Sprint Cup car owner Tommy Baldwin ‘exploring all my opportunities’ for team’s future

Unsure about his organization’s future, team owner Tommy Baldwin met with his employees Monday “so I can give them the options if they needed to go find a job.’’

Baldwin told NBC Sports in an exclusive interview Tuesday that “I’m exploring all my opportunities right now. I’m trying to figure everything out.’’

He hopes to have his plans solidified by some point in December. Among the options, there is one thing Baldwin said he won’t do.

“I would never shut down,’’ said Baldwin, whose team debuted in the Cup series in 2009. “Don’t use that word. The options are keep going or sell. That’s the only two options we have.’’

Baldwin admits he’s given his employees a similar message “in six out of the eight years” of the team and always made it to the next season.

But Baldwin concedes that it is becoming more difficult for a small team like Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Although Tommy Baldwin Racing has competed in NASCAR’s top series since 2009, car owner Tommy Baldwin told NBC Sports that it is become more challenging to be competitive.

“The technology has just increased,’’ Baldwin said. “Everyone has just become smarter. The race teams, with Michael Waltrip Racing shutting down (after the 2015 season) and some other things, it put a lot good people, dispersed a lot of good people to different teams. Everyone had to spend a lot more money to keep up with the Gibbs and Hendrick programs.

“It’s funny to me how everyone thinks our racing is not good. This is the most competitive that NASCAR has ever been.’’

Baldwin admits it has been a struggle at times for the team and driver Regan Smith.

“I think we’ve been competitive at times,’’ Baldwin said. “I think we’ve been really bad at times. It’s been a competitive roller coaster. This year is probably one of the best race teams that we’ve assembled, it’s been a great group of guys that have worked for TBR. There’s a lot of pluses that we have going on, but again, it’s the almighty dollar that is talking.

“If you don’t have the money to keep up with the Joneses, you’re going to be left behind. If you told me eight years ago when I first started this team I would be pretty much in the same spot as when I started, I would have told you that you were crazy. This sport has taken off so much here as far as how smart we’ve all gotten. It’s not that we don’t know how to do it, it’s just that we don’t have the money to apply the proper resources to do it.’’

Baldwin has one of the 36 charters granted to Sprint Cup teams at the beginning of this season. That adds value to his organization, ensuring that his team — or whoever purchases the charter, if that happens — would be in every Cup points race.

Baldwin’s car is 32nd in the car owner point standings, ahead of five other teams that have charters (another team below Baldwin’s leased its charter for this season).

Smith is 33rd in the driver standings. He finished a season-best third at Pocono in August. His only other top-10 finish this year has been an eighth-place result in the Daytona 500.

Tommy Baldwin Racing debuted in 2009, competing in 25 races. The team had five drivers: Michael McDowell (eight races),Scott Riggs (eight), Patrick Carpentier(four), Mike Skinner (four) and Robert Richardson (one).

The organization continued to use a variety of drivers in 2010 before Dave Blaney ran 34 races in 2011. Blaney was with the team through 2013.

Tommy Baldwin Racing expanded to two full-time cars in 2012. Danica Patrick, in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, ran 10 races where Baldwin was listed as the car owner. Tommy Baldwin Racing ran two cars through 2014 before selling the assets of the second car (the No. 36 team) to Premium Motorsports.

Before becoming a team owner, Baldwin was a crew chief. He won five Cup races as a crew chief, including the 2001 Southern 500 and 2002 Daytona 500 withWard Burton.

Jeffrey Earnhardt to drive for BK Racing at Talladega

Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive the No. 83 car for BK Racing at Talladega Superspeedway, the team announced Monday.

Earnhardt, the grandson of Dale Earnhardt Sr., will have Starter as a sponsor.

He’ll be in one of three BK Racing cars entered this weekend. David Ragan is in the No. 23 car, and Matt DiBenedetto, who regularly drives the No. 83 car, will be in the No. 93 car this weekend.

“I’m really excited to drive the No. 83 Starter Toyota Camry for the fall race at Talladega,” Earnhardt said in a statement from the team. “It’s my first Cup Series race at Talladega, my first race with BK Racing, the first time anyone from our family competes in a Toyota and it’s the 25th anniversary of my grandfather’s victory at Talladega. Having this opportunity with an iconic American partner like Starter is an incredible honor. I can’t remember being so pumped up for a race and sincerely appreciate our friends at Starter for their support.”

