In this edition of Appalachian Moments, we trade paint with NASCAR legend and Hall-of-Famer Junior Johnson.
Robert Glenn Johnson, Jr. was born in 1931 in the North Carolina foothills of Wilkes County. Junior’s father was a lifelong bootlegger making moonshine, in fact the family history of home brewing goes back 150 years. His father, was perhaps the most determined of them all, as he spent nearly 20 of his 63 years in prison. And, for those of you scoring at home, the nation’s largest haul at a private residence happened at the Johnson home when revenuers confiscated 400 gallons of the illegal mountain dew.
Asked where his racing skills really started, Johnson relates that when he was 10 years old, his dad would let him drive an old ’39 Ford. Johnson would gun that jalopy about a mile down a dirt road to the highway, and back, all day. In Junior’s words, “I could drive the shit out of that car!” Due to that early training flying down the dirt roads of home, Johnson developed a sixth sense that allowed him to control the car when it got loose. He would later use those skills in making midnight deliveries of the potent white liquor.
But, believe it or not, a career in racing was not his first love. If not for a tractor accident that broke his arm, Johnson was gearing himself up to be a…baseball player. In his words, “Baseball was the top sport of everybody round where I lived. At 14 I was as good a pitcher as the 18-year-olds.” After the accident, first thing you know Johnson was in the racing business and, in his words, “plumb forgot about baseball.”
After success racing on dirt tracks, Johnson was ready for running with the best in 1953, but just as he got started the Feds put the brakes on his career. Johnson, who prided himself on never having been caught while running moonshine, was nabbed at his house. Granted it was circumstantial evidence, but who else has 1,200 pounds of sugar stacked up in sacks beside the house? Junior ended up in prison for 11 months, but you might be surprised on how he looks at that episode now. In his words, “Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was pretty hardheaded at the time. But in prison you learn to live with your fellow man and you discover that you’re not the only thing on this Earth.” It should be noted that around 30 years later President Ronald Reagan gave Junior a full and unconditional pardon for his conviction.
Thanks for liking, commenting and sharing this post. Next week we’ll take the last lap with Junior. Click the link below to hear the podcast version.