Junior Johnson.. still going Strong at 75

[Chris]

Kinda loose track of past driver/owners when they get out of the sport.  I was glad to see this posted...
It's a good read...  I'll post the link.
It was interesting he has two kids ages 11 and 13....

http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/features/lifestyle/07/31/junior.johnson/index.html

[Bryan Blanton]

I heard that what drove junior out of the sport was the politics sponsor politics. It's ashame junior was driven out of the sport.

Has anyone who post here ever read the book cheating? Junior was mentioned in the book quite a few times.

I heard 1 of the reasons why junior left was over what happened to him in 1994 and 95 i guess in 1994 in the book cheating it's mentioned that jimmy spencer's car that was sponsored by mcdonalds was allowed to get through nascars tech inspection with an illegal part that allowed more air to the engine i think which gave them more power in the engine i think it was a bigger air intake manifold.

In the book cheating it's mentioned that in 1994 mcdonalds was thinking about getting out of nascar if they didn't win a couple of races and nascar did not want mcdonalds to leave the sport so they allowed jimmy spencers car both times to get through tech inspection with a bigger air intake manifold.

The 2 races spencer won were the july daytona race in 1994 and the july talladega race in 1994.

And then in febuary 1995 johnson was planning on taking the engine he was going to run in brett bodines car down to daytona without the part. Somehow that part i'm not sure whether johnson told them to put the part on or whether a crew member decided to put it on on his own.

But the part was on junior's car in febuary of 1995 on the car he was going to field for brett bodine and when the car went through tech line johnson's car was disallowed and johnson at the time was given the biggest fine ever in nascar history it may still be the record it was $45,000 dollars.

The previous record was held by richard petty at $38,000 dollars

Johnson's car was also not allowed to make a qualifying attempt that day.

I think it was what happened in febuary of 1995 that made johnson decide that it was time to get out of the sport.

Didn't he after the 1995 season sell everything to brett bodine?

[Bryan Blanton]

Isn't there a movie about junior johnson? Doesn't the guy that plays him the same guy that played the starman in the movie starman?

Speaking of junior i heard at 1 time in the mid 80's that dale earnhardt sr. was seriously thinking about going to 2 teams he was for awhile thinking about joining the digard hope i spelled that right? I think he was thinking about joining digard racing i think the name of the car owner was bill gardner this was back when gardner had both gary nelson and robert yates working for him i think.

And the other team earnhardt sr. was seriously thinking about going to was the junior johnson team.

But he went to childress and they started running well and winning a bunch of races so he decided to stay with childress.

[Chris]

And the other team earnhardt sr. was seriously thinking about going to was the junior johnson team.

Yeah,... hhuummm
Can you imagine Earnhardt Sr driving a FORD all those years.... hhuumm
As PRO CHEVY as NASCAR is,.. He'd of NEVER of had 7 Championships... just goes to show how Nascar influences WHO wins the CUP championships from year to year,...
Hell if Bill Elliott would of Drove a Chevy,.. as Much of a Fan Favorite as he was,.. HE may of had 7 championships..??   

SO it has NOTHING to do with how GOOD you are....
It's all about who you know and who you blo...

[Bryan Blanton]

Actually junior ran chevys until after the 1988 season and switched to fords for 1989.

I think most if not all of junior's championships came with general motors products.

When cale won championships while driving in juniors cars was cale driving an oldsmobile or chevrolet?

[Bryan Blanton]

When junior switched to ford for 1989 his driver was terry labonte try picturing that racefans terry labonte in a ford.

Terry also drove oldsmobiles as well.

In 1987 and 88 terry drove junior's car when junior ran chevys.

Here's another interesting fact terry won the june 1989 pocono race 1 of the few nascar pay per view races that nascar tried back in the late 80's early 90's.

And terry was driving junior's car that day.

Although if rusty hadn't of cut a tire and tore up his car rusty might have won that cause rusty looked like he had the fastest car until he cut that tire and tore up his fender.

[Bryan Blanton]

That article on nascar.com is wrong bill elliott never won a championship while driving for junior johnson he won 6 races driving for junior and nearly won the championship while driving for junior in 1992.

Bill's only championship came in 1988 when bill was running for harry melling in the red coors car.

[Chris]

yeah,.. MY BAD<...
I missed the "Mid-80's" part that you had wrote Bryan..
I saw where you said about Jimmy Spencer won when he drove for Junior and I knew from memory that was in 1994,.. so that just threw me off kilter when I wasn't reading that close,...
Again my bad...
But the info you guys posted is exactly correct