Hall of fame inductee: Junior Johnson took unique path to racing success
Junior Johnson enjoyed success as both a driver and an owner in NASCAR. // Rusty Jarrett, Getty Images
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COMMENTARY
When he was 14 years old, Junior Johnson became a moonshine hauler.
He owned a car – registered in his sister’s name – and despite the fact that he didn’t have a driver’s license, he figured it was time to go about the family business.
His father, Robert Glenn Johnson Sr., was one of the most notorious and prolific bootleggers in Wilkes County, N.C. The number of stills he had in operation could not easily be counted.
He also had a farm and a sawmill, but it was moonshine that provided, by far, the bulk of the family income.
Homemade whiskey is worth nothing unless it is delivered to a buyer. That’s where the haulers came in.
They had to drive hard and fast on small dirt country roads, almost always at night, to complete their appointed rounds.
The law routinely chased them, and to be caught meant confiscation of the car, the whiskey and, worst of all, jail time.
Junior Johnson was never caught on the road.
But it wasn’t driving skill alone that prepared him for a career as a stock-car driver.
Bootleggers' cars were vital to their business. They had to be in pristine condition. They required almost daily maintenance.
From engines to brakes to chassis, cars were constantly overhauled – or, many times, outfitted with exotic parts and pieces.
Haulers usually worked on their own cars. Certainly Johnson did.
So by the time he entered NASCAR competition at age 22, he could not only drive a race car, but he could also build one.
Johnson had a relatively short 14-year driving career during which he seldom ran a full schedule. But he won 50 races, among them the 1960 Daytona 500, in which he’s given credit for discovering the nuances of drafting.
Johnson became a full-time team owner at the end of the 1966 season in what is now the Sprint Cup Series. Again, he did not compete on the full schedule – at least for many seasons.
In 1969, with the late LeeRoy Yarbrough as his driver, Johnson won seven superspeedway races in 28 starts, among them the Daytona 500, the World 600 and the Southern 500 at Darlington – NASCAR’s “triple crown.”
By the end of his ownership career in 1995, Johnson had compiled 132 victories and six championships. He had employed some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, a handful of whom will surely make the hall of fame.
Cale Yarborough won 45 races and three consecutive Winston Cup titles with Johnson (1976-78). Darrell Waltrip won 43 races and earned his three career titles in 1981, 1982 and 1985.
Johnson had a reputation for pushing NASCAR’s rules to the limit – although he certainly wasn’t the only team owner to do so.
When it came to the rules, Johnson always considered them as a cat-and-mouse game with NASCAR. He didn’t always win.
Johnson stands as a successful driver who went on to fashion an even greater career as a team owner.
He also stands as the best known symbol of the moonshine era which, ultimately, gave birth to stock-car racing.
