“Boy, if you can’t win in this car you need to be bagging groceries or something.” Junior had some of the best quotes.

Another example of Junior Johnson running his team with an iron fist would be the immediate firing of long time crew chief and 53 time winner for the team, Tim Brewer. The firing of Brewer right after the 1992 Hooters 500 is what broke the camels back in my opinion for the team.

I worked on Junior’s house near North Wilkesboro several times and he was truly a man of few words. I had to climb into the crawl space of his house and was amazed to see a stash of NASCAR trophies there!

Another fact about LeeRoy Yarbrough's win in the Daytona 500 it was the very first Daytona 500 to be won with a last lap pass.

Firing of Brewer was the end. Tim Brewer just got it done with a lot of drivers. He was a winner.

I met Junior a few years back and he signed a bottle of shine for me. #Legend

Another factor in the downfall of his race teams was the divorce from his long-time wife Flossie in 1992. While he was able to keep the race teams in the divorce settlement I believe the repercussions from the divorce contributed to the downfall. He married his trophy wife about the time the race teams were sold and he had other things on his mind including having children.

It's also interesting that Dale Earnhardt's first championship came over Cale Yarborough who drove for Junior Johnson.

Actually, I had heard several times before that Junior was unhappy with the direction the sport was going in. The late 80s and early 90s was a big transitional period for the sport. More and more the sport was popularized advertised and commercialized. More and more fans were being attracted to the sport and more and more businesses were pouring more money into the sport. Junior was an old school owner and really did not keep up with the times the way most teams of that era did. Junior in his hay day had creative innovations incorporated into his cars and the new commercialized nascar with more inspectors were catching juniors innovations and kept his cars from being as competitive as they once were. Some people that don’t know him well saw his as a cantankerous old b@stard but to me he was the true embodiment of a nascar legend that I am proud to say that I was able to meet in person and by the way about 1/4 of the current nascar rule book is directly or indirectly attributed to Mr. Johnson and his creative innovations.

I think the main reason Junior got out was the technology passed him by I imagine he didn’t have the engineering aspect like the bigger teams at the time. Junior was a great mind in finding power and having a bunch of creativity in his cars

I've been anticipating this one ever since you've started this series! Woo

Very good video Danny; keep these coming. As far as your question, I think there were several reasons. First, I think that Junior had lost his drive to dominate the sport. He said several times that he couldn’t be innovative anymore without NASCAR fining him $100k for nothing. The engineers and computers were replacing the old school crew chiefs. Two, after DW, he never had the hard charger driver like Cale, Leroy, or Bobby Allison. Terry, Geoff, and Bill were damn good drivers but they weren’t “hard nose drivers” that would take a 10th place car and win with it. They (including DW after 1984) were more calculated drivers who didn’t take a lot of chances (they still got results though) so I don’t think that they were good fits for Juniors mentality. Third, he didn’t expand his operation like Childress, Hendrick, Penske, etc; he was still operating out of his shop in his back yard. Those owners were building state of the art race shops and eventually brought engineering to the sport. The days of the shade tree mechanic having a race team were over in the early 90’s. Finally, I do think some of the stubbornness came back to bite him. When he and Tim Brewer disagreed over a pit call at Dover in 92, many thought that Elliott lost the title there because the team wasn’t the same after that. They had one final blow up at the Hooters 500 leading to Brewer getting fired. His race team was never the same after that from a performance standpoint. Throw those four reasons into the pot and stir it up, you’ll see why his organization eventually faltered leading him to sell out. I really hate that he had to exit the sport because he’s probably my all-time favorite innovator, owner, and NASCAR hero. But just like every other thing in life, All good things must eventually come to an end.

Great video here. All this time that I have been a nascar fan, I never knew the story about how Junior "did dirty" to Alan for taking Maxwell House sponsorship away. It's quite unreal that happened. But in the end Alan did it his way and took that championship trophy from his rival ford team in that 'Underbird! I'm not sure if it's true but I also heard that Tim Brewer was fired during the race because of miscalculating the fuel milage at the final race at Atlanta in '92. You mentioned about the 'curse' of Alan that plagued Johnson's team afterwards... Well I'm not much of a skeptic but I can't get over what my dad did to Darrell Waltrip in '92. Small story: Davey Allison was my dad's favorite driver. D.A. was on the verge of winning the Winston Million at the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlignton. However, mother nature and Darrell Waltrip had other plans and threw a wrench to the Havoline Team objective. During the rain delay D.W. was leading the race while Davey was in 5th. The event became a rain shortened race and then Nascar officially declared D.W. the winner. On that day my dad was so mad, he cursed out D.W. and said "May he never win another race again!" ...eventually that became true as 'ol D.W. never saw another cup win since that day!

