LOL, for Junior Johnson the tailpipes were probably an obvious distraction.......while Nascar and everyone else were all concerned about the rear pipes Junior had a dozen other questionable modifications going on elsewhere..........that's the way Smokey Yunick operated too.

In high school, I had a 1966 Ford Fairlane 500xl. The girl I liked, liked a guy with a 1969 Torino. He wrecked his car, I got the girl. I lost the girl eventually of course... But, I still have my four speed hard top hi-po Fairlane from High School 🤪 These cars just create battles 😅

RIP LeeRoy, one of the under appreciated drivers of the 1960's. Yarbrough was a force not only in NASCAR but Indycar as well.

Back when Nascar was fun to watch.

Buddy Baker telling that story about drafting behind the rear exhaust was hilarious ❤.

Oh, the great days of Winston Cup. Verses CRAPcar racing we have now.

Plastic jelly mould bodies and space frame chassis killed off Stock Cars - how can they possibly by Stock if they are basically all the same car. Bring back the old days !

The Good Ol' Days. People my age got to see NASCAR get Real Good ... Then we got to watch it die. I don't even read to see who wins anymore.

I also had a Torino, a 1969, with the 428CJ engine. And...I stupidly sold it some years later. It was an awesome machine.

I had a '68 Torino GT, 390 with 428 heads. Of all the cars I've owned, i reget not keeping that one. Never had a lick of problems with it. And it would flat fly. Damn sure wish i still had it.

The NASCAR-tuned (with Ford parts) BOSS 429 had a lot more to do with the faster speeds which they were pumping out due to the fact that those things were cranking out 600+ horsepower. Setting matters straight....it's not just about the tailpipe location that made those "BOSS 9"-powered cars win.

I was there in the infield with all the other Venice race fans, I really liked ved the Paul Revere 250, the infield road track that ran at night! It was great timing, we could go hang on the beach a little while, and get back to Venice in time for the 4th of July Beach events! Great memories!

Did anyone catch that NASCAR was concerned that the fans might not like the racing the rear exhaust might create? How times change!

Smokey Yunick says by exiting exhaust in front of rear tire, it creates a scavenging affect for exhaust pulses. Also, exiting the exhaust out the rear of car doesn’t have a significant affect on engine temp of the car behind. The car behind has an increase in engine temp due to no air flow when tucked in behind the car in front. Radiator can’t exchange heat into the air.

I really enjoy these videos about how interesting Nascar used to be.

I never knew any of this and I have been watching nascar since the mid 1960's. Thank you.

I Like Generation 2 And 3 NASCAR Winston Cup Series From 1970 To 1993 Thanks For Uploading

Excellent research, loved that you followed up with the Gen 6 experiment. The archive footage is phenomenal.

Mid-engined prototype race cars from that same era of the World Sportscar Championship had their exhausts pointed straight out the back too, as did that era's F1 cars. The F1 guys and many of the guys running open-topped sports cars didn't even have a cockpit to reroute the air away from them, and yet nobody made a fuss about it. _That being said,_ a commonly mentioned characteristic of the methanol-fueled CART IndyCars of the 90's is that following them was an intensely unpleasant experience due to the strong sting of the exhaust fumes, so IDK. My initial reaction was that NASCAR made a mountain out of a tailpipe mole hill but I guess somebody had better ask Bobby Allison or Richard Petty whether it had ever bothered them at all.

NASCAR the way it was meant to be..... National Association of STOCK Car Racing...the current cars sure as hell aren't stock. They need to go back to that.

That’s a very interesting story. The 60s and 70s was a cool time for NASCAR as that’s when all the development took place. Cars started hitting 200 MPH and the best shined even more like Petty, and Pearson. Then 1987 came and it fell apart but for good reason though.

Lee Roy's featured car was a 69 Torino Talladega. Those and the Cyclone Spoiler-II ruled the roost until Chrysler unleashed their Winged Wonders. Great times.

You made me go and dig out my old Polar Lights kit to see if Lee Roy's ride was a back-biter - I may have to modify the model, now ;) ;)

That’s a damn good looking car

It would be VERY interesting to test this thoery in a wind tunnel with modern data acquisition.

