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Junior Johnson didn’t hesitate when asked what he planned to do with the victor’s winnings from the Southern 500 on Sept. 3, 1962, at Darlington Raceway.
   
“I’m going to build some more chicken houses,” said the popular Johnson, a folk hero and former moonshiner-turned poultry producer who drove race cars very fast.
   
But even as Johnson spoke of raising more fowl on his farm, some rivals were hollering “foul!” of another kind.
   
Lee Petty, acting on behalf of his son Richard, was the first to officially protest NASCAR’s scoring, which had the possibility of
human error in those days long before computerized tracking of the cars became possible.  Then Ratus (CQ) Walters, owner of driver Larry Frank’s Ford, howled to officials as well.
   
Unknown to media and most fans, NASCAR began a tedious recheck of scoring cards.
   
This is among the richest stories in stock car racing vast lore, and I am delighted to share it as the Southern 500 returns this week to its rightful home in Darlington after an absence of 10 years.
   
I finished writing as darkness fell and headed home to Durham, where I worked for the Morning Herald at the time.  Johnson’s plans to increase his flock of hens and roosters figured prominently in my column, which also revealed this:
   
The race was billed as the 500’s “12th Renewal” rather than 13th Annual because superstitious star driver Joe Weatherly threatened not to run if the number 13 figured in any way.
   
I fetched the paper next morning and saw a streamer headline that seemed to scream: “Larry Frank Wins Southern 500.”  
   
“No!” I shouted.  “Junior Johnson won!”
   
Then I saw an editor’s note above my column.

At midnight NASCAR had revised scoring among the first six positions and made Frank the winner.
   
There was, of course, no cellphone communication in those days and eitors had no way of advising me about what happened as I drove through the night up U.S. 1.
   
Frank’s Ford had lurched across the finish line and skidded down the track, sparks flying from a broken wheel, before coming to a stop in a cloud of dust in a grassy area off the first turn.
   
He appeared to have barely made it to the checkered flag in fourth place.  The scoreboard showed Johnson, Marvin Panch and David Pearson ahead of him.
   
Frank, suffering from dehydration and blisters about the eyes because of a searing 140 degree track temperature, crawled from the cockpit and began storming back toward the garage.  He gestured angrily as teammates rushed to meet him.
   
A tough, muscled ex-Marine, Frank reportedly said to Walters, “Junior wasn’t even on the same lap with me!”
   
He added later, “I walked past Victory Lane and Junior was there and I was pretty bitter about it.”
   
NASCAR revealed that Frank actually was on his “cool down” lap when the wheel broke.  He had led the final 66 of 364 laps and completed the race a circuit earlier.
   
It was to prove Frank’s only triumph in a career of  102 starts.
   
Johnson was listed as the runnerup, five seconds behind in a Ray Fox-fielded Pontiac.  Then came Panch, Pearson and Richard Petty.  Jim Paschal was sixth.
   
“If I had known the scoreboard wasn’t right and I was really in second place, I easily could have caught and passed Frank,” Johnson said the day after the race.  “My car was
way faster than his.”
   
What of Junior’s plans for his purse?
   
In one of the classic lines in NASCAR history, the AP’s late Bloys Britt wrote:
  
“Junior counted his chicken houses before they could be built.”