Dale Earnhardt Sr. won a record 10 Cup races at Talladega. His first victory there came in 1983. He won five of nine Talladega races from 1990-94.

Doug Richert, who served as Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s crew chief when he won the first of his seven titles in 1980, will be Jeffrey Earnhardt’s crew chief this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to once again returning to the track as crew chief with an Earnhardt behind the wheel,” Richert said in a statement from the team. “The Earnhardt family has played such an important part in my racing career; starting in 1978 with Dale Sr. and then winning a championship with him in 1980, it’s very cool to work with the fourth generation of the family.”

Jeffrey Earnhardt regularly drives the No. 32 for Go Fas Racing but Bobby Labonteis driving that car this weekend, giving Earnhardt the opportunity to drive for BK Racing.

Jeffrey Earnhardt’s appearance at Talladega will continue the family’s streak of starts at the track. An Earnhardt family member has started every Talladega Sprint Cup race there since 1980.

Sprint Cup points after Kansas race

Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who won Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, are the only drivers guaranteed to advance to the Round of 8.

Johnson remains the points leader after the second race of the Round of 12, which concludes next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Joey Logano holds the eighth and final transfer spot. He’s tied with Austin Dillonwith 3,045 points. Logano owns the tiebreaker based on a better finish than Dillon in this round. Logano placed third Sunday.

Outside the transfer spot is Dillon (by tiebreaker), Denny Hamlin (six points out),Brad Keselowski (seven back) and Chase Elliott (25 points back).

Click here for the Sprint Cup points report

Tonight’s Sprint Cup race at Charlotte: Start time, weather, TV/radio info

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tonight’s race has been postponed. The Sprint Cup race will move to noon ET Sunday on NBC. The prerace show will begin at 11 a.m. ET.
The Xfinity race, previously rescheduled for Sunday morning will not be held 45 minutes after the Sprint Cup race. The Xfinity race will be shown on NBCSN.
The round of 12 begins with tonight’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on NBC. All 12 drivers have had their points reset to 3000 for this three-race round.
Here’s all the important info for today’s race.
(All times are Eastern)
START: The command to start engines will be given Bank of America’s special guests, the USO of North Carolina at 6:52 p.m. The green flag is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 334 laps (50 miles) around the 1.5-mile track.
PRERACE SCHEDULE: The Cup garage opens at 11 a.m. The driver/crew chief meeting is at 4:45 p.m. Driver introductions are at 6:15 p.m.
NATIONAL ANTHEM: Danielle Peck will perform the National Anthem at 6:46 p.m., followed by a flyover by a C-130 from the 14th Airlift Wing in Charlotte, North Carolina.
TV/RADIO: NBC will broadcast the race. Coverage begins at 5 p.m. on NBCSN with NASCAR America. Countdown to Green airs at 6 p.m. on NBCSN. Race coverage on NBC begins at 7 p.m. Performance Racing Network’s radio broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. and also can be heard at goprn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have PRN’s broadcast.
FORECAST: The wunderground.com site predicts a temperature of 69 degrees at race time with a 17 percent chance of rain at the start of the race.
LAST TIME: Martin Truex Jr. led 392 of 400 laps to win the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Kevin Harvick placed second. Jimmie Johnson was third. In this race a year ago, Joey Logano won. Harvick was second and Truex third. 
STARTING LINEUP: Click here to see the starting lineup for Charlotte:

Coach of Jimmie Johnson’s pit crew remains confident in unit despite recent penalties

CONCORD, N.C. — As the Chase field narrows, what happens on pit road could play a key role in who advances.

That might not seem to be a good thing for Jimmie Johnson’s team, heading into tonight’s Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the opening event in the Round of 12.

No Chase team had as many pit road penalties in the first round or as many penalties in the last 10 races. Despite those totals, Chris Krieg, pit coach for the No. 48 and 88 teams at Hendrick Motorsports, remains confident in the group.

Johnson has had two pit road penalties in the Chase. He was caught speeding in the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, and his crew was penalized at Dover when the jackman jumped off the wall too soon.

In the last 10 races, Johnson’s team has had 10 pit road penalties. Four have been for speeding, two have been for not controlling the tire in the pit box. The team also has been penalized for the crew over the wall too soon once and for a body modification during a pit stop another time.

