| Junior Johnson | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Johnson in 1985 | |||||||
| Born | Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (1931-06-28)June 28, 1931 Ronda, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| Died | December 20, 2019(2019-12-20) (aged 88) Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| Achievements | 1960 Daytona 500 winner 6×Winston Cup Series Owner's Champion withCale Yarborough (1976, 1977, 1978) andDarrell Waltrip (1981, 1982, 1985) | ||||||
| Awards | International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1990) Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1991) Named one ofNASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) NASCAR Hall of Fame (2010 - Inaugural Class) Named one ofNASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers (2023) | ||||||
| NASCARCup Series career | |||||||
| 313 races run over 14 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 6th (1955,1961) | ||||||
| First race | 1953 Southern 500 (Darlington) | ||||||
| Last race | 1966 American 500 (Rockingham) | ||||||
| First win | 1955Hickory Motor Speedway | ||||||
| Last win | 1965 Wilkes 400 (North Wilkesboro) | ||||||
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| NASCARConvertible Division career | |||||||
| 2 races run over 1 year | |||||||
| Best finish | 64th (1959) | ||||||
| First race | 1959 Catawba 250 (Hickory) | ||||||
| Last race | 1959 Old Dominion 500 (Martinsville) | ||||||
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Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (June 28, 1931 – December 20, 2019), better known asJunior Johnson, was an American professionalstock car racing driver, engineer, and team owner as well as an entrepreneur. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became a NASCAR racing team owner, winning theNASCAR championship withCale Yarborough andDarrell Waltrip three times each; Johnson was the first owner to win multiple championships with multiple drivers. He is credited as the first to use thedrafting technique in stock car racing. He was nicknamed "The Last American Hero," and his autobiography and moviebased on his upbringing is of the same name. In May 2007, Johnson teamed with Piedmont Distillers of Madison, North Carolina, to introduce the company's secondmoonshine product, called "Midnight Moon Moonshine", a nod to the days of his early youth in the 1940s when he made a living as a moonshiner/moonrunner and bootlegger.
Johnson was born inRonda, North Carolina, the fourth of seven children of Lora Belle (Money) and Robert Glenn Johnson, Sr.[1][2] His family is ofUlster Scots descent, and settled in the foothills of North Carolina in the eighteenth century. The Johnson family was involved in the whiskey business before he was born. His maternal great-grandfather served as the second-highest-ranking Confederate general in North Carolina.
His father, a lifelongbootlegger, spent nearly twenty of his sixty-three years in prison, as their house was frequently raided by revenue agents. Junior was arrested and spent one year in prison inOhio in 1956-57 for having an illegal still, although he was never caught in his many years of transporting bootleg liquor at high speed.[3]
In 1955, Johnson began his career as a NASCAR driver. In his first full season, he won five races and finished sixth in the 1955 NASCAR Grand National points standings.
In 1958, Johnson won six races.
In 1959, Johnson won five more NASCAR Grand National races (including a win from the pole position at the1959 Hickory 250); by this time he was regarded as one of the best short-track racers in the sport.
His first win at a "superspeedway" came at theDaytona 500 in 1960. Johnson and hiscrew chief,Ray Fox, were practicing for the race, trying to figure out how to increase their speed, which was 22 miles per hour (35 km/h) slower than that of the top cars in the race. During a test run, a faster car passed Johnson. He noticed that, when he moved behind that car, his own car's speed increased because of the faster car'sslipstream. Johnson was then able to stay close behind the other car until the final lap of the test run, when he used the "slipstream" effect to slingshot past it. By using this technique, Johnson went on to win the 1960 Daytona 500, despite that his car was slower than others in the field. Johnson's technique was quickly adopted by other drivers, and his practice of "drafting" has become a common tactic in NASCAR races.[4][5]
In 1963, Johnson had a two-lap lead in theWorld 600 atCharlotte before a spectator threw a bottle onto the track and caused a crash; Johnson suffered only minor injuries. Johnson also tried but failed to qualify for the1963 Indianapolis 500.[6]
Johnson retired as a driver in 1966. In his career, Johnson claimed 50 victories, 11 at major speedway races. He retired as the winningest driver never to have a championship.[citation needed]
Johnson was a master ofdirt track racing. "The two best drivers I've ever competed against on dirt are Junior Johnson andDick Hutcherson," said two-time NASCAR championNed Jarrett.