Was kinda hoping he'd mention the '69 Yarborough #21 Mercury Cyclone

Very informative and well made upload. Junior Johnson was a GENIUS and had so many nifty tricks up his sleve and with Lee Roy as his driver won almost every major race in 1969... Because of him and Smokey Yunick, Nascar basically had to re-write their entire rulebook. Keep up the good work!

Actually saw DJ Williams live last year. Never thought I’d hear him as background music in a NASCAR vid lol

Please make a video about USAC stock car. I really want to know about that series.

RIP Cale Yarborough.😢

Cool history!

When Nascar was great. Bring back homologation. Win on Sunday and sell on Monday - Torino Talladega, Charger 500, Charger Dayton, Road Runner Superbird, Cyclone.... Now, it's generically bad

I love the presidential pardon he got!!!!🍻🤣

Fantastic! Subscribed!

You know speaking of side exhaust, all of us who used to frequent all the Daytona races, all ran side exiting exhaust just behind the door as per State mandates

Further proof than in NASCAR, trying harder is superseded by crying harder.

5:20 from Stunningly beautiful to Hideous in 6 seconds.

. That was back before restrictor plates. which made the slingshot pass a common technique on certain tracks. because of their layout a car that has the exhaust exiting out the rear of the car. could receive a small but significant torque increase even ultimately changing the power band. HP isn't always the ultimate goal. torque can be more handy in certain situations. 6:10

good video, subscribed 👍

Can you make a video about the life of Junior Johnson and all the things he discovered/invented?? It would be great to watch…

Those 429 Torino’s and the 426 Belvedere were probably the most terrifying nascar’s ever built… going 200+ in grandpas cars! geez

Wow that was great! Never knew that!🇺🇸🇺🇸

I was there. We lived in South Daytona. That was the last race I saw there before we moved to California.