The Dover penalty was a result of Johnson having to slow as he headed toward his pit stall when Aric Almirola exited his stall. That threw the timing of the pit stop off and the team’s jackman jumped over the wall too soon.

While that incident can be viewed as a fluke incident for the crew, Krieg looks at it another way.

“It’s awareness before you get to that point,’’ Krieg told NBC Sports. “Before you get to that millisecond where you’re up on the wall and your weight is forward, it’s all those seconds that led up to that. The 10 seconds before that we get up on the wall and we see our surroundings. (Crew chief Chad Knaus) and myself as a coach go, ‘Hey, be aware, we may get checked up here.’ It’s all the seconds before you get to that point where we keep learning and getting better.’’

Krieg, who is in his fourth year as a coach, isn’t worried about the crew bouncing back from a penalty or mistake. That’s why Hendrick Motorsports seeks former college athletes and those who have competed professionally in another sport.

“They’ve had negative plays or things happen their whole athletic career,’’ Krieg said. “They’re used to bouncing back. It’s what they’ve done their whole life from an athletic standpoint. If you were to take a regular person and have that happen to them, they may be in a dark room all week.’’

As he examines the performance of Johnson’s pit crew this season, Krieg sees improvement.

“Last year the 48 (pit crew) was quite possibly the best pit crew on pit road,’’ Krieg said. “This year may have started out slower on the stop watch then we would have liked. So we dug in, the guys did a great, great job. They worked harder than any other group than I’ve seen in a very long time.

“Our times on the stopwatch have went down considerably in the last two months.’’

Tony Stewart sees title hopes end but applauds team for effort

DOVER, Del. — His championship hopes over, Tony Stewart walked away into the crowd.

And disappeared.

Gone also were his title hopes. Although a 13th-place finish was his best result in the last seven races, it wasn’t good enough to keep his title hopes alive. Stewart was one of four drivers eliminated from Chase contention Sunday at Dover International Speedway. Also failing to advance were Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray and Chris Buescher. 

Still, when Stewart is enshrined into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Hall of Fame it will be as a three-time champion.

But hope remained when the day began of a fourth title.

“We will give 110 percent this whole day and take whatever it gives us,’’ Stewart told his team on the radio before the start of the Citizen Soldier 400. “I’ll tell you one thing, this one race, whatever happens, is not going to define the season this team has. Win, lose or draw, we keep our heads up.’’

That wasn’t enough. He was a driver in a car that lacked the speed and handling to run with the leaders. Cautions helped him stay on the lead lap past halfway but couldn’t stop the inevitable. He eventually was put a lap down on Lap 267 of the 400-lap race.

“I’m pretty excited about our day,’’ Stewart said as he walked away from his car. “We were much better than we were yesterday. Really proud of our team. We kept making it better all day. That is good as we had.”

That’s all he had to say.

Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. pace Saturday morning Sprint Cup practice

Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. each led the way in Saturday morning’s first practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after they both posted a fast lap of 132.186 mph.

They were followed by Matt Kenseth (132.085 mph), Denny Hamlin (132.030) and rookieChase Elliott (131.980).

Truex posted the best average speed over 10 consecutive laps at 131.139 mph. He was followed by Kenseth (131.033 mph) and Kyle Busch (130.757). Twenty-two of the 40 cars ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the session.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun in the opening moments of practice on cold tires .

Final Sprint Cup practice begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on CNBC.

Pondering the Chase: Five questions about the playoffs

Trust us, NBC Sports’ Nate Ryan and Dustin Long get along even though they don’t always see eye-to-eye about the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup.

With the playoffs set to begin Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway on NBCSN, Ryan and Long tackle some of the key issues and project what they think will happen.

Here’s how they see the Chase unfolding:

Which driver are you going to watch closely in this Chase?

NATE: Jimmie Johnson. Last season, the six-time series champion entered as the top seed. This year, some are picking him to exit in the first round for the second consecutive season. Johnson hasn’t seemed comfortable in the first two years of the revamped elimination playoffs, but reaching the championship round for the first time would signify more than just a sense of acclimation. It also might quell the speculation of whether he and crew chief Chad Knaus still can build a championship-caliber team as effortlessly as it annually seemed for the No. 48 from 2006-13.

