Winston-Salem Dash “Hooch Pooches” alternate honors stock cars, bootlegging

The history of stock car racing is inextricably intertwined with bootlegging during the Prohibition era. In the 1920s and early 1930s, bootleggers used modified cars that required skilled drivers to transport illegal alcohol. Those driving skills and the advent of high-speed vehicles led to the birth of stock car racing in the U.S. South.

The Winston-Salem Dash, High-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox in South Atlantic League, will connect the southern tradition of stock car racing and an era closely associated with Chicago with their latest alternate brand. The team will honor both stock car racing and bootlegging when they play as the Hooch Pooches for select games this year. The brand is centered around a Boston terrier dressed like a 1920s Chicago mobster, complete with a fedora and a dog bone taking the place of a cigar.

“This pooch, dressed in his bootlegging best, is set to represent those who delivered hooch in Chicago and made way for the rise of racing in North Carolina,” the team said in a statement.

The Hooch Pooches will make their debut June 20 during the Dash’s annual Salute to Chicago game.