Recall one year at Dover the King was in need of a caution towards the end of the race and "presto" Buddy Arrington's #67 Dodge spun out, bringing out the yellow. Was well known that Arrington got boatloads of used and used up race parts from Petty Enterprises. Steve Waid was the racing columnist for the Roanoke VA newspaper and he interviewed Arrington week after, asking him what caused the spin that late in the race. Waid reported that Arrington had trouble keeping a straight face but said he just lost the car and spun. There had been speculation about the relationship with Petty and Petty being in dire need of a caution that was reason for Arrington's spin. Suppose Arrington had heard all the speculation and couldnt hide his emotions when Waid asked the question. Maybe some of you old timers remember Steve Waid when he become editor in charge of the subscription based publication entitled Grand National Scene. Wow, the old days in racing. Remember in the 60s after the race finished the track would open the gates allowing fans to cross the track and walk anywhere you wanted to...among the teams loading cars and equipment, meeting drivers and snagging autographs. Drivers didnt have RVs to escape to for showers and changing clothes. Fans were allowed to peel off sponsor decals from cars, talk to drivers and crews. They werent making a lot of money in those days. Martinsville was paying the winner $5k to $6k throughout most of the middle 60s. Recall Fred Lorenzen was first driver to top 100k in race winnings. Believe he won $113k that year. Of course factory backed teams didnt have expense of cars, parts and tires. Was reported that cost for one car for top tier race team could be built for 20k. Realize that was 55-60 years ago but only about 5-6X cost of new passenger car then. Dont have clue what that multiple would be now in comparison to new passenger vehicle but many times much higher multiple. Remember looking in the race cars after the race. At short tracks like Martinsville the car would have a "trap" door on passenger side footwell and drivers could open that trap door and inspect the right front tire for wear. Was possible because trap door was connected to a small link chain that was routed over close to the driver, perhaps mounted to portion of roll cage. Suppose they could notice if wear was down to cords or maybe blistering. Of course this "inspection" only possible during cautions. The good ole days...Petty, Pearson, Lorenzen, Fireball, Ned Jarrett, Jr Johnson, Darell Derringer, Buck & Buddy Baker, Joe Weatherly, Rex White, Marvin Panch, Dick Hutcherson, Dave Marcis, Bobby & Donnie Allison, James Hylton, Jim Paschal, Paul Goldsmith, Pete Hamilton, Curtis Turner, JD McDuffy , Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti and Wendall Scott. After a Martinsville race in the 60s, Dad and I stopped at Greyhound bus station in Martinsville to get some ice cream. Wasnt any fast food joints in those days. Got our snack and sat down. Looking around, i spotted Wendall Scott at a table with some of his people. Being a kid i asked Dad if we could wait til they finished eating so i could ask for his autograph. Dad told me to go approach him then as he probably wouldnt mind. I pulled out our ticket stubs and Mr Scott signed both of them for me. I was thrilled. Always felt sorry for him since he was on a thin shoestring budget. More than once i witnnesed Scott pitting and getting out of the car to raise the hood and work on something himself. Obviously couldn't afford qualified mechanics on his crew, mainly tire changers and gas man. #34 was always loyal to racing and did the best he could. Still have those autographed ticket stubs. Who would've thought that one day Wendell Scott would have ended up in NASCAR Hall of Fame ? A coworker became good friends of the Scott family many years ago. Once i found out John was a race fan we had many discussions. John purchased an old race car from the family several years ago, 61 bubble top Chevy. Has offered several times to buy my Scott autographed ticket stubs but not interested in selling. Bet very few people have autographed ticket stubs by Wendell Scott. As a kid would write letters to Fred Lorenzen and Ned Jarrett requesting colored post cards depicting the car and driver photographed at Daytona. Would send congrats after they won races. Have several of these postcards from both of them always with a short hadwritten note on the back. Probably not many of those floating around now. Drivers and teams so much more approachable back then. Living in Roanoke VA would drive short trip to Wood Bros race shop when still located in Stuart VA. Would plan trip in off season or off weekends. Leonard, if there, was always welcoming and give us a tour of the shop except for the engine room which was strictly off limits. He answered most questions and is down to earth guy. Stopped by Benny Parsons shop one time. Can't recall who be was driving for but think shop was close to Rockingham track. Randy Dorton was engine builder and showed us arount the shop. One year coming home from Talladega after spending night north of Atlanta we stopped in Spartinsburg hoping to find Pearson at home. Asked for directions once we got into town. Drove to his house, belueve it was on Hawthorne Dr. There was Lincoln Mk 4 in driveway with DGP on license plate so we knew we had the right house. No one answered our persistent door knocks so we went to back door and knocked... nobody home but on the clothes line was his driving suit. I was soooo tempted to grab it but my conscience prevailed and I left empty handed. What a souvenir that wouldhave been. Coming home from Dega in 79 stopped by same house but he had moved to a peach farm. Got info at gas station about his new location and drove out there. Knocked on door and his wife Helen said he was out in the barn. Actually was a trophy room in small building across the driveway. She told us to go over there to see him. He was as down to earth as most people. Gave us a tour of the trophy section and invited us to walk with him up the hill to the airplane hanger on his property. It was under roof and landing strip completed. Have photos of him and then girlfriend sitting on tailgate of his daily driver...older black F150. Isn't that what most millionaire pilots drive ? Another trip coming home from Dega on a Monday we stopped by his farm to visit. Wife said he was at Bud Moore's shop. Gave us directions and we found Pearson there along with his old black F150. Went in and had pleasure of listening to Pearson and Moore talking about building a race chasis for one of David's son. Son was racing a Mercury Capri but can't recall name of series he raced in. Saw him race at Bristol once. Moore was going to give us tour of his shop but got a phone call and had to leave. Good memories traveling around to these shops and meeting builders and drivers. Can imagine encountering layers of security, gates, cameras and guards now if a fan shows up without permission or invite to a drivers home or team shop. Older, hopefully wiser now and respect privacy of others but back then was vastly different times and i was late teens to mid 20s. Most of these drivers now are multimillionaires. Saw article recently reporting that J.Johnson's estimated net worth is $400 million. Long way from race winner pocketing part of the 5-6k purse at Martinsville.