DUSTIN: Kurt Busch. He started the season strong, scoring 14 top-10 finishes in the first 16 races. In the last 10 races, though, he’s had only three top-10 finishes. So which Busch will we see in the Chase? Will it be the one who was consistent and strong early in the season, or will it be the one that has struggled lately?

First driver confrontation among Chase competitors will be between …

NATE: Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth. If Kenseth is several laps down, the odds are nil that he will wreck another Team Penske driver from the lead. But battles for position are fair game, and Kenseth has the bitter memory of the bump by Joey Logano at Kansas Speedway last year. Keselowski antagonized Kenseth at Richmond, the latest skirmish in a long-running feud that seems primed to flare again at Chicagoland, New Hampshire or Dover – all tracks where both drivers have wins.

DUSTIN: Nobody had Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson last year at Chicagoland Speedway. Who would have guessed in 2014 that Matt Kenseth would have gone after Brad Keselowski at Charlotte? The point is friction develops between drivers running near the front or battling for the lead.

Harvick and Carl Edwards rank third and fourth respectively in laps led. They have a history (recall that shoving incident in 2008 at Charlotte). They’ve both gone to at least the third round in each of the past two Chases. Harvick made it to the championship round each time; Edwards did not. I’d watch these two because they’ll likely be around each other throughout the Chase.

Can Kevin Harvick win with his pit crew?

NATE: Yes. The Richmond race was a small sample size, yet there was marked improvement. This team has been off its game at some inopportune times this season, but Harvick has been the best driver on the circuit in more than two seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing. If crew chief Rodney Childers continues to prepare top-notch cars, Harvick can overcome any pit crew woes through sheer force of will at least once per round.

DUSTIN: Yes. Jimmie Johnson won the 2010 title after crew chief Chad Knaus changed the entire pit crew in the middle of a race. The pressure will be on Harvick’s crew, just as it has in the past. The challenge is keeping up with the Joe Gibbs Racing crews, who have been fast all season and not had many mistakes. This pit crew needs to focus on consistency. If it can do that, Harvick should have a fast enough car to stay near the front and that’s what one needs to advance in this format.

Who wins the championship?

NATE: Denny Hamlin. No other driver is more acutely aware of the many ways in which a championship can be lost. Hamlin, who has raced for a title in Miami three times since his rookie season a decade ago, is over the sting of 2010’s collapse. The lessons still remain fresh, though, and it’s been evident in his calm this season. He has been locked into the playoffs since his Daytona 500 victory, but there were many chances to panic when the No. 11 team got off to a slow start under new crew chief Mike Wheeler. Hamlin stayed steady as Wheeler found his footing, and that composure is indicative of why a battle-tested veteran finally will become a champion in his 11th season.

DUSTIN: Kevin Harvick. Even with questions about his pit crew, this team has consistently been the only one to challenge the Toyotas all season. Harvick also has been through the battles of the Chase — from needing to win at Dover to advance last year to fighting through to win the 2014 crown. Experience can’t keep a car part from breaking but it can help a driver in tough situations. Experience will lead Harvick to the final round for the third consecutive year.

Who is your dark horse to win the title?

NATE: Kyle Larson. After getting over the hump with the victory at Michigan, he motored through Darlington (third) and Richmond (second) with renewed vigor and a swagger that was striking for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver. Larson relishes his team being the underdog, but it won’t be if he reaches the title round. Homestead-Miami Speedway is his favorite track for good reason, and a championship would be a real possibility if he can scrape through the first three rounds.

DUSTIN: Tony Stewart. Look, no one figured Stewart had a chance to win the 2011 title and he did. Certainly, this is a different time and the five years since have aged Stewart, but he’s wise enough and shrewd enough not to give a darn about any of that. In his final 10 races, he’ll just go race. This team will have to pick up its performance, but what a ride it could be for Stewart.

Friday schedule for NASCAR at Kentucky Speedway

Sprint Cup teams have two practices today, and the Xfinity Series will qualify and race at Kentucky Speedway.

