Browse > Home / NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio / Bill Elliott vs Junior Johnson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16

Bill Elliott vs Junior Johnson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16

User Avatar

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

April 17, 2009 2:00 pm EDT 13 Comments

The Bench Racing region gives us a Sweet 16 faceoff between a relic of NASCAR’s moonshiner era against the driver who is maybe most responsible for the introduction of restrictor plates. Round three of the  NASCAR 64 Greatest Drivers Tournament at Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie.

Bill Elliott - Awesome Bill from Dawsonville - 1988 Winston Cup champion. Steve should be writing this, since he worships Elliott, but it would be hard not to be positive about Bill. With 44 career wins, 55 poles and 320 top tens in 796 starts, Elliott is a member of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest driver club. Maybe though, he is most famous for his other nickname - Million Dollar Bill - given for winning the first ever Winston Million.

Junior Johnson won 50 times as a driver and his drivers won 139 races and six Cup series championships for him as an owner. But this tourney isn’t about owners. Johnson won the second ever Daytona 500. He had 46 career poles in 313 starts. Tom Wolfe wrote an article for Esquire magazine in ‘65, calling Johnson “The Last American Hero”. He wasn’t that, but he was one of the greatest.

The original J J beat Marshall Teague last round and ruined Steve’s upset hopes when he thumped Lee Roy Yarbrough in the opening round. Awesome Bill had his hands full with a round of 32 beatdown with Lee Petty and and opener against Speedy Thompson. Two NASCAR originals - and great ones - but only one can move on. Tell us who you like in the comment section.

Filed under: Bill Elliott, Daytona 500, NASCAR, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, Nascar Legends 

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

13 Responses to “Bill Elliott vs Junior Johnson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16”

  1. User Avatar Marc on April 17th, 2009 5:01 pm

    Junior Johnson

  2. User Avatar Matt Mercer on April 17th, 2009 5:28 pm

    Bill Elliott.

  3. User Avatar Steve Wronkowicz on April 17th, 2009 7:25 pm

    Elliott is the fastest man in NASCAR history. Bill wins.

  4. Keith on April 17th, 2009 8:32 pm

    I love Bill Elliott, he’s from Ga. as am I . But I have to go with Junior Johnson Here. Sorry Bill it leaves a sour taste in my mouth to do this,Some of these things are tough.

  5. Mark on April 17th, 2009 11:39 pm

    Bill elliot in another photo finish

  6. Buddy Clay on April 18th, 2009 7:06 am

    Junoir

  7. Spaceman on April 18th, 2009 12:08 pm

    Junior Johnson and it isn’t even close. It has since been revealed that those couple of years of Elliott’s most success were due to a Thunderbird that was narrower than any other car on the track (including the other T-Birds).

  8. User Avatar Charlie Turner on April 20th, 2009 10:16 pm

    I’m not ready to vote yet. But I have to ask Spaceman if he ever heard of the Yellow Banana? That was a little Ford Galaxy that the original Junior entered for Fred Lorenzen in ‘66 at Atlanta - that was the most flagrantly illegal car to ever compete in a NASCAR race (quote from the great “Cheating” by Tom Jensen.

    Cheating was the way of doing business back in the day . Let’s just go with the official results.

  9. User Avatar Steve Wronkowicz on April 21st, 2009 7:49 am

    I was thinking it but not saying it. 7/8th scale cars were the norm in NASCAR for quite some time.

  10. Spaceman on April 21st, 2009 12:06 pm

    Yup Charlie, I’ve heard of the Yellow Banana. The difference is they were told to never bring that car to the track again. But Elliott was never caught by NA$CAR because his car fit the templates…its just that the templates never checked the width.

  11. Stop Jeff Gordon Or Not: Last Day to Vote in the Sweet 16 Greatest NASCAR Drivers | Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie on April 22nd, 2009 7:24 pm

    [...] Bill Elliott vs Junior Johnson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16 [...]

  12. User Avatar Charlie Turner on April 22nd, 2009 10:25 pm

    On last night’s ON PIT ROW, Bootie Barker - in typical crew chief fashion - wanted to know the rules of the game. What kind of track were we running? Short track? Atlanta? He nodded to Bill’s strength on the supers, but gave the nod to Junior Johnson for being tough everywhere.

  13. User Avatar Charlie Turner on April 22nd, 2009 10:26 pm

    I think Johnson should be first ballot Hall-of-Fame myself. I’ll take the Last American Hero.

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.





Powered by WP Hashcash

March Madness

Play the Rattles from the Catch Can contest

Blogroll

Fantasy Sports Partners

Racing Websites

ON PIT ROW at RaceTalkRadio
Backstretch Boys: 30% Off New CD!
Jayski's: See what the buzz is about.

We've got your game.

Advertisement