Image: www.autofoundry.comSo i consider myself a southern girl, but I don't drink sweet tea, so if you would like to base my authority on all things Southern on that fact go right ahead, and you can stop reading right here. However, I would suggest you find those manners your Mamma gave ya, and finish reading and you just might learn something. If you're any bit southern at all you know a little something about Bo, Luke, and Daisy, and if there is anything they knew it was, that there wasn't a problem that couldn't be fixed by running from the law. (OK disclaimer here. Don't be stupid... The stories I could tell you about people doing stupid things and then running ... Just trust me Don't run from the law... but that's a post for another day). Running from the Law is exactly how one of America's most popular sport got it's start.
The earliest roots of American Stock Car Racing can be traced back to the days of Prohibition in the south. Prohibition was the nationwide ban on all things Alcohol. It was illegal to produce, sell, or transport alcohol within the United States. This thirteen year ban from 1920-1933 caused an influx in homemade back woods moonshine. At first it seemed like these laws were effective, the public consumption rates had dropped, and drunken disorderly conduct had lessened. However, making Alcohol at home became a common practice as demand became greater during prohibition. In the south this liquor was known as 'Shine. Because Alcohol could not be produced legally, the illegal production of Moonshine became a lucrative business.
image: www.autofoundry.com/
The sell of Moonshine was not only illegal because of its prohibited production, but even after the end of prohibition moonshine was still considered illegal, as it was avoiding taxation. Shine could be purchased by the jar un-taxed and unregulated. The government sent out revenuers to stop illegal production of un-taxed moonshine. Moonshiners had to find a way to outwit and outrun the revenuers and the local law. Most moonshiners knew how to hide their stills in barns and out of the way locations where they wouldn't be found, however they knew the most likely place of being caught was in the transportation of the 'Shine. They knew that if their cars were faster and would handle better than that of the law man that was chasing them, they could evade his attempts to stop them and they would be able to deliver their product to waiting customers. Moonshiners knew that their cars would have to look normal on the outside to not draw attention to them, but the modifications would have to be done to the engine and suspension to make the car unable to be caught. Men who had once worked on bootleggers cars became mechanics and crew members as the sport of stock car racing evolved, due to their knowledge of how to harness more power and speed through these modifications .
Bootleggers, realizing they could out run the law, began to race against each other for bragging rights. At first this took place on old country roads, until someone came up with the idea to create a track to race on in an old cow pasture. Men like Junior Johnson who were known for bootlegging had a leg up on new drivers when the competition at these races moved to including those who were non-bootleggers. Running from the law gave men like Johnson experience in driving and handling a car that others never had.
Image: http://digitalheritage.org/ When Johnson was once asked about bootlegging he said:
"It gave me so much advantage over other people that had to train and learn how to drive. "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."
NASCAR with its sorted past has remained a truly Southern sport. Although it has expanded nation wide many of the southern ways have remained, much of that due to its early beginnings in the backwoods of Appalachia stretching from Virginia to Georgia, running Shine and avoiding the Law
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