What's good enough for ol' Tom Wolfe is good enough for me.

If he thought Junior Johnson was the last man of his kind in America, then who are we to argue?

Wolfe, like myself, was born in the "new south", in Richmond, Virginia to be exact, and, like me, was born to the land as his father was a farmer, a farm co-op director, and an agronomy professor at Virginia Tech.

Wolfe was so much a southerner at heart that he chose to matriculate at Washington and Lee in Lexington, Va. rather than travel to the god forsaken north and Princeton University. What son of the south could possibly argue that logic?

Tom Wolfe was fascinated by the social culture of the automobile, and what journalists termed "New Journalism", with his 1962 commentary on the California hot rod culture presaging Hunter S. Thompson's political and social rants by a decade.

Wolfe's 1963 essays for Esquire magazine, a collection of which is titled: "There goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend(Brmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm), includes his profile of Junior Johnson, aptly titled, "The Last American Hero".

Read Tom Wolfe's account of the legend of Junior Johnson and you'll understand why I choose ol' Junior to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. was born in Wilkes County, N.C., and if you've been there, you know that it's the hard scrabble foothills and ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Wilkes County is pretty much legend all over the Carolinas and Virginia for it's moonshine and North Wilkesboro Speedway was the very first race track ever sanctioned by NASCAR back in 1948.

Mix 'em all up...Wilkes County, NASCAR, moonshine, Junior Johnson...and the legend of stock car racing was born.

Junior Johnson was a convicted 'shine runner, a winner of 50 Cup events on dirt tracks in New York, super speedways in Florida, road courses in California, and anything and everything in between. If NASCAR had begun it's history with "The Chase", Johnson would have qualified for it seven out of the eight seasons that he ran twenty five or more races.

Johnson made his first start at Darlington, finished 5th in his second start, took the pole in his fourth start, and his first win in his 16th start. Junior excelled on the dirt bullrings but, not to be dismissed as a short track legend, Junior won the Daytona 500 in 1960. Wins at Charlotte, Atlanta and Darlington gave him a career grand slam at super speedways.

Johnson won in Oldsmobiles, Fords, Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Dodge. In his final full season he crewed his own car....and won 13 times. It was as a NASCAR owner that Johnson really made his mark on stock car racing.

Junior was also an innovator in engine technology, chassis design and body work...what he didn't come up with himself, he stole from others and made it better. Today we'd call him a cheater.

Early on, Junior Johnson the owner was very often Junior Johnson the crew chief, the jack man, and the tire man. Johnson knew engines like he knew the back roads of Wilkesboro...but he also knew talent when he saw it, and wasn't so full of himself not to hire the best tuners, chassis guys and pit crews available, matching them with the best driving talent he could find. Junior Johnson was a business man above all.

A sampling of Johnson's crew chiefs and engine builders over the years yields names connected to almost a dozen Cup Championships including Herb Nab, Robert Yates, Tim Brewer,  Jeff Hammond,  Doug Richert, and Travis Carter.

After fielding cars part time for Bobby Issac, Darel Dieringer, Curtis Turner, Fred Lorenzen and A.J. Foyt with some success, Johnson began receiving limited support from Ford, Junior's first driver discovery was LeeRoy Yarbrough from Jacksonville, Florida.

After joining up at the end of the 1967 season, this tandem ran 65 races over the next three years and won 10, scored 36 top fives and cashed $340,000 in prize money...and then the bottom fell out of the Ford factory support budget.

With the Ford budget gone, so went Junior Johnson...being a business man and now one of the biggest poultry farmers in Carolina, he wouldn't spend a dime of his own money to race, and that was the best thing that ever happened to NASCAR.

In the ensuing eight months, Johnson would be the central figure in two separate deals that would change the face of NASCAR forever.

The first deal put stock car racing on the map, it took it out of the backwoods bull rings and put it right in our living rooms.

In the early 1970s, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was looking for a medium to advertise their products in since the latest round of banishment from television and magazines. Through business connections and mutual friends, the company and Johnson got together and began negotiating a deal for sponsorship of Junior's race car.

When Johnson found out what R.J. Reynolds' advertising budget was...he called Bill France Jr. and set up a meeting that would lay the groundwork for the Winston Cup Series.

The second deal was under the radar and less apparent but due to rumor and innuendo, much more highly anticipated by stock car racing fans.

Richard Howard and Junior Johnson were two of a kind, Howard was a Carolina furniture magnate, part owner of Charlotte Motor Speedway, and a business man like Johnson. Howard was a hustler and had saved CMS from bulldozers by wheeling, dealing and promoting racing as entertainment.

General Motors had stepped away from racing competition by 1964 after some dominating seasons in the '50s and early '60s with Oldsmobile, Chevrolet and Pontiac all taking championships during the era.

By the late '60s, GM wanted back in the stock car racing game.

Richard Howard knew that Chevrolet was the number one selling car brand in the country but Chevy fans had no one to root for on Sundays...a fast Chevy in the field would mean doubling attendance on race day.

Howard convinced the back room boys at GM that he could put together a deal with the right team and make Chevrolet competitive again...even though he had no team...yet.

As soon as the GM guys didn't say no...Howard called Johnson and told him he had a deal on the table with GM and Johnson took the hook...the rest is history...the Monte Carlo became the all-time winning car model in NASCAR history.

And Junior Johnson never spent a dime of his own money.

Junior Johnson carried on for 25 more years as a NASCAR owner and business man, fielding six Winston Cup champions, winning 132 races and scoring 436 top fives.

If the "Race for the Chase" had been around forever, Johnson's cars would have made that field an amazing 29 times with top stars Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, Geoff Bodine, Terry Labonte, Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough.

From Daytona to Bristol, from Pocono to Dover and from Talledega to Rockingham, Johnson's teams have won in every style and fashion conceivable from fender banging last lap passes to complete domination.

Junior Johnson's teams and cars were always prepared, always fast and always ahead of the game in the pits. That's how NASCAR Hall of Fame teams roll.

Junior Johnson was the epitome of the NASCAR racer...convicted moonshiner, fender banging winner from dirt to Daytona, innovator, cheater, championship car owner, business man nonpareil and from my perspective...savior of NASCAR at it's most vulnerable time.

I nominate Junior Johnson as a first ballot inductee in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

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