CUP: Into The Hall – With Black-Eyed Peas

Sprint Cup

CUP: Into The Hall – With Black-Eyed Peas

Cale Yarborough shares tales of tough days gone by at Hall of Fame induction…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 21, 2012 Charlotte, NC

Cale Yarborough speaks as he is inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame during the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 20, 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)

To no one’s surprise, Darrell Waltrip had the longest acceptance speech – 23 minutes-plus – during Friday night’s NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

To everyone’s surprise, fellow inductee Cale Yarborough stole the show. All it took was a story about black-eyed peas.

Let him tell it:

“A few weeks ago I was out in my farm shop, and the telephone rang, and I knew Betty Jo (his wife) … wasn't going to answer, so I picked it up and answered it, and it was a lady from Columbia, South Carolina, that owns a very, very high priced women's dress store. And she says, ‘Would you please tell Betty Jo that her outfit for the induction banquet is in?’ I says, ‘OK, I'll tell her.’ I knew this was going to hurt.

“Anyway, after I hung up, I got to thinking about the hard times that we went through, and she stuck with me through some awful hard times. We had a budget we could go by, just had to stick with it. And we'd go to the grocery store on Saturday night to buy enough groceries to last out the week. We were there one Saturday night, and we had our grocery cart filled with everything we thought we could afford. We had to keep a count of everything that we bought so we could pay for it when we got to the checkout counter.

“Well, we were coming down the last aisle heading toward the checkout counter and happened to come upon a pallet of cans of black-eyed peas that were on sale for 10 cents a can. A big can, too. So we talked about it, and she agreed. We went back and put all the stuff that we bought back everywhere it was supposed to be, went back to that black-eyed peas pallet and bought every can of black-eyed peas that we could afford to buy. We had black-eyed peas for breakfast, we had black-eyed peas for dinner, we had black- eyed peas for supper, a long time.

“Well, honey, I'm glad you went and bought that outfit because you look good in it, and I'm glad we could afford it. But needless to say, this coming week we're going to be looking for another black-eyed pea sale.”

The crowd loved it.

As it did practically everything else that went on Friday night at the Charlotte Convention Center as the third class of the hall was inducted. Joining Yarborough and Waltrip were Dale Inman, Glen Wood and the late Richie Evans, who was represented by his widow, Lynn.

SPEED will broadcast the ceremony at 6 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

The night was all about family, a familiar theme in these hall inductions.

Waltrip talked about how much the devotion of his wife, Stevie, meant to his career, and he celebrated the presence at the ceremony of his daughters Jessica and Sarah, who had flown to Charlotte from a mission trip in the Philippines to attend. She surprised him in his hotel room before the banquet, sparking the first of the day’s many tears for Waltrip.

Darrell Waltrip speaks as he is inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame during the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center. (Photo: Getty Images)

“When I checked into the hotel room last night and I opened the door, my Sarah was there,” Waltrip said. “She flew 25 hours to be here tonight, and she's got to turn around Sunday and fly 25 hours back to the Philippines. That's sweet. That means a lot to an old dad, trust me.”

Waltrip’s mother, Margaret, also was in attendance.

The night also was all about family for Glen Wood, whose brother, Leonard, gave his induction speech, and whose sons and daughters – now the managers of the Wood family’s racing team – were front row at the ceremony. Wood also stressed the “family” relationship the team has had with Ford Motor Co., its partner for 60 years.

Inman shared his big night with members of the extended Petty family, including driver Richard and his wife, Lynda, who was able to attend the ceremony despite battling illness.

Lynn Evans spoke eloquently of her late husband, Richie, the boss of NASCAR’s Modified Series for many seasons. Evans became the first individual to gain hall induction without a Sprint Cup Series resume, a fact that his widow emphasized in her acceptance speech.

“I thought that maybe someday down the road he would [be in the hall], but I never expected it to be this soon,” she said after the ceremony. “In fact, we often talked, and I thought, I'd be in my grave – in fact, I told my children, your dad may get in someday, but I may not be here to see it, so you're going to have to step up to the plate and accept his award.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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