LeeRoy Yarbrough
NASCAR driver (1938-1984)
Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough (September 17, 1938 – December 7, 1984) was an American stock car racer. His best season was 1969 when he won seven races, had 21 finishes in the top-ten and earned $193,211 ($1,487,125.24 when adjusted for inflation). During his entire career from 1960–1972, he competed in 198 races, scoring fourteen wins, 65 finishes in the top-five, 92 finishes in the top-ten, and ten pole positions. Yarbrough also competed in open-wheel racing, making five starts in the USAC Championship cars, including three Indianapolis 500s, with a best finish of third at Trenton Speedway in 1970. His racing number was 98. When asked about his passion, Yarbrough described racing as "what I call my life."
Yarbrough was admitted to a mental institution on March 7, 1980, after trying to kill his mother by strangulation. All attempts to rehabilitate him (both in Florida or in North Carolina) failed and LeeRoy eventually died in 1984 after a fall. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. LeeRoy Yarbrough is not related to NASCAR champion Cale Yarborough.
Career
Early stock car career
Yarbrough grew up on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida, and developed an affinity for speed at an early age.
The public source identifies “LeeRoy Yarbrough” as nASCAR driver (1938-1984). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around LeeRoy, Yarbrough and NASCAR.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2271392. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1984, 1969 and 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “LeeRoy Yarbrough” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.