“Well between Scotch and nothin’, I suppose I’d take Scotch. It’s the nearest thing to good moonshine I

can find.”- William Faulkner

Thesis

• Hauling moonshine whiskey on Thunder Road was an excellent way for poor southerners to make unfathomable amounts of money and it also sparked southern ingenuity in vehicles that formed one of America’s top sports, NASCAR.

Why did Moonshine originate?

• 1556 British Govt.

• Staten Island 1640

• Alexander Hamilton 1791

• Prohibition

Thunder Road

Trip down Thunder Road

• Starting in Harlan KY.

• Shooting the Gap at Cumberland

• Screaming past Maynardville

• Blazing right through Knoxville

• Out on Kingston Pike toward Bearden

How does it relate to us?

• 1st Capital of Tennessee

• 1820, Whiskey making is the primary enterprise

• Until May 5, 1961 Knoxville was “dry”

Moonshine=Money!

• Depression

• Junior Johnson

• Roscoe “Doc” Combs

The Cars

• What kind of car?

• Ingenuity

• Don’t attract attention

Government Response

• Revenooers/ATF or G-Men

• Stock vehicles

• Big Bust

Birth of a Sport

• South

• Rivals

• Today

NASCAR’S most famous bootlegger

“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any race ever will. Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail”- Junior Johnson