As a team owner, he worked with many NASCAR drivers, includingDarel Dieringer,LeeRoy Yarbrough,Cale Yarborough,Bobby Allison,Darrell Waltrip,Neil Bonnett,Terry Labonte,Geoffrey Bodine,Sterling Marlin,Jimmy Spencer andBill Elliott. In all, his drivers won 132 races, which is fifth toPetty Enterprises,Hendrick Motorsports,Joe Gibbs Racing andRoush Fenway Racing on the all-time list. His drivers won six Winston Cup Championships — three with Yarborough (1976–1978) and Waltrip (1981–82, 1985).
In 2011, Johnson announced that he would restart a race team with son Robert as the driver. Junior Johnson Racing will be located in Hamptonville, North Carolina. Robert, the 2010 UARA Rookie of the Year, planned to run a 28–30 race schedule in 2011, which includes the entire K&N East Series schedule and some races in the UARA andWhelen All-American Series.[7]
Johnson was briefly married in 1949 to Mary Gray.[11][12] His marriage to childhood sweetheart Flossie Clark (1929–2020) ended in divorce in 1992; they were legally married in 1975,[13] although they had been together since the early 1950s. (Racing Legends have them as married in 1958).[14] His marriage to Lisa Day (b.1965)[15] in 1992 resulted in two children: daughter Meredith Suzanne (b.1995) and son Robert Glenn Johnson III (b.1993), both of whom attended Duke University.[10][16] Johnson built a new home for his family in 1997, ultimately selling in 2012 because of poor health.[17] He resided in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the time of his death in 2019.Until Flossie's death on April 9, 2020, she still resided in the family home, built by Junior in 1964 (next to Johnson's old Ingle Hollow race shop), which she kept as part of the divorce settlement.
On December 26, 1986, PresidentRonald Reagan granted Johnson a presidential pardon for his 1956 moonshining conviction. In response to the pardon, which restored his right to vote, Johnson said, "I could not have imagined anything better."[18]
In the mid-1960s, writerTom Wolfe researched and wrote an article about Johnson, published in March 1965 inEsquire, and reprinted in Wolfe'sThe Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby. This was eventually reprinted inThe Best American Sports Writing of the Century, ed. David Halberstam (1999). The article, originally entitled "Great Balls of Fire", turned Johnson into a national celebrity and led to fame beyond the circle of NASCAR fans. In turn, the article was made into a 1973 movie based on Johnson's career as a driver and moonshiner,The Last American Hero (a.k.a.Hard Driver).[19]Jeff Bridges starred as a fictionalized Johnson, and Johnson himself served as technical advisor for the film. The movie was critically acclaimed and featured theJim Croce hit song "I Got A Name".
Follow Your Dreams Productions' President and CEO,Fred Griffith, has signed a rights deal for a true-life story movie about Junior Johnson (Sports Illustrated Vault, 2006).[citation needed] Griffith, anAmerican actor and producer from South Carolina, is currently adapting a screenplay based largely on the book,Junior Johnson, Brave In Life, written by Tom Higgins and Steve Waid (Big West Racing, 2006).[citation needed] Veteran actor and producerChris Mulkey is a writing producer for the film. According to Griffith, this film—unlikeThe Last American Hero, which was about a fictionalized version of Johnson named Junior "Jackson"—will remain true to the real life of Junior Johnson.(Morris 2006, p. C-1)[citation needed] Johnson had a voice role in the animated filmCars 3, as Junior "Midnight" Moon, a reference to his Moonshine Company.
In May 2007, Johnson teamed with Piedmont Distillers 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 at the time. Piedmont Distillers is located in Madison, N.C., in the town’s former train station built in 1915.[20] The moonshine is made in small batches in a copper still, authentic to the Johnson family tradition of making moonshine.[21]
Johnson died at a hospice care facility in Charlotte on December 20, 2019, at age 88. He hadAlzheimer's disease at the time.[2]
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| Year | Team | Manufacturer | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Paul Spaulding | Ford | 33 | 14 |
| 1960 | John Masoni | Chevrolet | 9 | 1 |
| 1961 | Rex Lovette | Pontiac | 43 | 47 |
| 1962 | Pontiac | 9 | 34 | |
| 1963 | Fox Racing | Chevrolet | 3 | 42 |
| 1964 | Dodge | 3 | 9 | |
| 1965 | Junior Johnson & Associates | Ford | 2 | 28 |
{{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), legendsofnascar.com; Retrieved February 20, 2008{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Achievements | ||
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| Preceded by | Daytona 500 Winner 1960 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
