FANTASY NASCAR Racin

was a NASCAR racer. His best season was 1969 when he won seven races, tallied 21 finishes in the top-ten. Yarbrough grew up on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida, and developed an affinity for speed at an early age. When he was 19, Yarbrough found his way to a local dirt track. Yarbrough 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 Sprint Cup season. Two years later, Yarbrough scored his first super speedway win at Charlotte. Driving an un-sponsored and lightly regarded Dodge Charger owned by Jon Thorne, Yarbrough dominated the race, leading for 450 of the 500 miles in the October 16 National 500. His big opportunity came in 1967. Junior Johnson, who had retired from racing by this time, was not having much success with Darel Dieringer. When 1969 rolled around Lee Roy and Junior were ready. With a year to adjust, the team entered 30 of the 54 races and won seven. "It was a great year," recalled Johnson. "We won half the races we ran. I'm not taking anything away from my car, but you just have to give it to him (Yarbrough). He was beyond any other driver there was at that particular time with taking chances and just going beyond what anybody thought anybody would do. He just out-nerved most of the drivers that he ran against. He'd just keep going into corners deeper and deeper. Whatever it took to beat somebody, that's what he did."

Lee Roy drove for Junior Johnson from late 1967 through 1970. During his tenure with Johnson, he won 10 races, including 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 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. 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. He was the first driver to win NASCAR's version of the Triple Crown - the Daytona 500, the World 600 and the Southern 500. He was a supremely confident driver throughout his stock car racing career. In his early years, he was as cocky as they came, often bragging that he could do things with a fast car that others couldn't. And much of the time, he was correct. 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 Sprint CUP events. He won once in 1970 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and only entered six races in 1971. There was one more chance for still more glory, in 1970, the inaugural California 500 INDY Car race at the brand new Ontario Motor Speedway. It was a competitive race right from the start with Lloyd Ruby, Al Unser, Dan Gurney, Peter Revson swapping the lead and saw Lee Roy running close to the leaders all the time. With 14 laps to go Al Unser had taken the lead and looked like

he would be the first to the checkered hankie. Then, suddenly, gear box issues forced Al into the pits and from out of nowhere came Lee Roy to claim the lead. But, just as suddenly as Yarbrough had taken the lead, his Offenhauser engine blew with nine laps to go, and relegated him to a eighth place finish. LeeRoy had reached the top of his career. His life became problematic and filled with mysteries, but he also had many demons inside. He was a brawler, who got the reputation as the only man tough enough to take on the gigantic Tiny Lund. He was one of the first to lavish praise on his crew members during post-race interviews, and he was often heard thanking the

Lord for his driving talents. And then as suddenly as he rose upwards, the downward spiral set in. He had a bad crash during a test session while driving for Junior in April 1970. After that he started drinking pretty bad, and using painkillers. He spent days sitting, or out on a lake in a boat, drinking. Some folks thought it might have been caused by Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but he was ever the same after that hard crash. In fact, he couldn't remember fellow driver Cale Yarborough picking him up in Texas a few days later and flying him home. The he couldn't remember flying on to Martinsville, or running in

the race at Martinsville. At Indy 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 in and out of the hospital with many different ailments and memory lapses. In 1972, he drove in 18 NASCAR races with nine top-10 finishes. That was his last year of competition. His racing career ended at the age of 33. He ran his last race driving the Bill Siefert owned Ford at Martinsville. Over the next few years, he was picked up several times by Jacksonville police. Sometimes it was for fighting, at other times it might be drunkenness. He wandered the streets aimlessly. On the morning of February 13, 1980, he was at his mother's house in Jacksonville. It was the day of the Twin 125 mile qualifying races at Daytona. Lee Roy was destitute and his mind was playing tricks on him. He put his hands around his mother's neck and said, "Mama, I hate to do this, but I've got to kill you." One of his nephews that was in the

house heard the commotion and came in. Looking around, he grabbed a quart jar of preserves off the kitchen table and busted it on Lee Roy's head. The police came and took him to a psychiatric ward. Eventually he was judged incompetent to stand trial. It was at that time doctors discovered the lesions in his brain. Then on December 6, 1984 Yarbrough had a violent seizure and fell striking his head. 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. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. For his NASCAR career Yarbrough ran in 198 races collecting 14 wins. Lee Roy was truly a great racer no matter of the vehicle he raced. His best career Indy car finish came in 1971 in Trenton NJ where he finished third behind winner Mike Mosely, and Wally Dallenbach Sr. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

LONNIE "LEE ROY" YARBROUGH - 09/17/1938 - 12/07/1984