Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009
Johnson's still the kid from El Cajon
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — As Jimmie Johnson chased sleep in his South Beach hotel room this week, he mentally climbed into his race car and drove laps in a race he will finally run Sunday.
One lap. Then two. Then 10. Finally, 100 laps.
In traffic. Out of traffic. Hitting his marks. Anticipating trouble. Running on an empty track.
In the dark. In his mind.
"I see it all," Johnson says.
The laps become real on Sunday when Johnson straps into his No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet and starts from the pole in the season-ending Ford 400. Barring a disaster, Johnson will finish the race with his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship.
Richard Petty never won four straight. Neither did Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough or anyone else in the 61-year history of NASCAR.
Pretty good for a California kid who grew up in a trailer park and learned to race riding bikes, but he insists he's not done.
"My goal is to be the best ever," Johnson says.
He's getting there, fast, and living his dream.
"Who says he can't do it five times in a row?" says Humpy Wheeler, former president of Speedway Motorsports. If he does it five times in a row, he has to go down as the best driver ever."
The irony in that is that many people want more from him.
Some say he's too corporate, or that his dominance is bad for the sport.
It's as if being nice, courteous and borderline unbeatable isn't enough.
Johnson has heard it so often he just smiles.
"A lot of people think he's boring," Wheeler says. "I think he's the absolute, dead-on model for what people should be."
Nice, down to a science
Johnson, 34, may have a home in south Charlotte, a place in New York and a ticket to the world. But he's never far from the kid who grew up in El Cajon, Calif.
"I spent my whole life being a 'B' driver on a 'B' team and trying to work my way to being an 'A' guy," Johnson says. "It's finally here. Because it's been a long journey, I appreciate it and I know it doesn't last forever."
While he's at the top, he's determined to do things the right way.
Walking outside a Coral Gables hotel Thursday, Johnson is met by two men holding photographs they want him to autograph. Without stopping, Johnson pulls a marker from his pocket and signs two photos for each man.
When one man pushes a stack of photos at Johnson, the driver politely declines.
"Only two, guys, but thanks," Johnson says.
A few minutes later, the men approach Johnson again, trying to get more autographs that will be made available online in a matter of minutes.
"Come on guys, I've already signed for you," Johnson says.
If there's such a thing as a polite refusal, Johnson has mastered it.
It doesn't mean he doesn't have a playful side.
After sitting through two different 45-minute interview sessions, Johnson is led through a series of eight more interviews with various television outlets, each wanting its own piece of him. He makes each one feel special.
Climbing onto a platform to be interviewed by his friend, ESPN's Marty Smith, the driver asks for a piece of paper, which he uses to get rid of a piece of chewing gum. Just before Smith begins the interview, Johnson playfully stuffs the paper, used gum and all, into Smith's coat pocket.
"I'll bet there are 30 people who feel like he's their best friend because that's how he treats people," Smith says.
Johnson figured out at an early age that polish would get him more than pushing against the grain.
When Wheeler parted with Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2008, he received dozens of calls and e-mails from friends and associates.
He received one hand-written letter.
It was from Johnson.
"Good manners don't make headlines," Wheeler says. "Bad manners do."
More than just equipment
Johnson's critics blame him for declining attendance and television ratings for NASCAR races.
Pick a claim, it's probably been made against Johnson.
He's winning because he has the best equipment and crew chief, Chad Knaus.
He's winning because the 10-race Chase to the Sprint Cup sets up better for him than any other driver.
No matter the complaint, one thing doesn't change.
Johnson keeps winning. Seven times this year, 47 times in what is still a young career.
Driver Kurt Busch calls it "The Jimmie Johnson era that we all live in."
If driving ability doesn't make a difference, consider this: If team owner Rick Hendrick put Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 48 car and Johnson in the No.88, would Johnson's results change?
"People think he has the best equipment and all he has to do is point the car," former NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett said. "There's more to it than that. Look who he's beating. He's beating Jeff Gordon. He's beating Mark Martin."
During the Charlotte race in October, Jarrett watched as Johnson battled Gordon near the end of the race. It was too early for them to go side by side, Jarrett thought, and wondered about Johnson's strategy.
