Tim Brewer is widely considered one of the best NASCAR crew chiefs in history. The 69-year-old has managed some of the most famous stock car racing drivers in history, such as Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, and Bill Elliott. Under his guidance, drivers have won a total of 53 Cup Series races, a testament to his strategic mind and deep understanding of the sport. However, despite his success, the former television analyst has gone through his share of difficult times in his career.

Speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his podcast, veteran crew chief Tim Brewer highlighted his struggles under team owner Junior Johnson, which led to the two NASCAR icons inevitably parting ways.

Tim Brewer shares blame for split with Junior Johnson

To say that Tim Brewer’s time at Junior Johnson & Associates was a success would be an understatement. He won two Cup Series championships as crew chief for the team. The first was in 1978 with driver Cale Yarborough, and the second was with Darell Waltrip in 1981. Despite his many achievements throughout his illustrious career atop the pit box, Brewer’s time at Junior Johnson’s team took a turn for the worse while working with Bill Elliott in the early 90s. Brewer may have proved himself as a shrewd strategist, but in many instances, he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Junior Johnson, leading to rising tensions within the team.

Citing miscommunication as a key factor that led to the split, Tim Brewer highlighted one of the instances where Junior Johnson didn’t listen to his advice. Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the veteran crew chief said, “We get to Phoenix when we put that motor race motor in Saturday morning. I went, ‘This thing, something ain’t right about it’. Goes back to, don’t criticize my motors.’ I come in there Sunday morning and I wanted to tell Junior, we need to change this motor. What happened to us? Burnt a piston three or four laps in. But at the end of the day, Junior and I, miscommunication. That’s where two hard heads come together, is as much my fault as was his.”

Another instance when the crew chief and team owner struggled to be on the same page was at Dover Motor Speedway in 1992. With 25 laps to go, Brewer asked Bill Elliott to come into the pits to refuel and replace the left side tires of his No. 11 Ford. However, Junior Johnson had other ideas, demanding that all four tires be replaced in the car, which would not only result in a longer pit stop time but prove to be detrimental to Elliott’s hopes of securing a victory. While the decision didn’t go down well with the crew chief, he promptly obliged the team owner out of respect for him.

Eventually, the inevitable happened as Tim Brewer moved to Morgan-McClure Motorsports after being replaced by Jeff Hammond at Junior Johnson & Associates. In 1997, Brewer became the team manager for Geoff Bodine Racing but returned to the pit box temporarily during a race at Bristol Motor Speedway when Bodine fell two laps down after crew chief Pat Tryson abruptly resigned in the middle of the race. After his retirement, Brewer took on the role of television analyst for NASCAR on ESPN, closing the curtains on his career in the pit box once and for all.

How Junior rescued NASCAR from sponsorship woes

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Even though NASCAR and Junior Johnson may have been at complete odds most of the time, the former team owner played an important role in rescuing the sport when it struggled with sponsorships. Former crew chief  Travis Carter recalled the time Junior Johnson helped bring RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and their Winston brand to NASCAR, helping the sport fund its daily operations sustainably in the long term.

When asked on the Dale Jr Download podcast, “You got sponsorship help from Junior?”, Carter candidly replied, “You probably know it, he’s the one that took RJ Reynolds to NASCAR to be the Series sponsor. They went to him talking about sponsoring 4 or 5 cars and they said, ‘You need to talk about looking at sponsoring the Series.’ Between you and I, and you probably know it, that saved NASCAR.”

Junior Johnson leaves behind a legacy that will be remembered within the NASCAR community for years to come. His contributions existed beyond the racetrack, as he was not just a stock car racing driver, but also an engineer, team owner, and entrepreneur. Would the world of stock car racing be the same had Junior not intervened promptly to bring about sponsorships in NASCAR? Unlikely, which is why he will go down as one of the true icons in the sport, whose contributions changed the landscape of the sport forever.