Jimmie Chases Cale

   Jimmie Johnson is chasing Cale Yarborough, and he's on the verge of catching him.
   Huh?
   Wait a second!  Didn't Yarborough, who is in practically all the motorsports halls of fame, retire as a  driver in NASCAR's top division in 1988?
   Sure enough.
   Johnson isn't racing Cale on the track, but in the record book.

   When Johnson takes the green flag Sunday in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, he'll be going for a third straight driving championship at NASCAR's  leading level.
   Yarborough is the only other driver in the sanctioning body's history, dating to 1949, to take three titles consecutiverly,  achieving the feat 1976-78.
   Johnson holds a 136-point lead over Carl Edwards entering the long season's finale.  Johnson needs only to finish 36th or better to clinch the title.  Or 38th or better if he leads a lap, earning five bonus points.
   Three championships in a row is a record that many involved in NASCAR and those that follow the sport generally figured never would be matched.
   This and the seven overall titles taken by Richard Petty.  The late Dale Earnhardt tied Petty, winning seven as well.
   "Three in a row is remarkable," says Waddell Wilson, a  widely-respected, retired crew chief and engine builder.  "Considering how many good drivers there are, and also all that can go wrong to spoil a season.
   "It's something that Jimmie and Rick Hendrick justifiably can be very, very proud of doing."
   Hendrick is owner of Hendrick Motorsports, a mega-operation based in Harrisburg, N.C., which fields Chevrolets for Johnson's team, led by crew chief Chad Knaus.
    Pride is a ditto for Yarborough and legendary former team owner Junior Johnson, no relation to Jimmie. 
   "It might have been even more outstanding 30 years ago when Cale and Junior won three straight," continued Wilson, who once worked with Yarborough on the Ranier Racing team.  "Look at all the hall-of-famers Cale was racing against in those years--Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Benny Parsons, Bobby Isaac and Richard Petty.  To me, this magnifies what Cale did."
   Jimmie Johnson is a 33-year-old Californian from El Cajon who now lives in Charlotte.
   Yarborough, 68, grew up in little Timmonsville, S.C., and still resides there.  He crawled under the fence at Darlington Raceway as a 10-year-old to watch the inaugural Southern 500.  He now owns a variety of businesses in the area around Florence, S.C.  He later was to count five Southern 500 victories among his 83 triumphs, fifth-most alltime.
   Jimmie Johnson lists 40 wins, including seven in 2008 toward another Sprint Cup Series trophy.
   Cale was 36 when he claimed his first championship.
   "I knew when I hired Cale to drive for me in '75 that we were going to be champions together," says Junior Johnson, who sold his racing operation in 1995 and now raises cattle on an expansive farm in the Brushy Mountains of North Carolina, not far from where he was born.  "We had the same philosophy as drivers: FULL BORE!  And I knew Cale was as courageous and tough as they come.  He got every single horsepower out of his cars."
   Junior Johnson won 50 big-time races during his colorful career.  And he took three more points titles with Darrell Waltrip driving in 1981, '82 and '85 after Yarborough left the Johnson ride following the 1980 season.
   Junior for sure  proved a visionary in signing Yarborough for the team based in Wilkes County, N.C.
   In 1976, '77 and '78 the outfit mostly made it look easy in winning Winston Cup Series crowns.
   In '76 Yarborough won the championship by 195 points over Petty, clinching the crown merely by starting the season finale at Ontario Motor Speedway in California, a track that no longer exists.  He won nine races and posted 22 top five finishes in 30 starts.
   Yarborough triumphed by a whopping 386 points, again over Petty, in '77, clinching with two races to go.  That season he again won nine times and had 25 top fives in 30 events, finishing every race he started.
   The Junior Johnson & Asscoiates team won even bigger in '78, coasting home 474 points ahead of Allison, going to victory lane 10 times and notching 23 top five showings.  Again, the clincher came with two races remaining in the season.
   Such runaways eventually led NASCAR to inaugurate  "The Chase" format in 2004.  Under this setup, only the top 12 drivers in the point standings qualify for championship contention over the last 10 races.
   It has led to some exciting "squeakers."
   Kurt Busch took the '04 championship by only 8 points over Jimmie Johnson.  Tony Stewart won in '05 by 35 over Greg Biffle. 
   Jimmie claimed his first title in '06 by 56 points over Matt Kenseth.  And Johnson won once more in '07 by 77 over teammate Jeff Gordon, who is part co-owner with Hendrick of Jimmie's team.
   "Jimmie has a better cushion this year," observes Junior Johnson, "and it sure looks like Cale is going to have to share that three-championships-in-a-row record.
   "But you never know.  Remember 1992?  Alan Kulwicki came out of nowhere in the season's last race at Atlanta to overtake my driver, Bill Elliott, as well as Davey Allison.  Alan won the championship by just 10 points.  Anything can happen."
   That's racin'.

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