This morning, I was not only getting my usual NASCAR fix on T.V., but undergoing my “Day of the Daytona 500″ ritual of watching nothing but NASCAR shows. One of the shows I have watched, so far today, was “NASCAR Live” on the Speed channel. The show featured a segment where NASCAR legend, Darrell Waltrip interviewed one of his former car owners and legend, Junior Johnson.

Junior Johnson was a grass-roots NASCAR driver, and later an owner. He was a moonshiner who never got caught and able to out run the police in every chase. They only thing they were ever able to convict him on was tax related for which he served only 11 months of a 2 year sentence. He drove in NASCAR races, and won many of them, while still running moonshine. He is arguable the best NASCAR driver to never win a championship.

He eventually retired from driving and became a car owner and managed six cup championships. 2 of Darrell Waltrip’s 3 cup championships came while driving for Junior Johnson. Junior’s organization ran with Chevrolet, to start out with, but later switch to Ford. Darrell Waltrip eventually left Junior Johnson to drive for Rick Hendrick, where he was able to win the 1989 Daytona 500 and also a 3rd championship.

Now that you have a brief historical back-drop, I’ll bring you to the point of this story. Darrell Waltrip had always wanted to know why Junior Johnson switched from Chevrolet to Ford. On the show this morning, NASCAR Live, Darrell was talking about what would make Joe Gibbs Racing switch from Chevrolet to Toyota. He was talking about how Joe Gibbs appreciated the relationship he had with Chevrolet and the championship they were able to win with them, but felt that Toyota would be able to help them leap forward with that competitive edge and catch up to Hendrick Motorsports. Darrell asked his guest, Junior Johnson, why he had switched from Chevrolets to Ford, expecting confirmation of his belief that it was for the same reason Joe Gibbs made the switch, but what Darrell got was a bombshell.

Junior Johnson said that wasn’t the reason at all. He said he had a contract with Chevrolet which stated that when he sent them parts to examine, he would send it to them using UPS next day, and they would send it back using UPS next day. At one point, he had shipped a carburetor Chevrolet and when 4 days had passed and the carburetor hadn’t returned to him, he called them up asking where it was. They told him they weren’t sure what the problem was and would get back to him as soon as they figured it out. Junior told him that he is going to find out where his carburetor is and hung up. That carburetor came back to him, not from Chevrolet, but from Hendrick Motorsports, a rival team. It was at that point, Junior said, that he began the switch to Ford reasoning that he couldn’t work with a company he felt he couldn’t trust.

Darrell Waltrip was dumb-founded, as was I, at hearing this. While I wasn’t surprised to hear about the ethics of Hendrick Motorsports, it was still a bit shocking to me. With the stories I’ve heard throughout the years from those who work for Rick Hendrick and those who compete against him, a picture seems to have been painted for me. That picture is of an organization that is heaven if you are under their employ, but devilish to work against.