by Joe Garner
Mark Martin, driver of the #6 Roush Racing Ford Taurus, speaks with car owner Jack Roush during qualifing for the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
Jack Roush: NASCAR Team Titan
Owner Jack Roush has been called many things during his eighteen-year tenure in NASCAR—the Mad Scientist, the Cat in the Hat, Mr. Conspiracy, and a few epithets that would singe the ears of a sailor—but until 2003, “champion” wasn't one of them.
The former Ford employee and motor sports junkie had arrived in NASCAR cocksure, a proven winner, having picked off dragster and road-racing titles like fish in a barrel over the previous two decades. But adding a Cup crown to his overflowing trophy case would prove more difficult than just raising the rifle and taking aim.
Owner Jack Roush has been called many things during his 18-year tenure in NASCAR—the Mad Scientist, the Cat in the Hat, Mr. Conspiracy, and a few epithets that would singe the ears of a sailor—but until 2003, “champion” wasn't one of them.
After debuting with driver Mark Martin in 1988, Roush endured fifteen long winters of discontent, made worse by what he alleged was the dirty dealing of the NASCAR brass. “I honestly never thought NASCAR was going to allow me to win, no matter what I did,” he once complained.
What he did was build one of the most formidable race teams in the sport, totaling five cars—the most in NASCAR—by 1998. He carved some nifty numbers along the way, including 66 wins and 368 top fives heading into the final stretch of 2003. But the stats didn't tell the whole story.
There were the four second-place points finishes and six third-place season bests, including Martin's slim 26-point loss to Dale Earnhardt in 1990 after being penalized 46 points for a rules infraction, and a similar loss to Tony Stewart (by 38 points) in 2002 after NASCAR again stripped points from Martin, just before the season finale.
For some, Roush's grousing about dirty tricks was nothing more than sour grapes from a man who'd poured too much time and too many millions into his operation to come away empty-handed. Others thought perhaps NASCAR was playing favorites, artificially leveling the field. After all, Roush never really fit the mold. With his floppy straw hat and wire-rimmed glasses, he looked more the type to be pruning daffodils and listening to public radio on Sundays than managing the rumblings of five 800-horsepower, 3,500-pound mechanical monsters.
But by November 9, 2003, none of that mattered, as Matt Kenseth's fourth-place finish at Rockingham locked up the first NASCAR Cup title for Roush Racing.
“I'm kind of in shock over the whole deal,” he told reporters. “You have to understand, I have been so close before, close enough to touch it, and ended up so disappointed.”
What he couldn't touch before he now sank his talons into. In 2004, three of his five drivers qualified for the Nextel Cup Chase; Kurt Busch brought home the crown. By the end of 2005, all five of Roush's cars were in the Chase.
“I don't think there was ever a question of whether it would happen for him,” said Martin, still with the team in 2005. “It was just a matter of when.”
Junior Johnson: Notorious Bootlegger to NASCAR Icon
From the time he could peer over the dashboard, Robert “Junior” Johnson was hell on wheels, hauling his family's black-market whiskey at warp speed through North Carolina's backwoods and hollows. This good ol' boy knew cars. Knew how to soup them up, knew how to fix them, knew how to make them do things nobody had ever seen before. After all, his freedom was at stake.
“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any racers ever will,” Johnson once said. “Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail.”
While that classic bootlegger's knowledge of things mechanical would eventually make Johnson one of NASCAR's most successful and respected team owners, it was the fear of being nabbed that molded him into one of the hardest, fastest, scariest road warriors in the history of racing.
Junior Johnson peers from his car after winning the pole position for the Dixie 400 stock car race at the Atlanta International Raceway, June 3, 1964.
But Johnson's greatest legacy isn't to be found in his enviable stats, his racing talent, his business acumen, his team generalship, or even his legendary mechanical innovations. Rather, it lies in the savvy racing wisdom he has passed along to the army of drivers, builders, mechanics, crew chiefs, and others who have passed through his garage over the years—and all of NASCAR has been richer for it.