What made Jr. Johnson so great was that he understood the car. Befor nascar he spent time building whiskey cars back in the days befor you could call Edelbrock or AutoZone and order a kit.

Never knew that when i grew up watching in the 70s.

Seems to me side exhaust would blow right into the car next to you. I can imagine how bad it must smell on a big track after 40 cars have been racing for an hour. I have raced on the dirt for years and after 15 cars run a 3/8 track in August for 20 laps it gets pretty hard to breath!

Excellent content…solid script with no waffle or AI stupid computer voice.

Very Interesting Story

My dad was in media and would take us out to Phoenix International Raceway. They raced there then went to Riverside, both rode courses. Tons of horsepower, two second gear turns, tire burning noisy monsters

Enjoyed that!

RIP Lee Roy. Hell of a way to go...rocky mountain spotted fever. ❤

LMAO!!! I love hearing stories about Junior Johnson, his cars and his innovations. A true great in NASCAR as a driver and an owner. RIP Junior Johnson.

Junior Johnson was a very smart man

First On Race Day!

I always wondered why they run side exhaust 👍

Probably worked like a blown diffuser also. I wouldn’t be surprised if it worked a little like someone drafting them. Not to mention showing an obvious thing while distracting from less obvious gray areas

Back when stock cars were stock cars.

The air pressure in the draft of these cars is substantially lower. I'd love to see the BARO under the spoiler. If you have pressure exhaust exiting into a lower pressure zone you create what's called passive augmentation. It lowers the resistance and pressure in the exhaust and allows the engine to produce more hp. It increases cylinder scavenging during cam overlap producing more power. It can't be tested on a dyno without a full wind tunnel - it must be done in live conditions. When you consider the EGT of these engines is around 1200 - 1300*F . The car will overheat if you draft another car for too long with side exhausts. Now get behind a 400 cfm furnace dumping all it's heat into your radiator. You won't last long. It's easy to see that 1300* air which is where they make their best power - it's thick on the rich side and you are expelling unburned gas into the cockpit of the trailing car. This was leaded fuel. Back then about 145 octane. Really rich - full of TEL and carbon monoxide cocktail. Not Bueno. Truly a lethal combo. You wouldn't be able to breathe and your car would overheat in seconds.

That's was when racing was racing not the shit show that it is now

What a shame the Torino Talladega wasn't sold with the Boss 429 and Top Loader. Instead it got the 428CJ and a C6. Yuk

Thinking about the effects of weight, it would seem that if they were that concerned, a lot of those drivers could have offset the pipe weight by simply....going on a diet? I can't see that much exhaust pipe weighing more than maybe 20 lbs. People weren't nearly as heavy then as they are now but looking at the photos, a lot of those guys could have lost 20 lbs if they tried and were really concerned about it. My point though is that I don't think the exhaust weight mattered in any measurable way.

Stock car racing was so much better back in the day. I don't like NASCAR because of thaw they have controlled every aspect of the cars being nothing like a stock car. It has morphed into a realm of ridiculousness. I enjoy seeing cars that you can see on the street being modified to race and then race against other manufacturers products. Racing should help with what we buy, I'd love to see stock cars come back and have companies put features that help them win races into the cars and trucks we drive.

If they knew the dual exhaust took some power away Im sure they were making it up in the heads or intake manifold.

I didn't know that.😮

What a good story.

More more I learn about Junior Johnson's tricks, the better I like him.

Never forget to pray: GOD BLESS A.J.

Is there anything stock about stock cars these days 😊

Back in the day if there was a rule change it had to do with someone other than GM winning. Horsepower and torque on GM engines were overrated while Ford and Mopar engines were underrated.

Great vid. However, "the story" of tail pipes in NASCAR did not begin in 1969. As early as 1957 Lee Petty was running tail pipes that ran through the TRUNK and exited where the taillights would be on the 1957 Olds' that he & son Richard would drive. There's pics online of Richard's convertible Olds with tail pipes. Some T-Birds had them too, exiting ABOVE the rear bumper.

What is the NASCAR saying, “If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”?

