I somehow never pictured Junior Johnson moving from Wilkes County to the posh SouthPark area of south Charlotte... namely the Quail Hollow Country Club Golf Course to a big ole house near Felix Sabates and Rick Hendrick.
For those of you not watching the Talladega races this weekend, that little millionaires' only golf club is the site of this weekend's PGA Wells Fargo Championship ( Tiger didn't make the cut ).
I have never met Lisa - the current Ms. Johnson, but I can't picture Flossie ever telling Junior he couldn't wear his bib overalls. And if Junior thiks the Quail Hollow HOA is gonna let him have that tomato patch he is planning, he has been drinking too much Mountain Dew.
Do the Rules of Engagement permit me to use the phrase "Social Climbing Gold Digger" so long as I don't use it to characterize a particular individual? Too late. I've already used it.
I once worked for a company that had a pretty nasty relationship with Junior, but somehow I feel very sad for him right now. This doesn't sound like his idea.
Anyhow, I hope Junior tells Tiger hello for us. Bubba skipped the tournament for some family time to stay with his newly adopted child. I do have to disclose that my younger daughter went out to the course Thursday for the Pro Am and saw Denny Hamlin.
Maybe Bopper can send Junior one of those big Lemon Meringue pies now that he has joined the wine and cheese set and abandoned we common race folk!
NASCAR legend moving to Quail Hollow
By TOM HIGGINS - Correspondent
The Charlotte Observer
Friday, May. 04, 2012
Quail Hollow, site of this weeks Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament, is getting a famous new resident.
Junior Johnson, the NASCAR legend and Hall of Famer, plans to leave his native Brushy Mountains for a mid-June move to Charlottes upscale neighborhood.
Yeah, my wife Lisa and I have bought a home at Quail Hollow and look forward to living there, Johnson, resting on a sofa at his farm shop in Yadkin County, told The Observer on Friday.
Johnson scotched rumors that his farmland and expansive home atop a hill had been bought by the nearby Raffaldini Winery. Its still for sale, he said.
Johnson never lived far from where he was born 80 years ago in Ronda, in Wilkes County.
A stretch of the U.S. 421 that runs through his property between Winston-Salem and North Wilkesboro is officially named The Junior Johnson Highway. Thats ironic, because it was on old Highway 421 that Johnson made many runs in a souped-up car loaded with moonshine in the late1940s and 50s.
That ability to drive fast on the highway led Johnson to NASCAR. His stock car racing career produced 50 victories as a driver and 132 more, plus six championships in what is now the Sprint Cup Series, as a team owner.
The move to Quail Hollow comes as Johnson recovers from a life-threatening staph infection he contracted after back surgery at Duke University Medical Center in March.
The infection almost got me. I came close to not making it, Johnson said. For 35 minutes or so I was essentially dead. The doctors worked desperately with me and finally I came back around.
Johnson was isolated in the hospitals intensive care unit for five weeks. He was released two weeks ago.
Im still pretty weak and I cant walk very far right now, Johnson said. But I seem to be getting a little bit better each day.
Johnson re-injured his back several months ago while working with a fork lift on his cattle farm. Hed undergone two previous surgeries on his spine.
Im staying off those things from now on, Johnson said jokingly. I doubt they would let me keep one at Quail Hollow anyway.
Among Johnsons new neighbors will be two NASCAR team owners, Rick Hendrick and Felix Sabates.
Johnson said many factors played into the decision to leave the farm he loved.
Working the farm and cattle had just got to be too much for me, he said. It was a 24-hour-a-day job.
I will miss having the big breakfasts here at the shop five days a week with my friends and farmhands, but at the same time I look forward to all the things that will be available to me and Lisa in Charlotte. For example, were really looking forward to going to the Panthers games.
Since boyhood Johnson always has maintained a vegetable garden at his homes. Will he do so at ritzy Quail Hollow?
Ive already picked out a spot for my tomato patch, Johnson said.
And will he wear overalls, his favorite attire?
Lisa told me that I was going to have to throw them away, answered Johnson. But that aint going to happen.
Read more here: http://www.thatsracin.com/2012/05/04/86120/nascar-legend-moving-to-quail.html#storylink=cpy
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 04/21/17 02:11:44AM
