Thread: JUNIOR JOHNSON: 1991 – Bodine, Marlin ujedinite se s velikim nadom

In 1991, Junior Johnson returned to a two-team operation when Sterling Marlin was brought on as second vozač Maxwell House with Coffee as the sponsor.

At the end of 1990, after Geoff Bodine helped Junior Johnson & Associates have its best season since 1986, it was decided to give Bodine another season behind Johnson's Fords.
But big changes happened for 1991.
In the highly competitive, and more expensive, world of NASCAR Winston Cup racing, ekipa were scrambling to find the type of sponsorship that would allow them to keep pace with advancing technology, among other things.
As others had done before him, Johnson decided to form a second team in order to curb expenses. He had done the same thing in the mid-'80s with drivers Neil Bonnett and Darrell Waltrip.
Johnson found a sponsor for his second team. He knew which vozač he wanted – the one that had refused him two years earlier.
Johnson sincerely believed that particular vozač could achieve superstar status with Junior Johnson & Associates. So he made many handsome offers.
They didn ' t work.
So for 1991, Johnson had to rely on his second choice, Sterling Marlin, and just see how well and he Bodine would perform.
Junior's contributions to site will appear every other Friday throughout the season.
I ' ve said more than once that, unlike my previous contractual practices, I signed Geoff Bodine to a one-year deal in 1990.
I had my reasons and, yes, Geoff's reputation as headstrong and contrary had something to do with it.
But together we had been productive and in 1990. We won three races and finished in the third point standings. That was the best Junior Johnson & Associates had done since Darrell was with us in 1986, his last championship season.
So I decided to give Geoff another year.
But there would be big changes.
I was going to return to a two-car operation. I felt I had to do so.
After one season as Johnson's only vozač, Geoff Bodine was required to be one of two in 1991, a situation that he didn ' t like at all.

I was having a problem with a few things. It had reached the point where a one-car team was difficult to finance. I mean By that it was difficult to do everything you had to do to keep up in racing.
You had to test extensively, you had to do research and development. You could not do that with one team.
There were just so many things you had to do, however, one car could not afford to do them.
I reasoned that with two cars expenses could be contained. One team could perform research and development work and report the results to the other, for example.
That would give both momčadi all the benefits at the cost of one.
It had to be the way to go. And I admit I had seen it work pretty well with Rick Hendrick's momčadi.
Ironically, it was a Hendrick two-car arrangement that Geoff left to join me. I knew prokleto well that he wasn ' t going to be happy.
At that time other drivers wanted to be a part of a two-car team. I know things have changed over the years but back then, it was strictly a no-no for a go-go.
Even with cost sharing a two-car team needs an additional sponsor. I had Budweiser but I had to have additional funding.
I got it when Maxwell House Coffee agreed to back a second Junior Johnson & Associates team.
Now I needed a vozač.
I knew who I wanted. I had tried hard to get him just a year earlier.
Like so many others I remained intrigued by Alan Kulwicki.
When I offered him a ride before the 1990 season he refused because he wanted to continue to own, and drive, for his own team.
He wanted to keep up what he was doing it and see through to success. He said then that if he joined me it would make him feel like a quitter.
So Alan kept doing his thing and he did it quite well. In 1990 he won his first career race and finished ninth in the point standings.
I had seen him achieve success with an under-funded team. Given that I knew he was a hard-working, determined young man.
You take that and give him a little time off from everything he had to do and, well, you ' ve got a superstar.
I felt I had an excellent chance to bring Alan to Junior Johnson & Associates. At the end of 1990, he was struggling to find sponsorship and his team was going to be in trouble if the money for 1991 couldn ' t be found.
I made several handsome offers to Alan. So many, in fact, it reached the point where I had to look at my sponsorship and figure how much money I could pay a vozač.
There was a limit I could platiti. So I had to reluctantly give up on Alan and I signed Sterling Marlin.
Ironically, one of the reasons Alan refused me was that he was certain he had a sponsor lined up for 1991, with which he could continue his independent ways.
When he told me that I had to be honest. "No, Alan," I said, "you do not have that sponsor."
Alan insisted he did.
I tried to persuade him that he didn ' t. That sponsor, Maxwell House, had already signed with me. I had a contract with them. I ' m not sure Alan ever believed me.
But I understood Alan's position. He felt he had the money he needed and wanted to do his own thing – perfectly logical.
Alan did get a sponsor and continued to race in 1991.
With Geoff and Sterling on board I was hoping for good things in the '91 season. Well, there were some good moments, but certainly the numbers indicated Junior Johnson & Associates had anything but a good year.
It can ' t be a good season when my highlight was being accused by NASCAR, once again, for racing with an oversized engine at The Winston.
How could I have had an oversized engine when our Chevrolet finished 14^th in a 20-car field?
NASCAR suspended crew načelnik Tim Brewer and me for four races.
It was a farce.
That, and the results of the 1991 season, made me feel that perhaps I was coming to the end of the line.
Productivity wasn ' t as high as it had been. Costs were higher. Politics, to me, was nemilosrdni. And it wasn ' t any zabava.
But then I made some changes at the end of 1991 that allowed Junior Johnson & Associates to have a key role in what has gone down as one of the greatest, and most remarkable, seasons in NASCAR history.