JUNIOR  JOHNSON  RACING

06-28-1931  -  12-20-2019

ROBERT  GLENN  JOHNSON  Jr - 
6/28/1931 - 12/20/2019  
is one of the early superstars of NASCAR in the 1950s and 1960s. (see his Drivers Bio HERE elsewhere on the web site.  He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966.  Johnson was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the fourth of seven children of Lora Belle Money and Robert Glenn Johnson, Sr.  His father, a lifelong bootlegger, spent nearly 20 of his 63 years in prison, as their house was frequently raided by revenue agents.  Junior spent one year in prison in Ohio (1957) for having an illegal still.  He was never caught in his many years of transporting bootleg liquor at high speed.  His still was a small moonshine operation was hardly a major business, leading some to believe the timing of the raid was payback for Junior having outwitted the law for all those years.  When the gavel came down, Junior was staring at a two-year sentence in the federal prison in Chillicothe, Ohio.  Fortunately, Junior was released from Chillicothe in 1958 after serving less than 12 months of his sentence.  Junior is credited with inventing is the “Bootleg Turn,” where a driver slams on his brakes, twirls his car 180 degrees and blasts off past his stunned pursuers in the opposite direction. When Junior encountered nighttime police roadblocks, he employed flashing lights and sirens that tricked officers into letting him pass.  By his 20th birthday, Junior was a legend among moonshiners.  In the 1970s and 1980s, he became a NASCAR racing team owner; he fielded cars for such of the 

legendary drivers in NASCAR history, including Darel Dieringer, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett, Terry Labonte, Geoffrey Bodine, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer and Bill Elliott.  In 1974 Johnson started fielding cars for Cale Yarborough.  Cale had four wins that season, and finished second in points.  He posted three more wins in 1975.  1976-1978 would see a remarkable run by the duo.  All three years Yarborough would win the CUP title, and win nine races in 1976 & 1977, and ten in 1978.  Cale would win four races in 1979, and an addition six in 1980.  That year he once again finished second in points.  Darrell Waltrip would take over the seat for Johnson in 1981.  Waltrip had a great season winning 12 races, and once again claiming the CUP title for Johnson.  Darrell would

Darel Dieringer 1967 Daytona 500

LeeRoy Yarbrough 1969

duplicate the feat in 1982 with 12 more wins, and another  title.  Waltrip won six times in 1983, and almost won a third Cup title; finishing second in points.  In 1984 Johnson added a second car to his team, and hired Neil Bonnett to drive.   Waltrip won seven times, and finished fifth in the points.  Bonnett posted 14 top tens, and finished eighth in points.  Waltrip's win count dropped down to three in 1985, but he still managed to win the Championship title.  Bonnett would win twice and finish fourth in the points.   

1986 saw Waltrip again win three times, but this season he would again finish second in the points chase; while teammate Bonnett would claim another win for Johnson.  1987 saw major changes within the Johnson organization.  Waltrip would be lured away to Rick Hendrick Motorsports to wheel the famous "Tide Ride".  Bonnett would also depart to RahMoc Enterprises to wheel the Valvoline Pontiac.  Johnson also pared his team down to just one car, and hired Terry Labonte to drive his mount.  Labonte won once and finished third in the points.  1988 saw Labonte win once, and finish fourth in the points.  1989 would be the final year to drive for Johnson and would win twice, but poor finishes would relegate Labonte to a tenth place

