Yarborough wouldn't mind sharing mark with Johnson

He was old enough to begin displaying the talent that would one day make him a champion in NASCAR's top division, but still young enough to be gulled by the power of advertising. Jimmie Johnson was just a kid when he saw his first Hardee's, somewhere on a trip cross-country to race dirt bikes. The tyke burst excitedly into the fast-food restaurant, expecting to see his idol Cale Yarborough tinkering with the No. 28 Hardee's Chevrolet he drove each weekend on television.

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Cale Yarborough

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Cale Yarborough is the only driver to win three consecutive Cup titles. Mark Aumann discovers that, while it wasn't that easy, it's not impossible to someone to repeat, either.

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"I thought Cale Yarborough was going to be in there. I thought it was the race shop," Johnson says now, laughing. "We went in, and it had nothing to do with the racecar. It was just a place where you get a burger. But I was like, 'Where's Cale? What's the problem?' I couldn't understand that."

Years later, Johnson at last has an opportunity to catch up to his hero -- not just in person, but in the record books. With back-to-back titles in hand, the Hendrick Motorsports driver enters this season with a chance of tying Yarborough's mark of three consecutive Cup championships, set from 1976-78. Since then, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon have each made futile runs at NASCAR's version of the three-peat. In fact, Yarborough's triple is the only run of three consecutive titles ever achieved in any of the sport's three national series, even though 13 other drivers -- nine in Sprint Cup, and four in Nationwide -- have made attempts.

It's an achievement that Yarborough, now a car dealer in Florence, S.C., is understandably proud of. But he wouldn't mind some company at the top of the list.

"I wanted to win that [third consecutive title] bad, because nobody else had ever done it," said Yarborough, whose 83 career Cup victories rank fifth all-time, just ahead of sixth-place Gordon with 81. "It was pretty special, because nobody else has done it since, either. But Jimmie's got a good shot at it this time, and if he does it, it would suit me fine, because he's a good guy."

They're a strange combination, one an ultra-smooth, laid-back driver from Southern California, the other a hard-nosed scrapper -- literally, judging from the aftermath of the 1979 Daytona 500 -- from South Carolina's tobacco and cotton country. But there's a clear mutual respect between the two, even though they've only met in passing and don't know one another very well. Even Johnson isn't clear on exactly why he embraced Yarborough, although it might have had something to do with Cale's success during his formative years. Yarborough won seven races, including two Daytona 500s, driving that Hardee's car that Johnson remembers so well.

"I'm not really sure," Johnson admits. "Just being a kid in Southern California, seeing his success, I don't have any clear memories as of why. We're totally different. I think one of my earliest memories of him is when he crashed trying to get the pole at Talladega or Daytona, and a windshield fell out of the car and he was tumbling down the track. I remember that as a kid."

That would have been the 1983 Daytona 500, where Yarborough's car was blown sideways by a strong wind gust and went tumbling, its windshield shattered into pieces. He still went on to win the race, recording the third of his four career Daytona 500 victories, a triumph witnessed on the other side of the country by a then 7-year-old Johnson. Later, they would be linked in a more tangible way -- Johnson's spotter in what was then called the Busch Series, Lorin Rainier, is the son of Harry Rainier, who owned those No. 28 cars that Yarborough drove.

"Lorin has an old die-cast car of Cale's from way back in the day that he's going to give to me sometime," Johnson said. "That's going to be cool."

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Their paths to greatness are as divergent as their personalities. Yarborough won all three of his titles under the old points system, where there was no playoff, and the margins weren't reset with 10 events remaining. Driving a No. 11 Chevrolet and then Oldsmobile for Junior Johnson, Yarborough bulldozed past the competition, winning his first championship by a decisive 215 points over Richard Petty, his second by a hefty 386 points over Petty, and his third by a whopping 474 points over Bobby Allison. Bidding for a fourth straight crown in 1979, he finished fourth.

"We had a good team," Yarborough said. "Junior Johnson put together a good team, and I knew we would win championships, just like Jimmie's got going for him now."

In winning his consecutive titles, Johnson has had to come from the back. Two years ago he was 156 points off the lead with six races remaining, but rallied to win. Last year he trailed Gordon for much of the regular season, but used the new bonus points format to take the lead going into the Chase, and never looked back. This year he faces not only competition from other drivers, but the challenge of adapting to a new car that will be used full time.

"I think it's going to be a bit of a scramble again to see who can find that magic for the mile-and-a-halfs, the 2-miles, all the downforce stuff," he said, referring to types of tracks where the new car was not used last year. "I feel very good about where we are. I know what we've done in the offseason has only made us stronger. ... All the ingredients are there for us to continue on. It just kind of boils down to getting into the season and seeing what we can do. I feel good about it."

"Any new season creates obstacles," added Gordon, the last driver to win back-to-back crowns (in 1997-98) before his Hendrick teammate did it last year. "The biggest one is, when you win a championship, do you lose people, do people come and try to take them away, are guys asking for big raises, is there any controversy? The good thing with the 48 team, and our team as well, is, we feel like the offseason has been very good to us. Then the other factor is, how much did the other teams, your competitors, did they find something you didn't find? Only time will tell."

Johnson's No. 48 team has shown few weaknesses in winning titles the past two years, and the driver has a firm sense that he's on the brink of a historic accomplishment. Not too long ago, people wondered if Johnson would ever win a single title. Now he has a chance to match one of the landmark records in NASCAR history.

"I don't know what I'd do for an encore after that," Johnson said. "It's already been amazing. But three in a row, if I was to do that, I'd be with one of my heroes since I was a kid, Cale Yarborough. That would be a very special thing."

Yarborough is clearly touched by the sentiment. "I appreciate that," he said. "That's the reason he's welcome to join me."