Almost immediately, Johnson backed off. He waited for his moment and when it came, he zipped around Gordon. It was enough to cause Jarrett to call Johnson after the race to compliment him.
"I said, 'You're like Tiger (Woods). Not only do you have the talent, you out-think people.' That's a lethal combination," Jarrett said.
An element of Johnson's success is his almost silky style with his car. He's aggressive but rarely hangs his car on the edge. He can take his Chevrolet deeper into corners than many drivers because of his faith in his skill and his equipment but it often gets overlooked.
As often as possible, Johnson takes emotion out of the equation. In a sport that can easily lead to confrontation, Johnson doesn't get even. He just gets to the front.
And he makes it look easy, even in traffic at 190 miles per hour.
"The great ones all make it look easy," Wheeler said. "Michael Jordan made basketball look easy.
"It's what separates the great champions from the regular champions. They have something other people don't have."
'Real life'
After winning at Phoenix last Sunday, Johnson returned to Charlotte early Monday and hunkered down in his house before flying south to Miami.
He's gotten better at handling the pressure of the Chase, but in reality it won't go away until sometime after sunset Sunday.
Johnson has tried to distract himself. If he sees something about himself on television, he changes the channel.
He avoids reading about his pursuit of a fourth championship.
He has answered e-mails and returned phone calls, paid the electric bill and the water bill.
"Real life," Johnson says.
He has immersed himself in a fitness regimen. Working with a trainer and closely monitoring what he eats, Johnson is narrow-waisted and has the look of a marathoner.
"I'm still trying put on some muscle, but it's a slow go for me," Johnson says.
When he runs, Johnson typically keeps an eight-minute per mile pace. When pushed by his trainer, he has run 3 miles in 21 minutes, 5 miles in 35 minutes.
He planned a long run on Saturday in hopes it would help wear him out and make it easier to sleep. He also planned dinner at a favorite South Beach restaurant, the better to distract him from thinking about Sunday.
Johnson's wife, Chandra, has helped along the way.
"She does a good job of distracting me," Johnson says. "It's been fun after the year to talk about the things she kept from me or steered me off of.
"It's daily stuff. Simple stuff. We have a little construction going on at our house. I haven't heard much about that lately."
Charlotte, Johnson says, is home.
He likes lunch at Yama and dinner at Barrington. He's been known to duck into The Penguin and Mac's Speed Shop and hasn't spent as much time at the Quail Hollow Club, where he's a member, as he'd like.
Regardless of what happens Sunday, the Johnson house will be open to friends on Thanksgiving.
"Those four or five days at home (after the season ends) are the best," Johnson says.
History in the making
If Johnson wins a fourth straight championship Sunday, it may be years before the magnitude of the achievement is fully appreciated.
"We're seeing history," Jarrett says. "I don't see how you can't put him in the top three (drivers) of all time."
It was just 12 years ago when Johnson first sat in a stock car, and he's still not sure exactly what Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick saw in him.
What began as a rocky, sometimes cranky, road with crew chief Chad Knaus has grown into a racing dynasty.
Human nature suggests the 48 team would let down after winning its first two championships. It didn't happen.
Johnson and his team are perpetually moving forward. Their target, every season, is the Sprint Cup championship.
For everyone else, they are the target.
"You watch Roger Federer. You watch Tiger Woods. You watch the New York Yankees win another World Series and it's celebrated," driver Brian Vickers said. "For some reason when it happens in our sport, people want to know what's wrong.
"Nothing's wrong. They're that good."
Racing for first
Johnson's plan Sunday is no different than any other race day. He will try to the front and stay there. The easiest way to avoid trouble is to stay in front of it.
He understands 50-year-old Mark Martin could go home with the championship if something unexpected happens.
After an early wreck led to a 38th-place finish at Texas two weeks ago, reopening what felt like a closed Chase, Johnson said the fear of losing entered his mind for the first time.
Winning at Phoenix last Sunday pushed those fears further away.
All those nights and all those laps Johnson has driven in his mind have led to Sunday.
