Junior Johnson has lived a Hall of Fame life

All the stories you've heard about Junior Johnson – the moonshining, out-running the cops, the jail time, the genius behind the wheel – they're all true, hence the legend that writer Tom Wolfe dubbed "the last American hero."

Junior Johnson's life is, in a word, fascinating. In his 78 years, he's gone from a backwoods bootlegger to a bona fide businessman. In between, he won 50 Cup races as a driver, another 132 as an owner, and just when you think he'd done it all, he received a Presidential pardon from Ronald Reagan.

The capper will come on May 23 when he, along with four others, will be the first five inductees into NASCAR's Hall of Fame.

Johnson recently spoke to Yahoo! Sports about that honor, his racing career and which chapter of his amazing life is his favorite.

1. Y! Sports: When you think about being a member of NASCAR's very first Hall of Fame class, what goes through your mind?

Johnson: It's just mindboggling to me. I've been inducted into several hall of fames over the past few years, and nowhere are any of them the class that this is. For me to be in there in the first go-around is very special. It just tells me people recognized what I gave to the sport, and that's very gratifying.

I'm amazed. It's never really soaked it in up to this date because I can't believe it. I went in over a bunch of guys who are heroes of mine, basically. For me to go in ahead of a lot of 'em is so gratifying, I just can't really believe it.

2. Y! Sports: What are you most proud about in your career in NASCAR?

Johnson: I'm certainly proud of the races I won in such a short time. I just cherished that time, because I won when I wasn't supposed to win. I wasn't old enough and I hadn't had enough time on the race track to be beatin' people I was beatin'.

But when I went into the mechanical side, it was a whole different challenge. What everybody else had, I didn't have no interest in running that. I wanted to develop my own stuff and beat 'em with what I thought I could do better than they could do. And I did. I developed a lot of stuff that they still run today, and that says a lot for somebody that's not an engineer or nothing. I just got a lot of common sense, really. I can't believe I developed what I have.

[Ingenuity] is a lot. I won a lot of races I wasn't supposed to win. I was fortunate enough I could figure out how to beat 'em with just common sense. If I couldn't outrun 'em, I'd out-trick 'em.

3. Y! Sports: You retired as a driver at 35. Why so young?

Johnson: As far as driving, and to apply that to racing was a big sort of star in my crown, 'cause I was there before I was supposed to be and I did more than I was supposed to at the age I was and that kind of thing.

This Hall of Fame is sort of the same way. I didn't have any idea I'd go in on the first ballot. But I look back on the times, and I can see at that particular time I did it more than anybody else.

Y! Sports: So you'd accomplished what you wanted to accomplish and it was time to move on?

Johnson: That's right.

4. Y! Sports: Who's the best you ever raced against, and who's the best out there today?

Johnson: That would be hard to say cause I had Curtis Turner and Fireball Roberts and Herb Thomas and on and on. The Flock boys. You know, Joe Weatherly. When I look back on the guys that I beat, I knew I absolutely wasn't supposed to beat 'em, but I did. And I'm proud of that, 'cause that just gave me a big send-off into the sport as far as the driving's concerned.

5. Y! Sports: In 1965, Tom Wolfe dubbed you the "Last American Hero." Forty-five years later, what do you make of that?

Johnson: Well, at that particular time, he caught me in the last year that I drove, and he seen me drive certain races and there was only 31 or -2 or -3 races that year, and I won 13 of them races, and I guess he had a good reason to say "the last American hero" 'cause you win 13 races now, you about killed everybody.

He caught me in the best year that I drove, and it did look like I was that good because of what I did in that last year that I drove. But he wrote an awesome story, and I don't know how true it is, but he changed American language.

6. Y! Sports: In Wolfe's iconic story about you, he wrote that 39 of the 78 Korean War Medal of Honor winners came from the South, most from towns in or around the Appalachian Mountains. He used this as evidence that the area bred courage. From your perspective, did it take guts to run whiskey, to run at places like Darlington, or was it just about doing what you had to do to survive?

Johnson: You certainly, in my time, you had to do it to survive. But I also think the breed of people, the way they was brought up, they did not stand for defeat 'cause they was on common grounds. They had to either do it or not have a decent life, and that's the reason to [Wolfe] what he described the mountain people as; and where I lived, they was furious people, not the common people who were scared to do something. They'd step right in and step up to the challenge and go forward with it.

And that's sort of the way I was brought up and people around me was brought up.

7. Y! Sports: After President Reagan pardoned you for your 1956 moonshining conviction, you said it was one of the greatest things of your life. Was that because it finally cleared your record or was there something deeper there?

Johnson: Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest presidents that we've ever had, and for him pardoning me and me going to Washington and going in the Oval Office to accept my pardon and the things that went with it. You know, I sat across the table from him at Daytona when he came to Daytona when Richard [Petty] won his 200th race. Talked to him there and had on several occasions to run into him. And he's such a great, great man, and I was lucky to be able to see him, much less speak to him and carry on a conversation with him.

I won't ever forget it. It's one of my kind of deals to slush things off and go forward, but I have a picture with him in my office straight where I can see it everyday, and that's gratifying to me.

8. Y! Sports: Your life has featured lots of different chapters, none of them dull. Having been the one who's lived it, which chapter is your favorite?

Johnson [laughing]: I sort of like 'em all. They're different. There's been great things in my life that have happened, unexpected, and that's the truth – 90 percent of it. I did not plan it. I did not think I could do it, but I did. I've lived a pretty fearless life, and luckily I'm still here to talk about it.

9. Y! Sports: What do you do to keep yourself busy these days?

Johnson: I have a country-ham business and a moonshine business that's going great. I've got all sorts of products that I sell to the supermarkets all around in the north and south and the east. Don't go west as much as I do the south and east. It keeps me busy. Everyday I've got my whole days planned.

9½. One thing that you want NASCAR fans to know about me is …

Johnson: I gave NASCAR more than I took from it. I'm positive that there's no question about it – they received more than I did.