In NASCAR mythology, much of the early racing is tied up with moonshine-running, though this is only a partial story at best, and one that has been heavily romanticized by the media.

By the 1930s, bootleggers had traded in their wagons for automobiles, and were running corn whiskey out of the foothills of Appalachia and into the major cities. Moonshining was a good business, largely because its proprietors avoided the most pressing economic concern of any alcohol producer: taxes. And to avoid paying taxes, moonshiners had to avoid the law. To do so required a bit of stealth.

A traditional moonshine-running car had some basic qualities. From the outside, it was designed to look as common as possible, so as not to attract any unwanted attention. Simply speaking, it had to look “stock.” But under the hood and in the inner-workings of the vehicle, the cars were anything but stock. In addition to a supercharged engine, moonshiners also installed heavy shocks and springs in their cars so that when they were carrying a heavy load of Mason jars full of liquor, the car would not sag, a telltale sign for the police that were heavily patrolling the moonshine countryside in a game of cat and mouse. But when the jig was up and the law had you pegged, the car had to be ready to go, go, go …and the driver had to know how to handle all that horsepower.

It is from this simple theory of the bootlegger’s car that much of stock-car racing takes its roots. For France and the other pioneers of stock-car racing, one of the keys to promoting the sport was the simple idea that the cars that raced on the track looked exactly like the cars everyone used to go to the grocery store. This idea is the basis of stock-car racing's early appeal, a way of drawing in fans and helping them form allegiances to the drivers who piloted the same brand of car that they themselves drove. Of course, under the hood, the racecars shared very little resemblance to those on the showroom floor, but the exterior fostered the illusion of a connection with the common fan.

Furthering this mythology is the fact that many of the early racers – though not nearly as high a percentage as many would have you believe – were themselves former or current moonshine runners.

This perception reached national status when Tom Wolfe, one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, wrote a long feature story on Junior Johnson – a NASCAR star who had been a legendary moonshine runner – for the March 1965 issue of Esquire magazine titled “Junior Johnson Is the Last American Hero. Yes!”

The article, which is considered one of the finest magazine articles ever written, focused on NASCAR’s association with bootlegging, cementing the connection in the minds of many who did not know much about the sport. The article was turned into a 1973 movie, The Last American Hero, starring Jeff Bridges.

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See also:

• America's Fastest-Growing Sport
• NASCAR History
• NASCAR Lore: The Call
• Organization
• Television
• The Birth of NASCAR
• The Daytona 500
• The Growth of the Sport