Junior Johnson's career as a NASCAR driver spanned just 14 years. But before he retired in 1966, he compiled 50 victories, including a historic win in the 1960 Daytona 500. That year, Johnson did more than just win the biggest race in NASCAR. He discovered something that would change the face of modern racing.

Stuck with an inferior car, Johnson had little to no chance of winning the race. But he found something that allowed him to overcome the great odds: the high-speed, aerodynamic draft that has become a racing staple not only at Daytona International Speedway, but also at its sister track, Talladega Superspeedway.

In the draft, the car in front breaks the air and creates a vacuum behind it. Any car racing close to the rear bumper of the lead vehicle is caught in the vacuum and “pulled” around the track, which allows it to keep pace.

When the rear car pulls out to pass, it’s able to make a quick “slingshot” pass. The drivers who competed in the first Daytona 500 in 1959 had no concept of the draft, much less how to use it. But Johnson figured it out — much to his advantage.

NASCAR Illustrated: While you ended up winning the race, you almost didn’t compete in the 1960 Daytona 500, right?

Junior Johnson: Right. What happened was, the man who owned the Daytona dog track, John Masoni, wanted a car in the race. So he met up with Ray Fox [noted car builder/engineer] and wanted him to build one. This was maybe two weeks before the race and Ray told him there wasn’t enough time.

Masoni told him that whatever it cost to build a car, he would double it. So Ray agreed. But he had no one to drive it. Enoch Staley over at North Wilkesboro Speedway got wind of what was going on and he called me. He said if I wanted to drive the car, I should get Ray to call me. And he did.

NI: What kind of car did Fox build?

Johnson: It was a 1959 Chevrolet Impala and Ray put a 409 cubic-inch engine in it. It was basically a truck motor that was highly durable, but it wouldn’t run. Ray kept modifying it and did a heck of a job with it, but I guess it was about 20 mph slower than the Pontiacs, which were the best race cars back then with a lot of good drivers in them. I knew racing against them was going to be a challenge.

NI: Did the Pontiacs prove to be the fastest cars at Daytona?

Johnson: They sure did. They were much faster than I was in practice and much faster in qualifying. I’d get on the track and be so much slower than the Pontiacs. I’d make a few laps, come in, and Ray would work on the Chevrolet to try to fix it and then I’d go back out. Nothing helped.

I just about decided I was wasting my time. I didn’t want to stay in Daytona and watch the Pontiacs lap me about every 10 or 11 laps. I was about two days from going home.

NI: Obviously, you didn’t. What happened?

Johnson: I was just playing around on the track, coming back in to have Ray work on the car again and again. Then, as I was out there one more time, Cotton Owens came around in his Pontiac. He went to the outside of me and when he did, I dropped in behind him, right on his rear bumper. And I stayed there.

By the time we got back around to the first turn, I was all over him. I thought, “Durn, Ray must have gotten this thing fixed.”
I ran four or five laps right with Cotton and I was tickled. But when I went back into the garage and put on four new tires, the car went right back to what it was — slow. It didn’t run anything like it had with Cotton in front of me.

NI: So that must have put an idea into your head — namely, if you could get behind the Pontiacs they could pull you along?

Johnson: Yeah. I stayed out on the track until some Pontiacs came by. Along came Jack Smith and Paul Goldsmith and I hooked up with them and it was the same thing. I nearly ran all over them. They couldn’t shake me. I realized then it was something about the air creating a slipstream in which a slower car could keep up with a faster one.

I thought, “Heck, if I can hook up with a Pontiac, I’ve got a chance to win this thing.”

NI: So what happened in the race?

Johnson: Once the race started, I got to the Pontiacs ahead of me as fast as I could. I did everything they did. If they pitted, I pitted. I knew the Chevrolet couldn’t run that fast by itself. Turned out that a lot of the Pontiacs started having problems. Most of them blew up.
But after a while, the Pontiacs figured out what was going on. Bobby Johns, though, had the only competitive Pontiac left in the race. I had position on him. But then, Smith, who was laps down because he had to get a spindle fixed, came up there and gave Johns a tow. That allowed Johns to get past me.

But then one of the damnedest things I ever saw in racing happened. We were coming out of Turn 2 with about 10 laps to go when the rear window of Johns’ Pontiac just popped out and flew into the air. The sudden change in the airflow around his car caused him to spin out into the grass. By the time he got back onto the track, I was so far ahead there was no way he was going to catch me.
That’s really how I won the race. I hitched a ride with everyone I could and wound up being at the right place at the right time.

This article first appeared in the March 2008 issue of NASCAR Illustrated.