@NASCAR was founded by DC's Bill France. The activity has its roots in anti-federal sentiment, an outgrowth of cars souped up to elude revenuers during 'shine hauls. One of its first heroes was 'shine runner Junior Johnson: classic.esquire.com/article/1965/3…
The recreational aspect evolved from the fastest 'shine runners racing on dirt tracks & ovals. So the tradition of thumbing its nose @ government is part of NASCAR DNA. What makes tonight's race @ Martinsville doubly significant, is @BubbaWallace races under the same # as...
...The King. And Martinsville is less than 40 miles fr. Danville, the hometown of Wendell Scott.
Richard Petty won 27 NASCAR races. In 1967. He was the first superstar after Junior Johnson- and his seven Daytona wins is still a mark. The fact a man racing under the Richard Petty Racing banner is pushing a car painted w/ BLM, & influenced stock car racing to ban the...
...flag of treason bears special meaning to the drivers, sponsors, racing media, fans, and historians. NASCAR plans a race before 1,000 military & Homestead this Sunday, & in front of 5,000 fans & Talladega June 21
Until the mid-'90's, a vendor posted up by the entrance @ Darlington Motor Speedway selling treason banners. Several years ago @NASCAR offered a buyback, where fans could exchange treason flags for any souvenir bearing the likeness of their favorite driver, or the NASCAR logo
The '66 @esquire profile of Junior Johnson by Tom Wolfe was where the phrase "good ol' boy" first gained national purchase. Wasn't the stock car on "The Dukes Of Hazzard" named "The General Lee"? I never watched the series
@MorganJerkins Thread
@NASCAR fans trolling BLM is ironic- whatever one thinks of the organization(s), movement, or police and vigilante violence against unarmed Black folk. NASCAR was founded to feature drivers whose skills & support came fr. avoiding law enforcement, fooling them or shooting @ them
Add to the irony that many NASCAR rooters would oppose peaceful protest by athletes @ a Southern or pro football game. Or a racetrack. But those flying the Confederate flag are more disrespectful of the U.S. flag than activists
This isn't the first time enormous corporate cash migrated from an embrace of or glorification (romanticism) around certain white country or Southern memes. From 1969-1971 network tv experienced The Rural Purge
" Shays' Rebellion broke out in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts in 1786 in an attempt to shake off the yoke of Boston, which seemed as bad as George III's."
classic.esquire.com/article/1965/3…
classic.esquire.com/article/1965/3…
"Whole sections of the Appalachians were a whiskey belt, just as sections of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi were a cotton belt." classic.esquire.com/article/1965/3…
"It was always the tax, pure and simple. Today the price of liquor is sixty-percent tax. Today, of course, with everybody gone wild over the subject of science and health, it has been much easier for the Federals to persuade people that they crack down on moonshine whiskey..."
"...because it is dangerous, it poisons, kills and blinds people."
"Cars and bravery! The mountain-still operators had been running white liquor with hopped-up automobiles all during the Thirties."
"One car could carry twenty-two to twenty-five cases of white liquor. There were twelve half-gallon fruit jars full per case, so each load would have 132 gallons or more."
"It would sell to the distributor in the city for about ten dollars a gallon, when the market was good, of which the driver would get two dollars, as much as $300 for the night's work. The usual arrangement in the white-liquor industry was for the elders to design the distillery"
"It was Junior Johnson specifically, however, who was famous for the 'bootleg turn' or 'about-face,' in which, if the Alcohol Tax agents had a roadblock up for you or were too close behind, you threw the car into second gear, cocked the wheel, stepped on the accelerator &..."
"made the car’s rear end skid around in a complete 180-degree arc, a complete about-face, and tore on back up the road exactly the way you came from. God! The Alcohol Tax agents used to burn over Junior Johnson." classic.esquire.com/article/1965/3…
@DavidDTSS Thread
