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    Junior Johnson went to jail for smuggling alcohol before becoming a NASCAR driver.

    In the 1940s and '50s, Johnson learned how to drive fast by transporting illegal alcohol in North Carolina.

    For his post-Prohibition crimes, he spent less than a year in jail, but later decided to use his motor skills for NASCAR.

    The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Johnson competed in 313 races, won 50 of them and finished in the top 10 in the rest.

    There is a stretch of highway in his hometown named after him.