (1968, ’77, ’83-84), a mark that ranks second only to Richard Petty’s seven.

When NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” list was compiled in 1998, suffice it to say that William Caleb Yarborough was a shoo-in.

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Hometown: Stuart, Va.

2011 Nominee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame - Glen Wood. Photo credit: Getty Images

Competed: 1953-64

Starts: 62

Wins: 4

Poles: 14

Glen Wood laid the foundation for the famed Wood Brothers racing team as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Competing on a semi-regular basis, mostly at tracks close to his southern Virginia home, Wood won four times – all at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. His best season was 1960 during which Wood won three times and posted six top-five and seven top-10 finishes in just nine races. He also won 14 poles during a 62-race career.

Wood, of course, is best known for his collaboration with brothers Leonard and Delano in Wood Brothers Racing. The Stuart, Va.-based team, which dates to 1950 and remains active, has amassed 97 victories in 1,353 races. The team’s all-time roster of drivers is a virtual who’s who of NASCAR and includes David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Marvin Panch, Fireball Roberts, Dan Gurney, Tiny Lund, Parnelli Jones, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Fred Lorenzen and Bill Elliott.

The Wood Brothers have excelled outside the NASCAR world as well, winning the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with Jim Clark.

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Hometown: Norfolk, Va.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee for 2011 - Joe Weatherly. Photo credit Getty Images

Competed: 1952-64

Starts: 229

Wins: 25

Poles: 18

Joe Weatherly won two championships (1962-63) and 25 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

But that’s only part of his story, which is long on versatility.

A decade earlier in 1952-53, he won 101 races in the NASCAR Modified division, capturing that championship in ’53. He even tried his hand in NASCAR’s short-lived Convertible Division from 1956-59.

Weatherly was one of the first drivers who attracted fans to NASCAR as much for his personality as his racing ability, thus his nickname the “Clown Prince of Stock Car Racing.”

When he won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, in 1962, he drove for legendary owner Bud Moore. When he repeated as champion a year later, he drove for nine different teams.

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It was a nose to nose finish between Boris Said and Max Papis.
Top 5 finishers:
No. 09 Boris Said (Ford)
No. 33 Max Papis (Chevy)
No. 32 Jacques Villeneuve (Toyota)
No. 22 Brad Keselowski (Dodge)
No. 98 Paul Menard (Ford)

Watch the NNS final laps:

NASCAR Hall of Fame for 2011- Darrell Waltrip. Photo by Getty Images.

Hometown: Owensboro, Ky.

Competed: 1972-2000

Starts: 809

Wins: 84

Poles: 59

A three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion (1981-82, ’85), Waltrip won all three with legendary driver/owner Junior Johnson. Waltrip is tied with Bobby Allison for third all-time in series victories with 84. His 59 poles rank fifth all-time in NASCAR Sprint Cup history. He competed from 1972-2000, another highlight being his 1989 Daytona 500 victory in a Rick Hendrick-owned Chevrolet.

Waltrip’s first series title came in 1981, when he finished with 12 wins and 21 top fives in 31 races. He won the title by 53 points over Bobby Allison. In his second championship season, 1982, he finished with 12 wins and 20 top 10s in 30 races, sweeping both races at four tracks (Nashville, Bristol, Talladega and North Wilkesboro). In his third championship season, 1985, Waltrip finished with three wins and 21 top 10s in 28 races.

Waltrip and his wife, Stevie, reside in Franklin, Tenn. He was nicknamed “Jaws” during his career because of an outspoken demeanor. He currently is a commentator on FOX’s NASCAR broadcasts. He was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998.

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Tony Stewart at a Office Depot Backpack event. Photo courtesy of MATTER, Edelman Sports & Entertainment Marketing

Tony Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ champion and driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, will headline a special “Back To School Celebration” event at a local Office Depot store in Atlanta. 

Miami HEAT guard Kenny Hasbrouck fires up the No. 14 Office Depot NASCAR race car during a Back to School event in Miramar, Florida. Photo credit: Miami Heat

 

Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Office Depot show car, featuring the special “Back to school” paint scheme was on-site for kids to look at during an event at an elementary school in South Florida along with Miami HEAT players Patrick Beverley, Kenny Hasbrouck, and Dexter Pittman. 

Curtis Turner - Nominee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame for 2011. Photo credit: Getty Images

Hometown: Roanoke, Va.

Competed: 1949-68

Starts: 184

Wins: 17

Poles: 16

Called by some the “Babe Ruth of stock car racing,” Curtis Turner was among the fastest and most colorful competitors in the early years of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. Turner posted his first of 17 career victories in only his fourth start on Sept. 11, 1949, at Langhorne, Pa.

Although many of Turner’s victories came on short tracks and dirt ovals – much of his career pre-dated NASCAR’s superspeedway era – he won the 1956 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the first American 500 at Rockingham in 1965. He also won 22 races in NASCAR’s convertible division in 1956.

Turner competed in NASCAR’s first “Strictly Stock” race in 1949 in Charlotte and was the only driver to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup race in a Nash. He remains the only series driver to win two consecutive races from the pole leading every lap. Turner drove for many legendary NASCAR owners including the Wood Brothers, Junior Johnson, Smokey Yunick and Holman-Moody.

Turner was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee for 2011- Herb Thomas. Photo credit: Getty Images

Hometown: Olivia, N.C.

Competed: 1949-62

Starts: 228

Wins: 48

Poles: 39

Herb Thomas was truly one of NASCAR’s first superstars. He was the first to win two NASCAR Sprint Cup championships (1951, ’53). He finished second in the points standings in 1952 and 1954 giving the North Carolina veteran top-two championship finishes in four consecutive seasons. He finished outside the top two in the championship only once (fifth in 1955) between 1951 and 1956. Thomas won the 1951 championship driving self-owned cars.

Thomas won the second running of Darlington Raceway’s famed Southern 500 in 1951 and with back-to-back victories in 1954-55 was the race’s first three-time winner.

Thomas won 48 times in series competition, a number that continues to rank 13^th all-time. His 48 victories in 228 starts equates to a series-record winning percentage of 21.05. Thomas won races in seven consecutive seasons from 1950 through 1956.

After retiring from competition following the 1962 seasons, Thomas went on to start a trucking company and sawmill. He was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee for 2011- Fireball Roberts Photo credit: Getty Images

Hometown: Daytona Beach, Fla.

Competed: 1950-64

Starts: 207

Wins: 33

Poles: 32

Glenn Roberts, who got his legendary nickname from his days as a hard-throwing pitcher in high school, is perhaps the greatest driver never to win a NASCAR title.

He was arguably stock car racing’s first superstar, an immensely popular prototype for some of today’s competitors who are stars on and off the track.

Of course, Roberts’ fame was based on what he did when he got behind the wheel. During his career he often came up big in the biggest events, winning the Daytona 500 in 1962 and the Southern 500 in 1958 and ’63. Overall, he won seven races at Daytona International Speedway, starting with the Firecracker 250 in the summer of 1959 – the year the speedway opened.

Roberts was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998; 40 years before that, he demonstrated a burst of greatness that is hard to fathom. He ran only 10 races in ’58 but won six of them – finishing 11^th in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

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