Why Junior Johnson Hates Guardrails

Everybody remembers the "hook" Dale Earnhardt gave Darrell Waltrip going down the old Richmond backstretch in 1986. Darrell's car was totaled on the steel guardrail and Kyle Petty went on to win the race for his first Winston Cup win.

Many folks forget that Junior Johnson, owner of Waltrip's Budweiser Chevy #11, had his #12 Budweiser Chevy driven by Neil Bonnett destroyed in the same spot by the Richmond backstretch guardrail a year previously in 1985.

Neil's hit was vicious and the car came to an abrupt halt.

Junior Johnson had to be glad when those Richmond guardrails went away.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

That was a vicious hit

Generally speaking, almost all drivers have 1 or 2 real doozy wrecks during the course of their career. Hopefully they are few and far between. Poor ol' Neil though. I think that dude may well have taken more vicious licks over a relatively brief span of years than almost any other driver - including sadly the one that took his life.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.