LeeRoy Yarbrough facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough
Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough's official publicity photo (1969)
Born	(1938-09-17)September 17, 1938 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Died	December 7, 1984(1984-12-07) (aged 46) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Achievements	1969 Daytona 500 Winner 1969 Southern 500 Winner 1969 World 600 Winner First driver to win NASCAR's "Triple Crown" (1969)
Awards	Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) Named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers (2023)
NASCAR Cup Series career
198 races run over 12 years
Best finish	15th (1964)
First race	1960 Atlanta 500 (Atlanta)
Last race	1972 Old Dominion 500 (Martinsville)
First win	1964 Savannah 200 (Savannah)
Last win	1970 National 500 (Charlotte)
Wins Top tens Poles 14 92 10
NASCAR Grand National East Series career
1 race run over 1 year
First race	1972 Greenville 200 (Greenville)
Last race	1972 Greenville 200 (Greenville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
Statistics current as of December 18, 2012.

Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough (September 17, 1938 – December 7, 1984) was an American stock car racer. His best season was 1969 when he won seven races, tallied 21 finishes in the top-ten and earned $193,211 ($1,351,708.46 when inflation is taken into account). During his entire career from 1960–1972, he competed in 198 races, scoring fourteen wins, 65 finishes in the top-five, 92 finishes in the top-ten, and ten pole positions. Yarbrough also competed in open-wheel racing, making 5 starts in the USAC Championship cars, including 3 Indianapolis 500s, with a best finish of 3rd at Trenton Speedway in 1970. His racing number was 98. When asked about his passion, Yarbrough described racing as "what I call my life."

LeeRoy died in 1984 after a fall. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. LeeRoy Yarbrough is not related to NASCAR champion Cale Yarborough.

Career

Early stock car career

Yarbrough grew up on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida, and developed an affinity for speed at an early age. When he was sixteen years-old, Yarbrough put together his first car, a 1934 Ford coupe with a Chrysler engine. When he was 19, Yarbrough found his way to a local dirt track. He won that race at Jacksonville Speedway in the spring of 1957. Racing at Jacksonville Speedway Park on Saturday nights Yarborough developed a penchant for carrying excess speed into the third turn and diving under any car that was ahead of him. He would then slide through the turn and run the straightway 1" from the concrete wall. The style was evident in many of his last lap wins throughout his career.

Yarbrough started his racing career in NASCAR's lower tier Sportsman division. After winning 11 races, Yarbrough moved up to the more powerful Modifieds and won 83 features in a three-year span.

Yarbrough won two short-track races in the 1964 NASCAR Grand National season, the first year he competed in more than 14 races. Two years later, Yarbrough scored his first superspeedway win at Charlotte. Driving an unsponsored and lightly regarded Dodge Charger owned by Jon Thorne, Yarbrough dominated the race, leading for 450 of the 500 miles (800 km) in the October 16 National 500. Factory-backed rides followed. His Junior Johnson-owned Ford team started out poorly early in the 1968 season. LeeRoy rebounded and won at Atlanta and Trenton.

1969 and later

In the 1969 Daytona 500, Yarbrough was trailing Charlie Glotzbach by 11 seconds with ten laps remaining. On the final lap, Yarbrough ducked to the low side to make the pass, but a lapped car was in that lane. Yarbrough dived to the low side in turn 3 to clear the lapped car, nearly clipping the apron. He took the lead from Glotzbach and dashed under the checkered flag a car length in front to win the Daytona 500. Next, he won Darlington's Rebel 400 in the final four laps, then won Charlotte's World 600, lapping the entire field at least twice. He also won the summer 400-miler at Daytona, prevailing in a late-race battle with Buddy Baker, making him the third driver in NASCAR history to sweep both Daytona races. Yarbrough won the summer race at Atlanta International Raceway despite a 102-degree fever. He captured The Southern 500 by passing David Pearson on the last lap. He won by a full lap at Rockingham in October, overcoming a lap deficit when a flat tire sent him into the wall. By season's end, Yarbrough had seven wins to his credit and was named American Driver of The year.

After his successful 1969 season, Yarbrough’s performance record trailed off. A victim of the factory withdrawal, Yarbrough had to scramble to locate rides in Grand National events. He won once in 1970 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and only entered six races in 1971. In 1972, he accepted a ride in a Ford owned by independent campaigner Bill Seifert. He registered nine top 10 finishes in 18 starts. Yarbrough showed up for Daytona's 1973 Speedweeks, but failed to earn a starting berth for the Daytona 500. He virtually dropped out of sight after that, never again showing up at a NASCAR event.

Later career and life

On April 22, 1970, Yarbrough suffered head injuries while doing tire tests for Goodyear at Texas World Speedway. Yarbrough blew a tire between turns three and four and impacted the wall at over 160 mph. Yarbrough's head hit a roll bar inside the cockpit with such force that it cracked his helmet. He was released from the hospital that evening, and at the time, was not believed to have been a serious head injury. He was picked up at the airport by Cale Yarborough, but later had no memory of the crash, hospital, or meeting with Yarborough.

"I was unconscious for about an hour, but I feel okay today," Yarbrough said a day later. "As tightly as I was strapped in the seat, it's hard for me to believe my body moved that much. The straps made my shoulders black and blue and I'm pretty sore." Days later, Yarbrough qualified eighth at Martinsville but the race was postponed because of rain.

Yarbrough showed well in a few Indy Car starts, leading the inaugural California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway late. After Al Unser retired with 14 laps remaining, Yarbrough inherited the lead. With a margin of two laps over second place, it appeared that Yarbrough would score an unlikely victory. But with eight laps remaining, Yarbrough suffered a broken piston and blew an engine, coasting to a stop in turn four. Yarbrough drew cheers from the crowd as he pushed his car back to the pits. Yarbrough then finished 3rd at Trenton Speedway in 1971.

After competing in three Indianapolis 500s in 1967, '69 and '70, Yarbrough was driving a Dan Gurney Eagle in practice on May 9th for the 1971 Indianapolis 500 when he spun and crashed hard in turn one, suffering head injuries. Yarbrough spent the next few months, June through November, in and out of the hospital with many different ailments and memory problems. He most likely suffered brain trauma from the crashes in Texas and Indianapolis.

In 1977, a court, on recommendation from a psychiatric board, ruled him incompetent to handle his own affairs and he moved in with his mother, Minnie Yarbrough.

Yarbrough was committed to the Florida State Hospital at Chattahoochee by Judge Hudson Oliff of Jacksonville on March 7, 1980.

Death

While in the hospital on December 6, 1984, Yarbrough had a violent seizure and fell over striking his head. He fell unconscious immediately. He was rushed to Jacksonville's University Hospital where he died the morning of December 7, 1984.

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

USAC Championship Car

Indianapolis 500

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. ** – All laps led.)

Grand National Series

Winston Cup Series

Daytona 500

Grand National East Series