LeeRoy Yarbrough

Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough
Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough's official publicity photo (1969)
Born	(1938-09-17)September 17, 1938 Jacksonville, Florida
Died	December 7, 1984(1984-12-07) (aged 46)
Cause of death	Internal head injuries caused by fall
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)
NASCAR Sprint 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 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 ($1,094,862.33 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. His racing number was 98. When asked about his passion, Yarbrough described racing as "what I call my life."

Yarbrough was admitted to a mental institution on March 7, 1980 after trying to kill his mother by strangulation.^[1][2] All attempts to rehabilitate him (both in Florida or in North Carolina) failed and LeeRoy eventually died in 1984 after a fall.^[2] In 1990, he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.^[2] 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.

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 (now Sprint Cup) 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 found himself 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 bagged 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.^[3] 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 life

A hard crash, while testing tires at Texas World Speedway later in 1970 left him disoriented. He could not remember fellow driver Cale Yarborough picking him up in Texas a few days later and flying him home. He also could not remember flying on to Martinsville, or running in the race at Martinsville.

Three more trips to Indianapolis, 1969, '70 and '71, ended without success and the '71 trip was a total disaster. On May 8, 1971 Yarbrough was driving a Dan Gurney Eagle when he spun and crashed hard in turn one. Lee Roy spent the next few months, June through November, in and out of the hospital with many different ailments and memory lapses. Some said it was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever contracted from a tick bite, some said he had a serious drinking problem. A diagnosis from more modern research would be brain trauma from the crashes in Texas and Indianapolis.

Yarbrough was committed to the Florida State Hospital at Chattahoochee by Judge Hudson Oliff of Jacksonville on March 7, 1980, after he was tried for attempted first-degree murder of his mother and battery to a law- enforcement officer. His mother, Minnie Yarbrough, testified that he had walked up to her and started strangling her for no reason. Judge Oliff ruled that Mr. Yarbrough was not guilty of attempted murder because he was unable to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the incident.

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. The doctors said he died of internal bleeding in the brain.

Indianapolis 500

Yarbrough also competed in the second of his three (also 1967, 1970) Indianapolis 500s that year, qualifying 8th but falling out after a mechanical problem on lap 66.

Daytona 500 Results

References