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CUP: Legendary Moonshiner Back at Daytona
Written by: Tom Jensen   
02/06/2008 - 07:41 PM
Daytona Beach, Fla.
 
Junior Johnson will be driving the Corvette pace car at the 50th running of the Daytona 500. (Marc Serota/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said last month he wanted the sanctioning body to pay more attention and respect to its traditions and its old-school fans. And what could be more old-school than Junior Johnson, moonshine and NASCAR together again at Daytona?

Johnson, the legendary former moonshiner, NASCAR driver and car owner was immortalized by author Tom Wolfe as the “last American hero,” but he’s largely been absent from the sport since selling his race team to Brett Bodine in 1995.

This year, for the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500, Johnson will have a highly visible presence, driving the pace car and serving as a sponsor of Jeremy Mayfield’s No. 70 Haas/CNC Racing Chevrolet with his latest brand of hard liquor, Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon, which was introduced last spring. And unlike the corn liquor Johnson used to concoct in the woods around Wilkes County, N.C., his newest product is fully legal and sold in liquor stores in 12 states.

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life, and my history
in the moonshine business is no secret,” Johnson said. “We can do things legally that we couldn’t do back in the old days. I own part of a company that makes Moonshine, and our Midnight Moon is sponsoring a car in the 500. I never would have believed this was possible. It’ll be a neat deal to see Jeremy drive the Midnight Moon car in the 50th Daytona 500.”

Johnson is also prominently featured in Washington Post reporter Liz Clarke’s excellent new book, “One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept The Nation.”

And Johnson, a ferocious competitor who combined the driving skill of a daredevil with a keen insight of how to make cars go fast, summed up his philosophy to Clarke in her book: “I did try to run it wide open all the time,” Clarke quotes Johnson as saying. “When everybody else thought I was crazy, my car was doing what I asked it to do. And I had it fixed to where I knowed what it would do. And when I got it like was s’posed to be, ain’t nobody could run with it.”
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