Another example of Junior Johnson running his team with an iron fist would be the firing of long time crew chief and 53 time winner for the team, Tim Brewer. The firing of Brewer what broke the camels back in my opinion for the team.

Several reasons naturally. I had heard that Johnson made some bad business deals around the early 90’s and it simply caught up to him in the funds department. Sponsors were willing to stay with him but it simply wasn’t enough. Not only that, but what you said about “burning bridges”. Some of which wasn’t really his total fault like Lee Roy or Bobby Allison, but others were. Think of how many good drivers of that time drove for Junior: Lorenzen, Dieringer, Isaac, Allison, Bonnett, Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Lee Roy Yarbrough, Labonte, Bodine, Elliott, Marlin: guys who all accomplished so much in the sport, most of whom are hall of fame drivers in their own right, and all did things to prove their case outside of driving for Junior. By 1995 Junior simply had burned too many bridges to recover, and really there was no one else to drive for him or be crew chief that was really anything realistically established, leaving him with Brett Bodine and goddamn Loy Allen. Junior Johnson was a genius. That’s undeniable. He just sometimes was too smart for his own good, and that isolated a lot of people.

Quality work Danny. Loving this series. I always love to learn more about the race teams, especially those not around anymore.

DW fired by Junior? Well, according to DW (while being interviewed by Dale Jr.) he was offered a contract from Rick Hendrick. DW approached Junior with this information at which time Junior stated to DW, "You need to go and take that deal." The "conversation" ended without Junior even attempting to make DW a counter offer. The barn door opened, and Darrell walked.....

Please do The Rise and Fall of Petty Enterprises

Great show Danny! I think that Junior didn't want to spend the money to stay competitive in Cup racing, leading to not keeping up with technology, leading to worse finishes, leading to less sponsorship (money buys speed). Vicious circle!

I really like the short stories you do the different drivers and different owners Junior had his good side and this bad side that would show up at times always appreciated him giving Elton Sawyer a chance to drive for him I grew up around Elton and his family now look at where he is at with NASCAR thanks again for a good story

Thank you Danny for uploading this video

Great video enjoyed it very much, Thank You.

If junior played dirty as you mention, it just catches up with you. You can’t treat people poorly and get by with it forever. But what a record of runs he had with Cale and DW. Impressive!

I'm glad someone finally said something other than junior was a sort of saint. He was a nasty ignorant piece of work and it shouldn't be overshadowed or forgotten no matter how much he accomplished. Great video though

(Rise and Fall of Turner Scott Motorsports) Aka the team that screwed Reed Sorenson out of a championship and a chance of reviving his career

Wooohooo. Another Rise and Fall Story, Interesting to Learn about Junior Johnson and Associates. They were like racing for HMS, RCR, Penske, Roush, and SHR

You hit the nail on the head Danny!!

Ned Jarrett : " Martha & I and Junior & Flossie used to vacation together - we had some good times - There's Junior - errrrrrrr that's not Fossie ! " That's what happened to the Junior Johnson Racing Team - Flossie took ole Junior to the cleaners - Those darn cameras !

Looking forward to your LeRoy Yarbrough docu. Great vid here!

Thanks For Uploading ☺😎

I thought I heard Maxwell Coffee House wrong but it happened twice. Love it! 😂

I wouldn't call the stuff you can legally buy now moonshine....Junior would say the same!

Rise and Fall of Brad Keselowski Racing in honor of Brad now being a co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

Been waiting for this one. Can you try the rise and fall of Petty Enterprises/Evernham Motorsports?

Rise and fall of Dunleavy racing

Love these videos man. You do an excellent job!!

I leave it alone, Jr did his thing & won a lot of races and championships as a driver and car owner. I would say overall his career was an overwhelming success, I wouldn't even call it a downfall I say he got out when the getting was good...

Awesome video man

There he is, Danny B!!!! I was just talkin about you the udder day

I've been waiting for this one for a while.

Love the video Danny!

Great video!