Cale Yarborough 1979

Darrell Waltrip 1986

finish in the points.  1990 would see Geoff Bodine brought into the fold as Labonte went to drive for Richard Jackson.  Bodine would win three time in 1990 and finish third in the points.  The following season would see him only win once, and finish a disappointing 14th in the points.  Sterling Marlin also drove for Johnson in 1991 and although he didn't win a race, he finished seventh in the points.  Bill Elliott would join Johnson as Bodine departed.  Many believed with the tremendous success of Johnson, and the driving talents of Elliott; the duo would be a huge success 

in the 1992 season.  People were correct as Elliott would claim five wins, but just get edged out of the Championship by Alan Kulwicki by five points.  Sterling Marlin had a disappointing year and didn't visit victory lane, but he did finish in the top ten in points. Marlin would leave Johnson to drive for Stavola Brothers racing in 1993.  Hut Stricklin would join Elliott for the 1993 season.  Neither team would have any success and they only posted a combined seven top five finished.  Stricklin's poor showing produced another driver swap for Johnson as he dropped Stricklin and replaced him with Jimmy Spencer in 1994.  The duo posted three wins this season with Spencer winning twice.  Elliott won once and it would be Johnson's final win as an 

Neil Bonnett 1986

Sterling Marlin 1992

owner.  The win came at Darlington in the Southern 500.  1995 would be Johnson's last year as a car owner.  Both of his drivers from 1994 departed, and be brought in Brett Bodine to drive his Lowes Ford.  Elton Sawyer also drove part time for Johnson.  Bodine was only able to post two top ten finishes, and finishes 20th in points.  Junior’s four-decade string of success finally ran out. Suddenly, the victories were few and far between.  He sold his team to Bret Bodine and retired to his farm in Hamptonville at the age of 65.  A couple of years later, Sports Illustrated

named him the greatest driver of NASCAR’s first half-century.  As a driver; Johnson collected 50 wins; including the 1960 Daytona 500.  For his career as a car owner he had 132 wins.  His drivers also claimed six Cup  Championships.  Cale Yarborough (1976, 1977 & 1978) Darrell Waltrip (1981, 1982 & 1985). 11 times his drivers were first or second in points.  They won such major races as: Daytona 500 (1969, & 1977); World 600 (1969, & 1985); Southern 500 (1969, 1974, 1978 & 1994).  He got his last win with driver Bill Elliott in the 1994 Southern 500.  He is nicknamed "The Last American Hero" and his autobiography is of the same name.   In turn, the article 

Johnson's last win as owner -Bill Elliott 1992

Jimmy Spencer 1994

was made into a 1973 movie based on Johnson's career as a driver and moonshiner.  The movie was entitled The Last American Hero.  Jeff Bridges starred as the somewhat fictionalized version of Johnson, and Johnson himself served as technical adviser for the film. The movie was critically acclaimed and featured the Jim Croce hit song, "I Got A Name".  On December 26, 1986, President Ronald Reagan granted Johnson a presidential pardon for his 1956 moon-shining conviction.  In response to the pardon, which restored his right to vote, Johnson said, "I could not have imagined anything better.  In May 2007, Johnson teamed with Piedmont Distillers of Madison, North Carolina, to 

introduce the company's second moonshine product, called Midnight Moon.  Johnson became part owner of Piedmont Distillers, the only legal distiller in North Carolina.  Midnight Moon and the company's other product, Catdaddy, are available in 48 states.  Midnight Moon follows the Johnson family’s generations-old tradition of making moonshine. Every batch is born in an authentic, copper still and is handcrafted, in very small batches.  The 'shine is an 80-proof, legal version of his famous family recipe.  Junior describes his moonshine as "Smoother than vodka.  Better  than whiskey.  Best shine ever."  In 2009, Junior was 

Brett Bodine 1994

Johnson's final start - driver Elton Sawyer 1995

announced as one of five inaugural inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, along with Petty and Earnhardt, and Bill France Jr. and Sr.  Each in hie own way laid an important part of NASCAR’s rock solid foundation, but only Junior could claim he did so as a driver, owner and business visionary.  Junior Johnson, a stock-car racing giant whose career spanned the sport’s history from its moonshining roots to its modern era as a fierce, hard-nosed driver and an innovative mechanic and team owner died December 20, 2019.  He was 88.  He had been in declining health and entered hospice care earlier in the week.  His all-out style – honed from years of hauling illegal liquor at breakneck speeds through the North Carolina foothills – took a toll on his competitors and his 

own equipment, earning him a reputation as the hardest of the hard chargers.

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