Between 1953 and 1965, minus a year in the federal penitentiary for tending the family's white lightning still, Junior Johnson was pure thunder on the track, racking up 50 wins (tenth all time) and 121 top five finishes in 313 races. He never stroked, never laid back, never paced like the others. It was full-throttle at all times, come hell or high water, wreck or win. “If that car didn't break or crash,” remembered driver Tim Flock, “you could not catch him.”
And then, after posting a career-high thirteen victories in 1965, the thirty-four-year-old Johnson abruptly called it quits and jumped into a new suit. “I think I enjoyed working on the cars more than I did driving them,” he recalled. “I decided to turn the driving over to someone else.”
Over the next thirty years as an owner, Johnson would assemble some of the finest teams in racing, fielding a veritable who's who of top drivers, and would land some of NASCAR's richest sponsorship deals. Twenty-five times his racers finished tenth or better in points, and from 1976 to 1985 his drivers Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip dominated the series, winning six Cup championships (a feat Johnson never once accomplished as a driver), delivering 79 of his 139 total victories, and earning nearly $7.5 million of his teams' $23.6 million overall take.
But Johnson's greatest legacy isn't to be found in his enviable stats, his racing talent, his business acumen, his team generalship, or even his legendary mechanical innovations. Rather, it lies in the savvy racing wisdom he has passed along to the army of drivers, builders, mechanics, crew chiefs, and others who have passed through his garage over the years—and all of NASCAR has been richer for it.
“That's what we called the University of Ronda [Johnson's hometown],” Darrell Waltrip said of Johnson's tutelage. “When you left there you had one of the best educations in racing that you could ever hope to get.”
Johnson retired from racing in 1995. In 1998, he was honored as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers.
SPEED, GUTS, & GLORY
Featuring actual racing footage, this special DVD documentary presents 10 of the most unforgettable moments in NASCAR history.
1. Busch and Craven's 2003 Darlington Duel—Craven beats Busch by .002 seconds in the closest recorded finish in history.
2. Derrike Cope's 1990 Daytona Surprise—The unknown Cope shocks the world and wins on NASCAR's grandest stage.
3. Long Live “The King”—Ronald Reagan looks on as Richard Petty is crowned with his 200th career victory.
4. 2005 Talladega—The biggest pile-up ever breaks all the records but no bones, as the drivers walk away unscathed.
5. Jeff Gordon's Season to Remember—Gordon dominates the sport as never before by winning 13 races in one season.
6. Tony Stewart, 1998—Stewart takes NASCAR by storm and wins Rookie of the Year honors by a mile.
7. Petty and Pearson—In the 1976 Daytona 500 the two legends collide and knock each other out of the lead on the final lap in one of the wildest finishes ever.
8. Daytona 500, 1998—Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR's most celebrated driver, finally wins the sport's greatest race in his 20th attempt.
9. Wendell Scott—The first African-American driver wins at NASCAR's top level.
10. The Rise of the France Family—NASCAR's first family becomes the driving force behind the sport's success.
Jeff Gordon is a four-time NASCAR Cup champion and driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.
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Speed, Guts, & Glory
© 2006 Garner Creative Concepts, Inc. All rights reserved. Footage © 2006 NASCAR Digital Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication, reproduction, public performance, and broadcasting are a violation of applicable laws and are strictly prohibited. Any broadcast or transmission of any kind, in whole or in part, of the audio or video material on this DVD is strictly prohibited without prior written permission of the publisher and the individual copyright holders. This DVD is for private home viewing only.
Gamer Creative Concepts
Joe Garner is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including We Interrupt This Broadcast, And the Crowd Goes Wild, and And the Fans Roared. He is a frequent guest on NBC's Today Show and Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends.
Pat Staub
Jeff Gordon is a four-time NASCAR Cup champion and driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.