A true original, this man found the wind and is a legend. He created the dirt track power slide and used the draft to win at Daytona.

From moonshine to sunshine Junior Johnson is the man. He probably never thought much about a race track other than to race on it and to win. Daytona would give Junior a classic lesson.

Driving race cars must be like a kid in a toy store, what a living. Junior was in the toy store at Daytona Speedway in 1960. Driving an underpowered Chevrolet Junior discovered drafting and slipstreamed his was to victory sneaking up on the flying Pontiacs and fast Fords of the day. 

Junior's contributions to major league stock car racing is significant. Pitching a car sideways through the turns on a dirt track was not known until Johnson did it. No one grabbed a steering wheel tighter than Junior. His legacy helped bring Nascar racing to become one of the top sporting events in the world.

Johnson retired from driving in 1966 but his genius was just starting. Junior led several drivers into the Hall of Fame starting with Leroy Yarbrough. During the 1969 season Leroy won the Triple Crown of stock car racing winning the Daytona 500, the World 600 and the Southern 500 at Darlington. This team was a menace on the superspeedways and did not run a full schedule. Driving Junior's cars Leroy swept both events at Daytona and Darlington this year and also posted victories at Atlanta and Rockingham.

In 1972 it was a Coke and a Smile as Junior wrenched Bobby Allison to 10 victories in that beautiful red and gold Chevrolet.

It was time to go in the mid 70's with Cale Yarborough as Junior found the wheel house winning three consecutive championships. Cale and Junior won 51 races in this decade and were off the hook with stats that are mind boggling. Yarborough was just crazy on the short tracks in Junior Johnson's cars leading over 90 % of the laps in short track races that Cale won, throw in a bunch of super speedway victories also.

Then it was time for a Mountain Dew as Junior led Darrell Waltrip to 43 victories and three titles during the 80's. The Dew Crew posted 12 wins in 1981 and 1982, these guys were off the hook building 10 new cars late in the 81 season taking the title.

Junior Johnson has as much to do with Nascar's place in the racing world as anyone. It was Junior who brought RJ Reynolds to Nascar which became the Winston Cup. Johnson wanted RJ to sponsor his car but it became much bigger as we know.

Junior's innovations, ideas, mechanical knowledge and driving ability makes his legend. He is unique and one of if not the best ever to race,  Surely the Last American Hero