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CUP: Gordon – Johnson’s Impact Different
Jeff Gordon says Jimmie Johnson isn't to blame for any struggles NASCAR may face...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted November 06, 2010   Fort Worth, TX
Teammates Jimmie Johnson (Left) and Jeff Gordon (Right) lashed out at each other more than once in 2010. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Jeff Gordon can feel Jimmie Johnson's pain. Sort of.

Johnson has taken a lot of arrows in recent years for doing his job – winning championship after championship and standing atop his sport like no one else in modern history. He has a huge fan base, but he also has many detractors – those who want to see his long streak end and someone else (anyone else?) triumph. Johnson is even taking heat for being somewhat responsible, some say, for attendance troubles.

Gordon’s situation is somewhat different. He also won four championships, but, in his title years, he was not the supremely dominant force Johnson has been. And the times were different.

“The one thing that I say that is different, because I get asked this a lot and I have conversations even with Jimmie and Rick Hendrick and other people about this, is that my first championship came against Dale Earnhardt Sr.,” Gordon said. “That championship grew fans because, at that point in the sport, at that time, there was just a tremendous amount of growth that was happening. Me being so opposite of Dale, just being young and brought up in racing in a way where there was a camera presence and sponsorship awareness and all these things was just a total opposite of what Dale was and what he represented at that time that it was growing his fans and their hatred toward me and growing my fans and an appreciation for that rivalry.

“That carried to me for a while, and while there were a lot of fans out there that didn’t like that we went on and won three more championships, to me it didn’t impact the sport in a way. But, we weren’t going through some of the economy things.

“I think it is kind of a coincidence, and it is really unfortunate I think for Jimmie because I really hate to see somebody like that who is that good, that’s dominated like that, that’s done what they have done and be put to blame for some things that are totally not his doing. I just wish that weren’t the case. I think what he is doing – you have to put yourself in his shoes – what he is doing is unbelievable. I think somebody should be applauded for that and somebody should be recognized for doing such great things, not have this kind of shadow on it that it’s not good for the sport.”

Johnson’s excellence eventually will be recognized for its place in the history of the sport, Gordon said.

“What he’s going through is far more impressive than anything I ever did,” Gordon said. “But 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now, you’ll look back on this time and go, ‘Wow’. You will just look at how impressive it is and how impactful it’s been to the sport and how chances of it ever happening again are near impossible. And I think it will be respected more and appreciated more and probably looked at in a positive way.

“But right now, I think that people are looking at the ratings, at attendance, and trying to figure it out. They’re trying to figure out what we have to do to re-engage the mass of fans that we’ve drawn for so long. We’ve got incredible fans and avid fans, but it’s obvious that those numbers are down. And we have more measuring tools and more media outlets and all those things now, so we have ways of measuring it.
Jimmie Johnson has made a habit of winning races - and championships - in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I personally don’t think it has anything to do with Jimmie winning four or five or six or however many (championships) he wins because I think each one that he wins makes it that much more challenging for the other ones to pull it off and to take that away from him, and I think it should engage fans in even more ways to be anxious to see somebody do that. And, plus, he’s building his fan base up while doing it because of how impressive it is.

“But I don’t think there’s anybody here in this room today that would disagree that if Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. was going for the championship and what that would do for us. I think we all know that. Shoot, let’s put Danica Patrick in there, as well. We all know what draws the mass number of fans and what gets those spikes in there. But there is no control over that, and Jimmie and Chad [Knaus] and that No. 48 team are the best team out there, and they’ve shown it year in and year out and they deserve what they’ve accomplished. If you want it, you’ve got to go get it.”

As Johnson seeks championship No. 5, the line waiting to succeed him gets longer.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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