Cale Yarborough won’t be on hand to see Johnson potentially tie his record of three consecutive titles on NASCAR’s premier series. An invitation was extended to Yarborough, who had a conflict with another appearance, according to NASCAR. Yarborough won titles from 1976-78.(NASCAR.com) UPDATE: [Yarborough] didn’t see a reason to make the trek to Miami this weekend. He’s spending a low-key weekend on his farm with his wife. There was a rumor going around the Yarborough wanted an appearance fee and the track wouldn’t pay it. I gave Yarborough a call a few minutes ago to ask about that. “Well, I didn’t ask for any pay and they didn’t offer any pay,” Yarborough said from his farm in South Carolina. “They called me and asked me to come.” Yarborough said nobody from NASCAR called him and wondered, “If they wanted me there, wouldn’t they have called?” I [Tania Ganguli] asked a NASCAR spokesman about their process and he said NASCAR mostly left the past champion invitations up to the Speedway. The spokesman said Yarborough told them he had a prior engagement and couldn’t make it. Because Yarborough’s a private person, and doesn’t often show up at races, they scheduled a teleconference so he could handle all his media requests at once. Yarborough told me [Ganguli] he had an autograph signing a few days ago, so he couldn’t attend the Thursday press conference that featured the past champions. Today, he’s just watching the race. I [Ganguli] asked if a fee would have changed his mind. “That would have made a difference,” Yarborough said, good-naturedly. “But it would’ve had to be a lot of money for me to go all the way down there. … Jimmie’s gonna tie my record. All good things must come to an end.”(in part from the Orlando Sentinel)(11-16-2008)