"I'm having the time of my life," Johnson says. "I'm so damn proud of what I've done and where I've come from."
And where he can go today.
(c) 2009, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
One lap. Then two. Then 10. Finally, 100 laps.
In traffic. Out of traffic. Hitting his marks. Anticipating trouble. Running on an empty track.
In the dark. In his mind.
"I see it all," Johnson says.
The laps become real on Sunday when Johnson straps into his No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet and starts from the pole in the season-ending Ford 400. Barring a disaster, Johnson will finish the race with his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship.
Richard Petty never won four straight. Neither did Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough or anyone else in the 61-year history of NASCAR.
Pretty good for a California kid who grew up in a trailer park and learned to race riding bikes, but he insists he's not done.
"My goal is to be the best ever," Johnson says.
He's getting there, fast, and living his dream.
"Who says he can't do it five times in a row?" says Humpy Wheeler, former president of Speedway Motorsports. If he does it five times in a row, he has to go down as the best driver ever."
The irony in that is that many people want more from him.
Some say he's too corporate, or that his dominance is bad for the sport.
It's as if being nice, courteous and borderline unbeatable isn't enough.
Johnson has heard it so often he just smiles.
"A lot of people think he's boring," Wheeler says. "I think he's the absolute, dead-on model for what people should be."
Nice, down to a science
Johnson, 34, may have a home in south Charlotte, a place in New York and a ticket to the world. But he's never far from the kid who grew up in El Cajon, Calif.
"I spent my whole life being a 'B' driver on a 'B' team and trying to work my way to being an 'A' guy," Johnson says. "It's finally here. Because it's been a long journey, I appreciate it and I know it doesn't last forever."
While he's at the top, he's determined to do things the right way.
Walking outside a Coral Gables hotel Thursday, Johnson is met by two men holding photographs they want him to autograph. Without stopping, Johnson pulls a marker from his pocket and signs two photos for each man.
When one man pushes a stack of photos at Johnson, the driver politely declines.
"Only two, guys, but thanks," Johnson says.
A few minutes later, the men approach Johnson again, trying to get more autographs that will be made available online in a matter of minutes.
"Come on guys, I've already signed for you," Johnson says.
If there's such a thing as a polite refusal, Johnson has mastered it.
It doesn't mean he doesn't have a playful side.
After sitting through two different 45-minute interview sessions, Johnson is led through a series of eight more interviews with various television outlets, each wanting its own piece of him. He makes each one feel special.
Climbing onto a platform to be interviewed by his friend, ESPN's Marty Smith, the driver asks for a piece of paper, which he uses to get rid of a piece of chewing gum. Just before Smith begins the interview, Johnson playfully stuffs the paper, used gum and all, into Smith's coat pocket.
"I'll bet there are 30 people who feel like he's their best friend because that's how he treats people," Smith says.
Johnson figured out at an early age that polish would get him more than pushing against the grain.
When Wheeler parted with Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2008, he received dozens of calls and e-mails from friends and associates.
He received one hand-written letter.
It was from Johnson.
"Good manners don't make headlines," Wheeler says. "Bad manners do."
More than just equipment
Johnson's critics blame him for declining attendance and television ratings for NASCAR races.
Pick a claim, it's probably been made against Johnson.
He's winning because he has the best equipment and crew chief, Chad Knaus.
He's winning because the 10-race Chase to the Sprint Cup sets up better for him than any other driver.
No matter the complaint, one thing doesn't change.
Johnson keeps winning. Seven times this year, 47 times in what is still a young career.
Driver Kurt Busch calls it "The Jimmie Johnson era that we all live in."
If driving ability doesn't make a difference, consider this: If team owner Rick Hendrick put Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 48 car and Johnson in the No.88, would Johnson's results change?
"People think he has the best equipment and all he has to do is point the car," former NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett said. "There's more to it than that. Look who he's beating. He's beating Jeff Gordon. He's beating Mark Martin."
During the Charlotte race in October, Jarrett watched as Johnson battled Gordon near the end of the race. It was too early for them to go side by side, Jarrett thought, and wondered about Johnson's strategy.
