NEW YORK — In the two weeks since Jimmie Johnson wrapped up his record-tying third straight NASCAR championship, he tried, but failed to reach Cale Yarborough.
Johnson wanted Yarborough, the only other driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive titles, to be his personal guest at the season-ending awards ceremony to help celebrate their remarkable feats.
“I tried to get up with him, and just never could,” Johnson said of the 69-year-old Yarborough.
But NASCAR had a surprise in store for its reigning champ.
When chairman Brian France took to the stage to present Johnson with his championship ring, he turned the task over to a surprise guest: Yarborough himself, who had quietly sat through Friday night’s ceremony near the back of the ballroom and only made his way to the stage when the lights dimmed before the presentation.
Johnson looked genuinely shocked.
Yarborough, who tends to his business ventures in South Carolina, has stayed out of the spotlight since his 1988 retirement. He works two days a week at an office in one of his car dealerships, but spends most of his time building — by himself — a 35-acre lake on his 4,000-acre plantation.
The awards ceremony, which Yarborough had not attended in years, was a different story.
“I wanted to be part of Jimmie’s celebration,” said Yarborough, who won his titles from 1976-78. “Only two of us in 60 years had done this. I needed to be a part of it. I enjoyed it very much.”
