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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: His Fans Are Not Exactly Fanatical
In a very unofficial nationwide survey, I recently tried to find some Jimmie Johnson fans...
Jonathan Ingram  | http://www.RacinToday.com  |  Posted November 30, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Jimmie’s fans are like Jimmie. They may love winning, but they’re unassuming and humble, like a good next-door neighbor.- Jonathan Ingram. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

In a very unofficial nationwide survey, I recently tried to find some Jimmie Johnson fans. I checked out bars and honky tonks in Atlanta. I talked to the neighbors. I called those I knew to be NASCAR fans on the East Coast and the West Coast.

Nada.

A recent survey by Taylor, a well-known public relations firm, turned up similar results. Five drivers – including all three of Johnson’s teammates at Hendrick Motorsports! – were considered more popular and Johnson’s name wasn’t even mentioned.

All this seems strange to me, because Johnson himself said during his stretch drive to an unprecedented fourth-straight Sprint Cup championship that his fan base was growing.

It seems odd, too, that when Cale Yarborough won three straight titles in the 1970’s, people hailed the man from Timmonsville, S.C. as a very worthy hero. Way back when, while writing for the newspaper in Durham, N.C., I compared Yarborough and team owner Junior Johnson to Stengel’s Yankees, Auerbach’s Celtics and Lombardi’s Packers. In general, there were huzzahs all around for Yarborough from the grandstands, press box and garage.

After my own recent informal survey, I now realize the problem.

Jimmie’s fans are like Jimmie. They may love winning, but they’re unassuming and humble, like a good next-door neighbor. They’re also aware that Johnson tends to get some of the blame for all that is perceived to be wrong with NASCAR. This may make Johnson’s fans doubly shy compared to those of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, and Kyle Busch – the five drivers mentioned in the Taylor survey.

Entering this season, Johnson wasn’t even considered the favorite by many despite winning three straight titles. Carl Edwards, he of nine victories in 2008, was nominated to take the championship mantle. Didn’t happen, but like the fan base of Dale Earnhardt Jr. I doubt Edwards is losing fans during his winless campaign.

I also doubt Johnson is losing fans during his winning streak. So it again comes back to the idea that Johnson’s fans are less boisterous, don’t have his decals on their personal vehicles as often as Earnhardt Jr. and and don’t boo the opposition, whether it’s Gordon or Kyle Busch.

Judging by the responses to Monday Morning Crew Chief, Johnson’s fans tend not to respond to the comments section and instead send a private e-mail whenever they have praise for Jimmie. One e-mail I received was typical. It recounted the first time the sender had ever seen Johnson race and why Johnson has remained at the top of this fan’s list of favorite drivers.

In the survey by the Taylor firm, which addressed the question of how sponsors can best use their presence in NASCAR, it was pointed out that different demographic segments have different responses to drivers. Those under the age of 24 find Kyle Busch most popular. But he doesn’t beat Earnhardt Jr., Gordon, Martin or Stewart when all the survey votes are counted, especially among older fans.

To coin a phrase, Johnson’s fans might be likened to the Middle Majority. His fans are somewhere in the middle, not so old, not too young. They show up and they wear the colors but without the same missionary zeal of those from the days of Gordon versus Dale Earnhardt Sr. Or Tony Stewart versus the world. Or the current era of Kyle Busch versus the older generation – and anybody else who gets in between him and victory lane.

So what does this all mean? The last thing the 2009 season needs is another hacking, dicing and filleting of the perceived problems of NASCAR via a big “think piece”. So this is not it.

Back in the day when he was still driving and winning, writers used to gather around Richard Petty to take up the subject of the state of the sport. “The King” while puffing on one of his slender cigars, would sum it up with some of his usual country wisdom as the smoke curled into the air but the idea became clear.

The imparted wisdom often became the general consensus because most of the writers who followed stock car racing from week to week were from the Southeast, there was no television and the unhinged opinions that go with it, most of the fans came from a similar background, the sport was not quite yet major league, but Richard Petty damn sure was.

It’s a more diverse sport these days with more opinions in the garage, media center (which has replaced the press box) and grandstands. Despite all this, I bet every fan who showed up at Homestead with a camera took a picture or two of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy. They then went home and saved the photos for posterity – but probably bragged more about being at an historic season finale than having a photo of Jimmie Johnson’s car.


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Jonathan Ingram

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