Junior Johnson a proud papa after son's first win
-
- By Ed Hinton | May 6, 2009 12:59:50 PM PDT
I haven't heard this much excitement in Junior Johnson's voice since Dale Earnhardt stuck Darrell Waltrip in the fence at Richmond in 1986. And that time, it was anger.
This time it was joy, glee and enormous fatherly pride in his son, Robert, 15, who the other night won "the first race he drove, anywhere," Junior said by phone.
How'd the boy look?
Junior thundered laughter.
"He shocked me."
More proud laughter.
"When the race started, he left out [in a hurry]. You'd have thought he'd been driving for 10 years."
No NASCAR dad in the Cup garages today is as qualified as Junior Johnson to know when he's got a natural on his hands. The legendary moonshine-runner-turned-racer was a natural himself in the 1950s and '60s -- no one, before or since, has been as flat-out, all the time as Junior.
But, "I don't know if I was that gung ho to go as he was," Junior said of Robert's run last Saturday night at Caraway Speedway, a highly respected cradle track for stars, in the Sportsman division.
"He was tickled to death, and so was I," said Junior, 77, who sold his racing team in 1995 and retired to his cattle ranch in the Blue Ridge foothills of North Carolina.
But his only son has him looking toward a return to NASCAR -- which requires that drivers be at least 18 -- within three years.
"If he keeps learning and learning and learning, he'll be able to make it plumb to the top," Junior said. "But you know how kids are. They get different things on their mind and stuff."
Should Robert divert his thinking to another career, his father would understand. Junior himself never was extremely passionate about racing -- just very good at driving, stretching mechanical rules to and beyond the limits, and obtaining lucrative sponsorships.
"But I think he's really dedicated to it," Junior said. "He's got his mind made up that's what he wants to do. He looks like he's really dead set to make it."
If so, "Every step he makes, I'm gonna be there," Junior said.
Even all the way back to NASCAR, where Junior won 50 races as a driver and 140 more as a car owner before growing weary of NASCAR busting him on rules violations?
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised," Junior said. "You know, I can cope with the rules, whatever they are."
Did he ever, in his time. He was NASCAR's most celebrated "cheater," a word he has long dismissed. "It ain't cheatin'; it's gaining a technical advantage."
If Robert wants to go all the way to Sprint Cup, "I know what it takes and how to get it done," said the man who fielded winning cars for LeeRoy Yarbrough, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and others.
In my mind, there simply could be no better teacher of stock car racing, anywhere, than Junior Johnson, who has had his son testing privately on both dirt and asphalt tracks -- Caraway is paved -- for more than a year.
"We've worked on dirt more than anything to start with," Junior said. "I want him to learn how to back a car in a corner and save it when he gets sideways and everything like that.
"He's accomplished most all that stuff."
Despite the Caraway win, "I'm not going to let him just drop dirt and take off to asphalt. I'm going to keep stepping back and refreshing his memory on what it takes to handle a car."
The training will remain methodical throughout.
"When he moves, he'll be able to handle a move that we make," Junior said. "I'm not going to rush him into something headstrong, hoping to get there real quick.
"We've got plenty of time. He's got three or four years yet to go [before he's eligible for NASCAR]."
Teenaged Robert is sponsored by Junior Johnson's Country Hams. Might he need to turn 21 before he can be sponsored by the legal liquor brand, Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon?
Junior thundered laughter again: "I don't know about that, now."
So if they could get the brand on the side of the car, Robert Glenn Johnson III would be the third generation in what you could call the moonshine business.
Comments
Use a Facebook account to add a comment, subject to Facebook's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your Facebook name, photo & other personal information you make public on Facebook will appear with your comment, and may be used on ESPN's media platforms. Learn more