The Scene Vault Podcast -- Junior Johnson on NASCAR-Winston Deal, Firing DW and Hiring Earnhardt

Junior Johnson was a kingmaker. He brokered the deal that brought Winston on board as the title sponsor of NASCAR's premier series, as well as the one that teamed young phenom Dale Earnhardt with struggling independent driver and team owner Richard Childress.
And Junior had a hand in the Earnhardt-Childress pairing not just once, but TWICE ... but not before very nearly firing Darrell Waltrip and hiring the eventual seven-time Winston Cup champion for his OWN team.
NOTE: This show is not associated in any way with American City Business Journals, owner of the Scene brand.
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[@gregorygolden1296]

One of the absolutely smartest country boy who ever lived. GOD BLESS JUNIOR.

[@reidhagler3651]

Junior Johnson is a hell of a nascar legend 👏

[@craigsmith9643]

My God,, junior Johnson is kinda the reason nascar made it back then, he literally helped put everyone in them cars.. he's not just a nascar legend... he's THE nascar legend, everyone else is second fiddle

[@earnhardt3613]

He was truly the GREATEST thing that ever happened to NASCAR..................Rest in peace ole friend you showed them the $$$$$$$$$$$$$

[@philimac1278]

TY for bringing these Golden Nuggets of NASCAR History.

[@mikemccune7647]

Winston best motorsports sponsor ever

[@appleinfl]

Thank you for keeping these stories alive forever. Nascar history is in good hands with the likes of you, Nascar man, Brock Beard, Slapsh0es, Stapleton42, and everyone asking these legends to keep telling stories.

[@plasticrap4577]

I was at Bristol TN for a legends race where Junior Johnson raced for the last time! He was always one of my favorites! A True NASCAR icon! Love you Junior!❤❤

[@TC-dw6wg]

Great interview! I could’ve listened to Junior’s story’s all day long.

[@reginaldhall6871]

Watching some old Dega video & seeing Junior as the Jackman & swinging it around knocking a Nascar Official off his feet is priceless

[@jordanbyates]

This explains a lot after hearing the Ricky Rudd interview on Dale Jr’s podcast.

[@steviedepaoli2717]

Great interview, best questions were asked.

[@TheNASCARJeff]

One thing Junior tried was to have two teams for Bill Elliott, a short track team led by Tim Brewer and a speedway team led by Mike Beam. ... to bad it didn't work

[@clarenceghammjr1326]

One of my favorite characters

[@ixlr8677]

look at the spoiler angle on that 15 ford at 7 40.

[@maxpuppy96]

Dale Earnhardt was the second best driver next to David Pearson in my opinion.

[@joshpitts7256]

Flip spots

[@pumpkinking5174]

The last American hero.

[@RAEckart22]

$570 million that Winston had for advertising in 1972 always blows my mind

[@edmondcamp2878]

Junior Johnson is one of my heroes but Earnhardt didn’t drive for Bud Moore in 83 and 84 it was 82 and 83.

[@gregorygolden1296]

If Junior was running NASCAR today, there wouldn't be any of the nonsense we see today. Sometimes I think NASCAR can't see the forest for the trees.

[@charlesrichardson4032]

As a kid growing up I used to hate watching at 11 win at Nashville and Bristol all the time but you got to give him this junior probably did more for NASCAR than anyone by hooking them up with RJR there's never been better marketing people in the world then tobacco marketing executives they understand how to sell their product and how to reach customers the one thing about modern NASCAR is there listening to TV companies and TV companies are complete idiots they have no idea what they're doing they don't know how to market they live in a bubble no one in Daytona Beach has the intellect or the knowledge to defend themselves against the TV money they take that money every year gladly is basically killed their sport these playoffs the time out breaks and all this crap that they do I mean the simplest thing is a start time for 40 years so that was growing at noon on Sunday the race is getting ready to start that's the one thing F1 has and they've always kept is a start time man you can turn it up One race on and you know they moved the minute they moved it by 5 minutes but it 205 pm local time the lights go out NASCAR when we could be at 1:00 or 5:00 or 4:00 drives me nuts and they start these races late in the day and then they wonder why they get rained out everybody who's ever lived anywhere in the summertime and United States knows the ones that gets hot the daytime heat creates thunderstorms we're run by a bunch of clowns I wish NASCAR could sell its company they've been trying to but they need somebody to come in with some common sense and fix this sport now they got a car that's unsafe to drive and they've even admitted to it what the hell they've been building cars a certain way for basically five decades and they decide to go change it up it doesn't fix any other problems it just cost more they still they never lower the corner speed I could go on and on and on and on and on thank you Grand national scene you are always there when I was a kid loved going to the mailbox to get my weekly paper and the only thing I really hated was we had a national holiday I had to wait to the paper to show up on Monday because those government employees needed the day off

[@captiannemo1587]

Consider that Winston said they had 500m for marketing back in 1970/71... its an eye watering amount of money.

[@StevenCityChevy-Fusion]

Definitely crazy. The only thing we don't know is for how many years that marketing budget was. MIGHT have been one year, but you have to wonder.

[@captiannemo1587]

@@StevenCityChevy-Fusion likely almost every year for many many years....

[@mikeyoungblood1642]

Literally 80% of American Adults smoked cigarettes in 1970

[@clintwill8715]

'82 and '83 Dale sr raced for Bud Moore

[@BogattheMoon]

Glad Lee Roy Yarbrough punched horse faced Big Bill France.

[@danielmoose1273]

Yeah, that was solid gold ... too bad there's no video ...

[@BogattheMoon]

@@danielmoose1273 lol no doubt. No way they're letting him into their dumpy Hall of Fame.