The Mountain Moonshine Festival kicks off with a parade on Saturday morning to introduce our Grand Marshal each year.  Led by the Grand Marshal, the parade of historical race cars is a favorite among festival attendees of all ages.  You never know who will be riding in the race cars but all of the owners love standing near their cars all weekend to talk about the good ole race days, and the more current race days!  If you don't believe us, just ask them!

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We are proud to announce this year's Grand Marshal is RED FARMER.

Red Farmer: Still Racing-Still Winning

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At 91 years old, we are more than honored that Red Farmer will take off one day of racing to serve as the Grand Marshal of the 56 th Annual Mountain Moonshine Festival. Not only does Red Farmer still race, but he still wins. Racing on mostly short tracks now, he started his career in 1948. His first NASCAR license was issued in 1953. Red has won 4 NASCAR championships – first one in 1956 in Modified Division and he won three consecutive championships in Late Model from 1969 – 1971.

Red Farmer was voted Most Popular Driver twice each in both Modified Division and Late Model Sportsman Division. This seems more prestige since each of these four titles were voted on by his fellow NASCAR license holders and not by race fans.

Another astounding fact that speaks loudly about his character is that Red Farmer has had the same sponsor since 1962 – Long-Lewis Ford Dealership - and there has never been a written contract between them!
Farmer was named one of the 50 greatest drivers in NASCAR history in 1998. He was inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021. Red has won in excess of 700 races in his career and he is still counting the wins!

Red Farmer is also known for being a member of the famous Alabama Gang – a group of racers from Hueytown, Alabama in the late 1950’s. Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, and Farmer were the original members, other joined later. Farmer was close with the Allison family in many ways. He was a passenger in the helicopter crash at Talladega in 1993 that left Davey Allison dead. Most likely, both the Allison’s and Farmer have turned that tragedy into motivation to honor Davey on the race track and in their everyday lives.

“Racing is something that gets in your blood and you can’t get it out” stated Farmer in an interview. It is evident that as long as Red Farmer’s blood is flowing, he will be racing. “Racing is what drives me. I’ll see you at the track!”