Page 255 - 2019_NPPG_digital copy

NASCAR’S MOONSHINING ROOTS

North Wilkesboro is considered the birthplace

of the sport. It gave us moonshine and Junior

Johnson, and their stories linger in Appalachia

like a morning dew in springtime.

Johnson would trade that moonshining year, Johnson won five races and was pounds of whiskey but still responded
and running liquor experience. That’s a top six finisher in the Grand National to a pedal push, and you can bet the
how he learned to drive, one old jalopy points standings. bootleggers pushed them hard.
at a time.
Distilling moonshine was the one sure Racing started as a post-church activity
That is how so many of NASCAR’s best “cash crop” for folks living poor in the where mechanics, shiners – and any
early drivers got their start, running from mountains of the Carolinas and Ten- other amateurs that thought their car
the law while running liquor. A run of nessee. Treasury revenuers knew how was hot – came to compete. Not long
dirt-poor, rag-tag southern boys birthed moonshiners played the game, so get- after small dirt tracks, dotted the south,
the auto racing industry, and as some ting away with your trade was no small official auto racing was born.
NASCAR historians will put it: “the task.
sport’s history is as soaked in moon- Enter: Bill France
shining as it is in a need for speed.” The car enthusiast site Wheelscene
notes that the Ford Coupe was a favor- Big Bill had the good fortune of being
Junior Johnson will tell you, running ite of shiners. Wheelscene reports, “the connected to Daytona Beach Speed-
moonshine... “It gave me so much ad- Ford had a 255-cubic inch flathead V8 way. He understood the money-making
vantage over other people that had to rated at 125 horsepower.” Its average enterprise that unifying racers could
train and learn how to drive.” The facts speeds blew past old six-cylinder cop have. People would come from all
bear out that sentiment: in his first cars. The cars hauled thousands of around if they knew the best racers

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