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that DW wanted out of his contract and knew the best way to do that was to talk to Junior about a raise. So DW kinda snookered him into it

Easily the best rise and fall video you have made

Bill Davis has said that when he bought the 22, it was still a Junior Johnson car. All the equipment and sponsorship was still signed with Junior

And more to the irony to that Earmhardt and Darell story is that decades later Dale Earnhardt's son Dale Jr. Would have Budweiser as his main sponsor for the first 8 years in his cup career then when he moved to Hendrick Motorsports eventually Mountain Dew would be one of his primary sponsors

The real problem was....Junior was doing business the way they did in the 70's and the 80's... If you've ever been by his shops..... Yes he worked hard and everybody there worked hard but they did not grow like everyone else....DEI made garage mahal and at the time it was unbelievably huge which now is average..... Juniors operation looked like what now would be from a local short track driver.. From the small shop to every time they would have a press conference his wife Flossie would fix breakfast for everybody.. Even if he had survived there is no way he could have dealt with all the crap that is in NASCAR today

Maybe I missed something but you said Cale went to drive for Junior in 1974 and won four races which is incorrect. Cale went to drive for Junior in 1973 and won four races and in 1974 won 10 races. There are other contributing factors about Juniors team not doing well in the nineties except with Bill Elliott but Junior himself said NASCAR got so knit picky with his cars looking for things that wasn’t even there it was down right ridiculous so he got fed up with it and closed his operation down after 1995. If you talk to Cale Yarborough or Darrell Waltrip today they have nothing but high praises for Junior.

I always imagine what it would have been like to work for Junior back in the day. That shop, his legacy and everything always seemed like it was kind of the last of what NASCAR used to be. It always seemed sort of "romantic" in that way I guess.

The reason Junior Johnson was successful was he was a master at the rule book. As the sport got bigger and the inspectors got tougher he couldn't get away with much anymore. Not to mention his switch to Ford I think hurt too

When Junior sold the team he told his employees, "If we could have kept Bobby Allison, we would have won 200 races & Richard Petty wouldn't have."

Loved the fact that Junior was honest, blunt, and just a complete badass... but I have to admit, and I know that this may be a bit of a bold statement, but, I think Dale Sr. and the Darrell Waltrip rivalry, back in the eighties, was one of the most forgotten about rivalries that kind of gets swept underneath the rug...

Looking forward to your video on Lee Roy Yarborough

Fun face for y'all didn't know is that Cale Yarborough & Lee Roy Yarbrough may sound the same but spelling is different by one letter.

LeeRoy Yarborough punched out Bill France before the inguaral Talladega race in 1969 after he called Bobby Allison a pussy because he and the other drivers refused to run the race due to safety concerns with the tires

Since you did a rise and fall on Nashville Superspeedway, can you do one on Ontario Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, and Nazareth?

Junior Johnson getting rid of Tim Brewer was his downfall as well...man knew how to set up.cars for winning...Out of Brewers interview with Steve Waid...Brewer told him that Johnson said Brewer already had a race team even tho he didn't technically own one....Facts!!!

His old shop is an antique store now.

Danny this is a video no one saw coming but we needed

Wow I mean the only time I've heard of Leroy was from the 1969 Talladega scandal so it was a shock for me to hear that he wasn't related to Cale in anyway

Can we get a vid on DiGard racing? They were on top in the mid 80s and completely fell apart at the end of them. And then turned into whittington bros, another interesting story of its own

About time

I like your video but dw said in a resent interview he was offered more money with Rick and he told Jr and he said boy you better take that deal

I was expecting a brief mention on that weird 1991 period where the car number was changed to 97 or something. Had to do with getting caught running a larger engine. All a bit fuzzy in my memory.

Hard to quit smoking in times like these but maybe one day. High School late 90's it was still 2 dollars pack. Stress the big reason

Richard Howard may have been listed as the owner, but it was Jr. Johnson’s team.

I’m sure you know this, while other owners had their teams work together and share information, he actively pitted his against each other. I think had a lot to do with how things went.

The Kulwicki Curse AKA firing Tim Brewer after he had Elliot pit in the final race in 1992 (allowing Kulwicki to get the bonus points for leading the most laps). In line with your closing statements, another relationship Johnson nixed that happened to be the final straw for his competitiveness.

