That race turned out to be pretty special for Cale Yarborough. Sure, it was the first of nine times he would tame the field and cruise into victory lane at the half-mile oval but that wasn't the only thing that made the race unique.
Yarborough started the race from the pole and never once did he stray from the point. For 500 grueling laps, the South Carolinan held tightly to the lead and when the checkers finally fell two hours, 57 minutes and 43 seconds later he hadn't given up any ground. From start to finish Yarborough led - all 500 laps of the Southeastern 500.
No driver has come close to duplicating that feat at the World's Fastest Half-Mile. In fact, it has happened only a handful of times at other tracks - when Jack Smith won the Firecracker 250 at Daytona from the pole in 1960, when Glen Wood led all 200 laps from the pole in two different races at Bowman Gray in 1960 and when Buck Baker won at Watkins Glen from the top spot in 1957. Dale Earnhardt led every lap of the 1990 race at Phoenix but didn't start on the pole and neither did Jeff Burton when he led every lap of the 2000 fall race at New Hampshire.
With the 35th anniversary of that great moment coming up just after the running of the Food City 500 at BMS on March 16, Yarborough still smiles when he remembers that special day.
"You know, that's something to really be proud of," he said. "That's not done that much on any track but to do it at Bristol, well, nobody had ever done it before and I don't think anybody will ever do it again. That's always been a pretty big deal for me."
That day Yarborough, whose pole speed of 107.608 mph in his Chevrolet was a new track record, won a whopping $6,530 for his historic victory. He beat Richard Petty by two laps and Bobby Allison by five. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Dave Marcis in fourth, followed by Benny Parsons, Lennie Pond, Coo Coo Marlin, James Hylton, Vic Parsons and John Utsman.
Other notables in the field that day included Richard Childress (20th), who would go on to become one of the sport's most successful team owners, Donnie Allison (24th) and Buddy Baker (25th).
The last place finisher that day was none other than Darrell Waltrip, who was making his first start at Bristol Motor Speedway. Waltrip finished 30th that day but would go on to become the all-time winner at Bristol with a dozen victories.