Here is today’s schedule:

(All times are Eastern)

9 a.m. – 10 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

11 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. – Sprint Cup practice (Online at 11 a.m. at  www.nbcsports.com/live and on the NBC Sports app with NBCSN broadcasting the session at 11:45 a.m. after the Tour de France)

1:30 – 2:50 p.m. – Final Sprint Cup practice (NBCSN)

4:45 p.m. – Xfinity qualifying; three rounds/multi-car (NBCSN)

6:15 p.m. – Xfinity driver-crew chief meeting

6:45 p.m. – Sprint Cup qualifying; three rounds/multi-car (Online at  www.nbcsports.com/live and on the NBC Sports app, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

8 p.m. – Xfinity driver introductions

8:30 p.m. – Alsco 300; 200 laps, 300 miles (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

You can watch Sprint Cup and Xfinity online or on the NBC Sports app via at the NASCAR stream on NBC Sports.

If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.

Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.

Earnhardt mingles with Manning, Tirico and Hanna

CONCORD, N.C. -- This week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been busy.

First came a chance to take part in a Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the driver said the No. 88 team got "good information."

He then helped introduce the Dale Jr. No. 88 Special Edition Chevy Silverado.

Next up before heading to Pocono Raceway for this weekend's festivities was a chance to travel to Ohio for a special Nationwide event.

Earnhardt got a chance to mingle with fellow Nationwide team member Peyton Manning, play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and wildlife advocate Jack Hanna at the event.

The event helped lead up to the PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament, which is presented by Nationwide.

After 13 races, Elliott weighs in on rookie season

LONG POND, Pa. -- This weekend, Chase Elliott will tackle the "Tricky Triangle" for the first time in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car.

Elliott has had a strong start to his rookie season, already logging four top-five finishes and nine top-10s within the first 13 races of the year. Among active drivers, his nine top-10 finishes are tied with teammate Jimmie Johnson for the most top-10 finishes through the first 13 races of a rookie season.

Currently eighth in the season point standings, Elliott feels as though he is in a "decent" spot, with some weekends having been better than others.

"The way I see it is yes, you can ‘points’ your way in," Elliott said of making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. "But to have a shot you’ve got to be a consistent contender to win races. And I think we have a little bit of work to do to be among those consistent contenders that have the ability each week and those are the guys you’re going to have to beat when it comes this fall."

Elliott has run consistent top-10s in the last four events, including at Talladega, where he claimed his second pole position of the year. His career-best finish was third place at Dover International Speedway.

The 20-year-old rookie said he knows he as the team behind him to remain a solid, competitive force throughout the season. Perhaps even a force competitive enough to land that first victory.

"I feel like I have a team and a group of guys that are capable of winning if I do my part for them," Elliott said. "I truly believe that. I think that’s something that’s important for all of us to believe. And if we didn’t believe that, we might as well stay home. That’s the mindset we have coming into each race weekend, regardless of where it is."

This weekend at Pocono, Elliott will look to land his No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS in Victory Lane.

"We’re going to give it our best effort to do that and if we do, great," he said. "If we don’t, it sure won’t be for a lack of effort.”

Sprint Cup entry list for Pocono

Forty cars are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

Since the entry list was released, Go Fas Racing has announced that Jeb Burton will drive the No. 32 car this weekend. Also, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing has stated that Ty Dillon will drive the No. 95 car this weekend even though Michael McDowell is listed on the preliminary entry list.

NASCAR'S EARLIEST DAYS FOREVER CONNECTED TO BOOTLEGGING

NASCAR'S EARLIEST DAYS FOREVER CONNECTED TO BOOTLEGGING

The stories would be very nearly clichéd, if they weren't at the same time oh-so true.

If you're even remotely familiar with NASCAR lore, you know the tales. A bunch of dirt poor good ol' boys who lived anywhere from Virginia on down to Georgia had no other choice to survive than the illegal whiskey business. They souped up their cars to haul their bounty, and then ran from the law like their behinds were on fire.

"It gave me so much advantage over other people that had to train and learn how to drive."

JUNIOR JOHNSON

And because, well, heck, boys will be boys, they wound up racing each other on the local highways and byways. Then, somebody got the bright idea to cut a crude track out of some cow pasture somewhere, and the rest, as they say, is history. Junior Johnson was the most famous bootlegger to make a name for himself in NASCAR, of course, but he darn sure wasn't the only one.

No, back in those days, back before there even was a NASCAR, it would have been easier to name the racing folks who weren't involved in moonshining in some shape, form or fashion than those who were. Drivers, mechanics, track owners ... you name it, and they were into it.