Being a big fan Bill Elliott And watching multiple documentaries about him when he was racing for junior Johnson His crew chief in 93 and 94 They were trying to rebuild the team because junior Johnson was going through a very bitter divorce And I think that Ultimately led to the downfall of the organization

I personally think the change in times and cars and also just technology in general. Mr Johnson was and old style racer that probably didn't conform to the times.

18:17 what car is this? It appears to be at the Oxford 250.

I think as time went on, Junior saw that is was becoming more of a business rather than a hobby. I think the rules got too tight, and he lost the will to innovate. And, maybe when considering expanding, that meant relocating, and it was probably way more expensive than he had the money for to invest.

I'd say his trailblazer attitude came back to bite him. Man invents drafting, bends every rule in half, and so on which works for a car...but a race team not so much

Hey, I’m just curious I love your takes on the sport of NASCAR I’m a big fan of your, but why did you not talk about hispardon that he got from the president in this video?

Bobby Allison quit because jr wouldn’t talk to him.he would only translate through the crew chief and never speak to Bobby directly.Bobby talks about it in his hof video. Jr also said Bobby was the greatest driver he ever had.well if he was so great why be a dink and make him quit. I like jr cause he’s a good ol boy but he was his worst enemy at times.

You should do the Rise and Fall of Petty Enterprises

My wife’s grandpa use to haul moonshine with Junior. He remembers the day he got arrested and it changed all of his buddies lives forever.

OK but didnt darrell has gone on the record saying he asked for a raise knowing he had agreed not too to get out of his contract?

Cale YarBOROugh and Leroy YarBROUGH aren't even close to being related. Still a good video and well presented overall.

I love Junior Johnson 😀

Hey guys. If there’s a weird glitch in this video in the middle, it’s because we were asked to remove a sponsored message from the original partner of this video.

I am not going to lie, but I know very little before 1993, but from what I have learned from you and a couple other NASCAR channels. So with that from what I have gathered from you is Johnson failed by not knowing how to compromise with others. He should have learned how to bend a little when he was going through drivers like the Cleveland Browns go through QB's not going to find a lot of success with that veteran QB around.

wow the irony..........in 92 finale which car on track led 1 lap to stop bill picking up the extra bonus points..................terry labonte !!!!

Junior failed to keep up with the technology. I remember stopping by his shops back in the early 90's and you could just tell they were going down hill.

Make a rise and fall of Petty Enterprises

That shit ain’t real moonshine 😂

Other sports realize long ago not to allow a few with money to outspend other teams. NASCAR did not take the same road. Salary caps or spending caps could have saved the smaller operations like Juniors, Pettys, Wood Brothers etc. With Hendricks, Penske etc they have unlimited money to buy speed. Unlimited money for technology. It's simple a 4 million dollar team can not complete with a 18 million dollar team. NASCAR just look at open wheel IRL.

You should do TRG Motorsports

Everyone wants to piss on Tim Brewer. I suggest you go watch the scene vault with About Tim Brewer

Lots of things. Relationships gone sour between Junior in 1986 and DW and Tim Brewer after 1992. A bad business deal between Junior and Warner Hodgdon. In 1991 the team was suspended for an oversized motor for a few races. His split from Flossie. And I guess a vengeful attitude towards those who said no. And not keeping up with the times.

Hope to see an April Fools video next!

I don’t think infamous is the right word to describe Junior, maybe Colorful, or Brilliant, or “Creative”.

I think Brett drives the pace car in cup series

Two words , Brett Bodine

Hi dan

I don't think Jr could keep up with the technology advances that were being made. I can see him viewing tec as a sort of junk science; Computers, etc. The sport passed him by. No shame. He is still a legend. I hate to know about the sponsorship stealing with AK. Still love the guy though.

Do JTG Daugherty Racing

He also screwed Bobby Allison over in 1993. Bobby was working on getting Winston to sponsor his team in 1994 with Jimmy Spencer. Junior talked RJR to go with Travis Carter and Jimmy replaced Hut again. Both Hut and Jimmy have confirmed this happened by Junior. Junior also quit on Cale and DW their last years because they were leaving him.

Him and Waltrip were two of the best driver cheaters, they could've been epic. There are better chief and owner cheaters Chad knaus being one that comes to mind, bit you know nascar kept their eyes on Darrell, especially after he openly mocked them for the amount of cheating that got by. Only when he was busted to say but but they....

I think he should have paid Darrell more money based on his past results. After he left not much more happened w/ JR's team but Waltrip went on to win Daytona shortly afterward .