Racing used to be aout who could get their car to the finish faster. Safety blew that concept.

When nascar decided to make all the cars pure racing cars with stock car sheet metal they kind of took the fun out of it. Win on Sunday no longer meant sell on Monday like it used to. Let’s go back to racing cars that come from the showrooms! Sure add the safety equipment and big tires but use only equipment available from the manufacturer.

You can't "drafting past" another car. Drafting by definition isnstaying directly behind the car which is in front. You CAN "pass AFTER drafting" behind another race car though. But can't "draft past" them.

If ya ain't cheating your not winning. The guys back then is why they have rule books now. Shit like Water in the roll cage that would flow to the right side and stay there until weigh in and WOW it corner balance within the rules lol.

😂 funny how it didn’t matter about where the exhaust exited until the Fords started winning, then the rules suddenly changed to side exhaust only 😂😂😂 nascar has always been dirty as hell😂😂😂😂😂😂

Shit it wouldn't have mattered anyway because those Ford's with the 429s were unbeatable. Couldn't be beaten. So Chevy got jealous and still today when Ford wins Chevy keeps finding away to P Penalize Ford's. Why do you think Ford barely has car's in Nascar now. It's more of a show down between Toyota and Chevy now.

It's silly but for a short moment, I had thought it was a Generation Two Skyline.

If they wanted them to race safely, just put the drivers in Bumper cars.

Lol, those aren't stock rear pipes. But I like them.

Only of the reasons I don't watch much... they have regularly held back innovation, punished faster cars, slowed cars down, removed advantages, etc...

Never thunk ah Thang so simple could be so important. I learned something and thats a good thang

Now we know the rest of the story.

The fans today thinks we watched the races on tv like them 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Ford made some stallions,,, Both the 427 and 429 big blocks were designed to run full throttle races... Endurance is the key the 427 thunderbolts spanked Ferrari... Running LE Mans !!!! How many hours??? How many down shifts, high and low revs... A beautiful work of art,,, GT40 .. Spanked the Italians 4 years in a row,, A race vehicle has to perform in All categories, acceleration braking cornering arowdinamic drag . etc The Torino beat the arowdinamic drag , allowing the Torino to fly . The 429 was a balanced and geometric beast, to run at ease, The combination was kicking the losers @$$ So some donations from exceptional individual's declared foul!! The rest is history,. Run run as fast as you can;;;; you can't catch me, I'm the ginger bread man.. Love the time..

One could say that drafting is unsafe for the leading car because some of it's created vacuum and downforce is taken by the following car.

I'm not sold on all the hype mentioned in the video. May all be true, but I still have my doubts.

History of NASCAR. Penalize the the better teams so the mediocre ones can keep up.

As long as the Hemi was the engine everything was fine But when Ford broght the 429 Oh no we have to change! Thi😅about it. Every single rule change ever in NASCAR History has been against FORD, or FORD TEAM !

Yeah...right. Ford never offered the 429 Boss in the '69 Torino. Why is it racing? According to Hot Rod Magazine, for the 1970 Torino; Ford confirmed to the writer that no Torino was customer ordered w/ the 429 Boss unlike the Mustang for the public roads. They said if one person ordered the Boss in the Torino...a 'one-off'; today it would've been worth around a million buck$. Ford should've just stuck w/ the 427FE in an updated version. Maybe a crescent shaped combustion chamber instead of the wedge. Course, Ford Jr. was all about appearance instead of substance. It was the people he hired that got him the name recognition, he was no inspiration.

Any time an underdog wins there will be rules changes. NASCAR is great at rigging their rules so THEIR golden boys will win. HMS prime example. Petty before that.

Great vid man. No bullshit, just to the point. Very refreshing.

I watched this race in 69

I heard that NASCAR would not allow the Chevrolet Corvette because it was too fast and no one could compete with it.

When they started rigging racing

I say if you can't run with the BIG DOGS then stay off the track!

NASCAR never ever made rule changes to any other manufacturer, Only Ford !

These were the best days for watching nascar. Today, meh...

I run mine up through the hood and across the top of the roof.