Daytona 500 champions eagerly share memories

In a rare and priceless moment during the Pepsi 400 weekend at Daytona, reporters were turned loose in a room filled with greatness; several past champions from the Daytona 500 recapping decades of famous finishes and memorable moments.

Like a kid in a candy store, I didn't know where to turn first. All individually seated at their respective tables, I felt like I was shopping at Tiffany; a nervous excitement bubbled up inside as I tried to think about who my readers would want to hear from first or what they would ask if given the opportunity.

• Send Raygan your thoughts

As I stood in the middle of the room, somewhat looking in circles, Mario Andretti sat down at the table to my right, caught my eye and flashed a smile.

From there, my morning with greatness -- and journey to learn first-hand where NASCAR began, how it has evolved and the colorful personalities within -- commenced.

However starting the story with a legendary open-wheeler from Italy is likely bad form if you're going to talk about the history and heritage so deeply rooted in American stock-car racing and NASCAR.

You need to appreciate the origin of stock-car racing, and that is bootlegging during Prohibition. Bootleggers ran illegal moonshine all over the South in their modified cars down twisted mountain roads all while evading the fuzz hot on their tails.

So who better to begin the story with than Junior Johnson, a moon shiner turned racer and successful team owner:

Winner of the 1960 Daytona 500, Johnson went on later to own a team that produced championship winning drivers such as Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip. Today, the rough and tumble racecar legend is somewhat of an epicurean. A moonshine virgin myself who grew up in the Midwest, I asked Johnson how a city gal like myself could get some of that famed hooch:

"I tell you what, go to the ABC (liquor) store and ask for a bottle of Midnight Moon; that's my product. I got a company that makes it and it's out in the market. You'll love it. It's been, you know, toned down from what moonshine used to be. It's in the vodka section. Get you some and make it like you was going to make a vodka drink. You like vodka, right?"

On how it all started:

"I was hulling moonshine, you know, whiskey to little towns around North Wilkesboro, Charlotte, Greensboro -- all around North Carolina, it was a night time job and I'd run into police and you'd out run them. That's how it all got started.

"We fixed our cars to make bigger horse power motors, to make sure and outrun the revenuers. They had regular cars and that's how we learned to beat other drivers on the race track. I think when more of the moon shiners got into racing, it made better and better.

"Some of the moonshine races were some of the best races I ever had.

The sport of NASCAR has changed tremendously since then. It's the most popular sport in the world and they've been so many changes. The rules have changed so much and some of them I don't agree with and others I do.

"When I was coming up it was a rough neck type of sport, we grew up fighting and carrying on.

"In my day if their was a dispute, we handled it like men, our disputes weren't settled in the newspaper or through the media. All these rules are beating the guys down to where they're not able to be the manly types we used to be." (Continued)