Incidentally, Elliott\u2019s Ford bore the No. 52, normally used by Jimmy Means<\/a>. Elliott did Means a favor. Means was on NASCAR\u2019s new plan money for independent, low-budget drivers, payable only to those who competed on the full schedule.<\/p>\n Means was unable to qualify and Elliott, who did not participate on a full schedule, agreed to use his number, which kept Means on the plan.<\/p>\n NASCAR Darlington & Portland Entry Lists<\/p>\n Not because a fledgling trade newspaper called Grand National Scene, which made its debut in April 1977, covered its first Southern 500 \u2013 something it did through 2009. OK, I admit that one is a purely personal opinion.<\/p>\n Rather, the race has significance because it spawned one of the longest and most notable \u2013 not to mention funny \u2013 driver feuds in NASCAR history.<\/p>\n In it, one competitor ridiculed the other\u2019s intelligence and physical stamina. And the driver who did so was tagged with a nickname that hung with him for the remainder of his career.<\/p>\n Cale Yarborough<\/a> came into the \u201977 season seeking his second Cup championship with team owner Junior Johnson. Their first title together had been built on a 1976 season in which they earned nine victories and an astounding 23 top-10 finishes in 30 races.<\/p>\n In \u201977, Darrell Waltrip<\/a> was starting his third season with DiGard Racing Co., an outfit formed in Florida that had moved its operations to Charlotte.<\/p>\n During the first five years of his career, Waltrip won three races, all on short tracks. He was anxious to earn his first superspeedway victory. By the time the Southern 500 rolled around on Sept. 5, 1977, Waltrip had won three big track events ranging from Darlington in the spring to Talladega Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway.<\/p>\n Both drivers were the favorites to win at Darlington. Now, Pearson got his due consideration considering he won 37 races on superspeedways since he joined the Wood Brothers in 1972. But he was in something of a slump. He won just two races in 1976, including the Southern 500, but by Labor Day in 1977, he had just one victory.<\/p>\n While it was somewhat successful, Waltrip\u2019s association with DiGard had been bumpy. It was laced with bickering, complaining and unpleasant personnel changes. Despite the turmoil, Waltrip was expected to challenge Yarborough for the Southern 500 victory.<\/p>\n He won the pole and Yarborough started fourth. The two drivers put on an exciting display of racing, featuring some of the best competition ever seen at Darlington.<\/p>\n They swapped the lead repeatedly and with 100 laps remaining, Waltrip had led 11 times and Yarborough nine.<\/p>\n The two drivers approached traffic with just under 100 laps to go. Waltrip swooped around Yarborough going into the second turn and they roared down the backstretch \u2013 directly toward a group of lapped cars. With so little room to maneuver, it was clear one of them had to back off. But neither of the leaders cracked the throttle. That led to a five-car crash in the third turn.<\/p>\n Waltrip and Yarborough\u2019s cars became hulks of crunched, smoking metal. Also involved in the mishap were the cars of D.K. Ulrich<\/a>, Terry Bivins<\/a> and Janet Guthrie<\/a>. Remarkably, Waltrip and Yarborough continued to race, finishing sixth and fifth, respectively.<\/p>\n As the story goes, after the race, Yarborough was approached by Ulrich, who was inquisitive but not upset.<\/p>\n \u201cCale, he said, \u201cyou knocked the hell out of me in that turn. I thought I was out of the way, not in the high-speed groove. I thought there was plenty of room above me.\u201d<\/p>\n To which Yarborough replied, \u201cI didn\u2019t hit you. In fact, I didn\u2019t touch you. \u2018Jaws\u2019 hit you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho?\u201d Ulrich asked.<\/p>\n Yarborough: \u201c\u2019Jaws\u2019 Waltrip hit you and knocked you into the wall. Then you came off the wall and hit me. That\u2019s what happened and it was totally uncalled for.\u201d<\/p>\n When questioned by the media, Yarborough doubled down.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Jaws\u2019 ran into the back of a slower car and that\u2019s what caused everything. Maybe that car shouldn\u2019t have been in the way, but it was totally uncalled for. And you know who \u2018Jaws\u2019 is, don\u2019t you? Yeah, that\u2019s right. It\u2019s \u2018Jaws\u2019 Waltrip.\u201d<\/p>\n For his own part, Waltrip chose not to fire back. He was rather diplomatic.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that in the movies, Jaws is a shark. And Jaws is also a character in a James Bond film,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they are killers. I haven\u2019t killed anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n But in reality, he was laying in wait, ready to pounce when the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n It did three races later at Martinsville Speedway.<\/p>\n The Sept. 25 Old Dominion 500 was conducted in extremely hot, humid weather. The track temperature was exceedingly high and it was the same in the cars. Throughout the race, several competitors had to take on relief drivers.<\/p>\n Yarborough won the race for his ninth victory of the year. But he was anything but happy when it was over.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething has to be done,\u201d said an exhausted, sweaty and red-faced Yarborough. \u201cThe length of these races has to be shortened. It\u2019s very bad for the drivers. It\u2019s getting so they are more dangerous than actual racing. This is absolutely the worst physical beating I have ever taken.\u201d<\/p>\n Waltrip had the ammunition he needed. As fate would have it, he won the very next race, the Wilkes 400 at the half-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway.<\/p>\n To win his fifth race of the season, Waltrip had to pass Yarborough in the closing laps. And, like Martinsville, the event was run in hot, humid weather.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d Waltrip said with a grin on his face, \u201cthis was a hot day. I reckon it was a one and a half or two on the \u2018Cale Scale.\u2019 I mean, ol\u2019 Cale doesn\u2019t appear to be nearly as tuckered out as he was a week ago. I think his problem may be his years. He\u2019s 38 and I\u2019m 30 and gee, I am discovering there are things I can\u2019t do now that I could 10 years ago. Could be Cale is finding that it\u2019s the same for him.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR Standings After Daytona<\/p>\n The feud became part of the character of the 1977 season. Everyone knew about it.<\/p>\n The late Humpy Wheeler, known for his outlandish promotions at Charlotte Motor Speedway, staged a chicken plucking contest \u2013 yes, you read that right \u2013 during the week prior to the Oct. 9 NAPA National 500.<\/p>\n On display at the event was a dead shark mounted on a pole with a chicken in its mouth. Yarborough\u2019s sponsor was Holly Farms Chicken. Of course, everyone knew what that represented. In time, sharp words between Waltrip and Yarborough faded away, although it was fairly certain they wouldn\u2019t be having dinner together.<\/p>\n But the feud is remembered by many to this day.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re ever on pit road or in a garage area at a NASCAR speedway \u2013 or just about anywhere else, for that matter \u2013 ask around if anyone knows who \u201cJaws\u201d was.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll get the answer. And it won\u2019t take long.<\/p>\n Steve Waid has been in\u00a0 journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.<\/p>\n Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing.\u00a0 For several years, Steve was a regular on \u201cNASCAR This Morning\u201d on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography \u201cJunior Johnson: Brave In Life.\u201d<\/p>\n In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1977 Southern 500 was one of the most storied NASCAR Cup Series races in the history of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-176380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115093792815878914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NASCAR](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-Darlington-1-Cup-Pack-Racing-Turn-1-Matthew-Thacker-NKP-150x100.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-daytona-ii-cup-joey-logano-pack-racing-nkp-150x100.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Donate](\"https:\/\/frontstretch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/frontstretch-donate.avif\"\/)
<\/a>
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Steve-Waid-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n