When anyone mentions a driver having a banner year, most people automatically think of Richard Petty and 1967. The King was sitting high on the throne and everyone involved in the sport that remembers this banner year won't soon forget it. This is something that is still talked about today. But something that isn't talked about very much is what took place two years later in 1969. I don't know why, especially since this was one of the most sensational seasons for a driver on the Cup circuit.Enter Lee Roy Yarbrough. Yarbrough was born in Jacksonville, FL on September 1, 1938 and broke into Nextel Cup racing in 1960. His introduction to the big league was less than spectacular since he only entered one race, which ended in a DNF and won $225. The next seven years were not stellar either but better than his start. From 1962 until 1968, he entered 124 races. Although he had six wins and forty-seven top fives, he still had a dismal seventy-one DNF's. His best year to date was in 1968 where he scored two wins, finished second three times, third six times, had one fourth, two fifths and one more top ten out of twenty-six starts. But he still couldn't get away from the DNF's where he had eleven of them. Lee Roy did not have car owners or sponsors beating his door down to drive for them. Although he was showing improvement, many people were not giving him the credit he deserved but that was about to change the following yearYarbrough was about to prove he was not some driver who just lucked out for a few wins. In 1969, he started out by winning a 300 mile modified race at Daytona. The next day, driving the Junior Johnson prepared and Herb Nab wrenched Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones, he pulled into victory lane in the Daytona 500. In May, he won both the Rebel 400 at Darlington and the World 600 at Charlotte. In between these two races, he was able to qualify in the middle of the ninth row for the Indy 500 on May 30th. Although this was the best ever starting spot for a Cup driver at Indy, he was out on lap 65 with a split header, regulating him to a dismal twenty-third place.In July, he took the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. He followed this up the next month in August with a victory in the Dixie 500 at Atlanta. If this wasn't enough, Yarbrough went to Darlington in September where he won the Southern 500 after passing David Pearson on the back straight on the last lap. When the best of drivers went to Rockingham in October, Yarbrough watched them in his rearview mirror as he took the checkered flag first in the American 500 although this race almost didn't come about for him. During practice, Lee Roy totaled his car. With almost no solution to the problem, Junior Johnson remembered a backup car he had that was on display at the Jacksonville, FL State Fair. They shot down to Daytona, got the car and spent the night preparing it for the race. Not only did Yarbrough win the race coming from the rear of the field, he set a World Record for a one mile closed course with a speed of 137.732 MPH!Nobody can deny the fact that 1969 belonged to Lee Roy Yarbrough. It was in this year that he became the first driver to accomplish many things. He was the first driver to record a "Grand Slam" by winning on each of the south's five super speedways in a single year. He was the first driver to win seven super speedway races in one year and his earnings for 1969 of $188,105 was the record for most money won in a single season by a driver. What is amazing is the fact that Yarbrough didn't even end up in the top ten in the final points standings at the end of the year.Lee Roy was voted Ford's man of the year in 1969; he was the American Driver of The Year and was elected to the Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame on 1970. He also competed in three Indianapolis 500's in 1967, 69 and 70 with his best finish coming in 1970 where he garnered a nineteenth place after losing a turbo gear in his engine on lap 107Lee Roy once stated after his phenomenal 1969 season that his attitude, not his capabilities, had changed. He noted that he once had to drive wide open to prove to the skeptics that he could handle a factory ride. But now said that he was more relaxed with a good ride and he had more respect for his equipment and the people around him. But Lee Roy would never have another banner year like he did in 1969. He would race for three more seasons where he ran a total of forty-three races. There would only be one more win to come his way in this time, the Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta. Yarbrough would finally hang up his helmet in 1972.Lee Roy Yarbrough won many battles that seemed impossible. He beat the odds driving cars that were not nearly as competitive as the ones he was going up against. He finished race with cars that most other drivers would have parked half way through the event. But he raced his heart out and racing in return was good to Lee Roy. Unfortunately, there was one battle that Lee Roy Yarbrough couldn't win and that was with the bottle. After years of alcohol abuse, Lee Roy Yarbrough was committed to a Florida Mental Hospital after trying to kill his mother and himself. He died there on December 7, 1984 at the age of 46 years old.
updated by @jon-clifton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
