It was December 26: NASCAR legend pardoned by US President

The formation of the NASCAR, which occurred in 1949, is often linked to prohibition in the United States. However, this period, which saw the outright ban of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States, ended much earlier, in 1933. While some states maintained this ban for longer, such as North Carolina, the birthplace of NASCAR, at the end of the Second World War, alcohol had regained its place in the cultural landscape of the USA. However, in order to maintain the government's desire to reduce the consumption of these alcoholic beverages, a tax system was put in place, mechanically causing a rise in prices.

This is when a clandestine network of a totally artisanal and potentially dangerous alcohol, moonshine, was set up. At the time, anyone could improvise as a moonshine distiller. Needless to say, health and control standards were non-existent... Some alcohols, adulterated or simply poorly dosed, could cause total blindness, or even death. But the business was lucrative, and this led many families to start making contraband alcohol.

In order to escape the local police, what did the bootleggers do? They modified their cars, with more powerful engines, with the aim of simply beating the police at top speed and making their escape. When they weren't transporting alcohol, the local youth would meet up for impromptu races, which would later give rise to the creation of NASCAR, the National Association for Stock-Car Auto Racing.

Among the first top drivers in the championship was a certain Junior Johnson. A five-time winner in 1955, Johnson was positioned as one of the favorites to take the 1956 crown. However, in the Johnson family, unlike some others, motor racing did not mean the end of the bootlegging business. So in 1956, the FBI set out to arrest the patriarch of the family, or anyone who assisted him in his desire to sell alcohol and not pay the required taxes. One evening in 1956, the federal agents were waiting, and when Junior Johnson lit his father's still, all the evidence was gathered. He tried to escape, but this time it was in barbed wire that Junior ended his race...

The result was a prison sentence for bootlegging, and a total of eleven months behind bars. Johnson was able to return to racing in 1958, racking up 45 victories by the end of his career eight years later. It was as a team manager that he would build his legend, with his drivers Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip winning a total of five titles at the highest level.

The 1956 conviction, however, continued to deprive Johnson of some of his basic civil rights. So in 1981, he wrote to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, asking for a presidential pardon. It would be five years before the driver received "the greatest Christmas present of his life," when he was pardoned by Reagan. While this did not result in a clean record in the U.S., the convicted man was once again a citizen like any other in terms of rights. Junior Johnson did not completely abandon his ties to the alcohol world, however, as in 2007, he leased the family recipe to a local distillery that produced "Midnight Moon Moonshine." And as a marketing ploy? The mug shot of the NASCAR legend on every bottle...

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