Johnson was a member of the first class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and when it came time to set up a still for display, Junior showed up ready to work. He had, after all, quite a bit of experience in that particular area.

"It gave me so much advantage over other people that had to train and learn how to drive," Johnson once said of hauling liquor. "When I sat down in that seat the first race I ever ran, it was a backseat to what I'd already been through. I had did all them spinning deals sideways and stuff like that. It just made my job so much easier than anybody I had seen come along and go into it. Never, ever, did I see a guy who could take a car any deeper than I could and save it, as long as I raced."

Really, there's no way around it. NASCAR's roots are soaked to the very tips in moonshine, and in the last few years, the connection has been examined in at least two excellent books --Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR (Broadway 2007) by Neal Thompson, and Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France (The University of North Carolina Press 2010) by Daniel S. Pierce.

An associate professor and chair of the history department at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Pierce was at best disinterested in the sport before his 1994 baptism at Bristol. It was then and only then that the academic started investigating the phenomenon that is NASCAR. He, too, discovered the myths and mysteries of the sport's moonshine-fueled birth and found them fascinating.

"I started doing research on NASCAR, and obviously one of the important questions I wanted to look at was the whole role of moonshine," Pierce said. "I pretty much assumed that what I was going to find was that it was something that had been mythologized and overblown, that there was Junior Johnson and a few other people that were involved in the early days.

"That was my expectation, but the deeper I looked into the whole thing and the more research I did, the more liquor I found. It was just so foundational. I knew it played a role, but the thing that surprised me was that it was so much a part of the foundation of the sport."

Pierce's list of pre and early NASCAR participants who'd been involved in bootlegging to at least some extent grew almost daily.

Pierce's list of pre and early NASCAR participants who'd been involved in bootlegging to at least some extent grew almost daily.

"The thing that started to hit me was that all the great drivers from the early days -- all of them -- were," Pierce said. "People look at Junior Johnson, and he's really kind of the end of the line. Going beyond that, I was looking at people who were early mechanics. Those guys weren't necessarily involved in bootlegging, but a lot of them made their living working on bootleggers' cars.

"Early car owners, Raymond Parks being the most famous of them, they were bootleggers. The thing that really surprised me was one of those things that was hiding in plain sight, that nobody talked about, was how many of the early promoters and track owners were people involved in bootlegging."

It's almost quaint these days to be associated with the sport's infamous past. There's even a reunion featuring retired moonshiners and the former federal agents who once chased them that's hosted every year by Terri Parsons, widow of the late, great Benny, at their winery in Wilkes County, N.C.

Parsons was never involved in the moonshine trade, but the same most definitely cannot be said of Wilkes County, Johnson's old stomping grounds.

Such backwoods shenanigans have become an accepted part of NASCAR's history, but that wasn't always the case. Far from it, actually. Less than a month after V-J Day ended World War II once and for all, organizers put together a big extravaganza race at the old Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta.

No less than five drivers entered who had liquor-law violations on their records, causing some locals to pounce on the "hoodlums" and insist that the event be canceled. The Atlanta Constitution ran editorials denouncing it, and Atlanta's mayor showed up on race day with law enforcement officials at his side.

The promoter relented, and initially banned three of the five -- two didn't bother showing up -- from racing that day. But when crowd of 30,000 was left in a near riot over the possibility of not getting to see the popular Roy Hall race, the promoter again reversed course and allowed everybody to take the green flag. Of course, Hall won the race and flamed the flames of controversy even more. Eventually, the ban did go into effect .

The fiasco, according to Pierce, helped open the door for a new up-and-coming promoter.

The new guy's name?

Bill France.

Big Bill.

Bill Sr.

And, eventually, NASCAR founder.

"This is actually how Bill France really got going as a promoter," Pierce concluded. "He'd been promoting in Daytona Beach, but there was really a void there because the best drivers in stock-car racing at the time couldn't race at Lakewood Speedway. Bill France knew all these guys. They trusted him. He was good friends with them, and so he was able to get these guys to come and then he started promoting races in the Carolinas and Virginia.

"That really gave Bill France a big boost, because he could deliver these bootlegger drivers. I think it's one of the most important stories in the history of NASCAR, because really, that makes possible what Bill France did. It created an opening for him.".