Almost immediately, Johnson backed off. He waited for his moment and when it came, he zipped around Gordon. It was enough to cause Jarrett to call Johnson after the race to compliment him.
"I said, 'You're like Tiger (Woods). Not only do you have the talent, you out-think people.' That's a lethal combination," Jarrett said.
An element of Johnson's success is his almost silky style with his car. He's aggressive but rarely hangs his car on the edge. He can take his Chevrolet deeper into corners than many drivers because of his faith in his skill and his equipment but it often gets overlooked.
As often as possible, Johnson takes emotion out of the equation. In a sport that can easily lead to confrontation, Johnson doesn't get even. He just gets to the front.
And he makes it look easy, even in traffic at 190 miles per hour.
"The great ones all make it look easy," Wheeler said. "Michael Jordan made basketball look easy.
"It's what separates the great champions from the regular champions. They have something other people don't have."
'Real life'
After winning at Phoenix last Sunday, Johnson returned to Charlotte early Monday and hunkered down in his house before flying south to Miami.
He's gotten better at handling the pressure of the Chase, but in reality it won't go away until sometime after sunset Sunday.
Johnson has tried to distract himself. If he sees something about himself on television, he changes the channel.
He avoids reading about his pursuit of a fourth championship.
He has answered e-mails and returned phone calls, paid the electric bill and the water bill.
"Real life," Johnson says.
He has immersed himself in a fitness regimen. Working with a trainer and closely monitoring what he eats, Johnson is narrow-waisted and has the look of a marathoner.
"I'm still trying put on some muscle, but it's a slow go for me," Johnson says.
When he runs, Johnson typically keeps an eight-minute per mile pace. When pushed by his trainer, he has run 3 miles in 21 minutes, 5 miles in 35 minutes.
He planned a long run on Saturday in hopes it would help wear him out and make it easier to sleep. He also planned dinner at a favorite South Beach restaurant, the better to distract him from thinking about Sunday.
Johnson's wife, Chandra, has helped along the way.
"She does a good job of distracting me," Johnson says. "It's been fun after the year to talk about the things she kept from me or steered me off of.
"It's daily stuff. Simple stuff. We have a little construction going on at our house. I haven't heard much about that lately."
Charlotte, Johnson says, is home.
He likes lunch at Yama and dinner at Barrington. He's been known to duck into The Penguin and Mac's Speed Shop and hasn't spent as much time at the Quail Hollow Club, where he's a member, as he'd like.
Regardless of what happens Sunday, the Johnson house will be open to friends on Thanksgiving.
"Those four or five days at home (after the season ends) are the best," Johnson says.
History in the making
If Johnson wins a fourth straight championship Sunday, it may be years before the magnitude of the achievement is fully appreciated.
"We're seeing history," Jarrett says. "I don't see how you can't put him in the top three (drivers) of all time."
It was just 12 years ago when Johnson first sat in a stock car, and he's still not sure exactly what Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick saw in him.
What began as a rocky, sometimes cranky, road with crew chief Chad Knaus has grown into a racing dynasty.
Human nature suggests the 48 team would let down after winning its first two championships. It didn't happen.
Johnson and his team are perpetually moving forward. Their target, every season, is the Sprint Cup championship.
For everyone else, they are the target.
"You watch Roger Federer. You watch Tiger Woods. You watch the New York Yankees win another World Series and it's celebrated," driver Brian Vickers said. "For some reason when it happens in our sport, people want to know what's wrong.
"Nothing's wrong. They're that good."
Racing for first
Johnson's plan Sunday is no different than any other race day. He will try to the front and stay there. The easiest way to avoid trouble is to stay in front of it.
He understands 50-year-old Mark Martin could go home with the championship if something unexpected happens.
After an early wreck led to a 38th-place finish at Texas two weeks ago, reopening what felt like a closed Chase, Johnson said the fear of losing entered his mind for the first time.
Winning at Phoenix last Sunday pushed those fears further away.
All those nights and all those laps Johnson has driven in his mind have led to Sunday.
"I'm having the time of my life," Johnson says. "I'm so damn proud of what I've done and where I've come from."
And where he can go today.
(c) 2009, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
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