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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Johnson Heads West To Celebrate
Jimmie Johnson will be a busy man...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 27, 2009   Charlotte, NC
A week after a whirlwind media tour in New York, 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson will head to California Monday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Now that his media tour of New York is complete, along with a brief break for Thanksgiving, newly minted four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will prepare for his West Coast celebrations.
A week after a whirlwind media tour in New York, 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson will head to California Monday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Champion’s Week begins Monday in Johnson’s hometown of El Cajon, Calif., and it is a very full schedule indeed.

On Monday, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation will award grants to 11 San Diego-area schools at 11 a.m. PT at Crest Elementary School in El Cajon, the school Johnson attended.

From there, it’s on to the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, where Johnson will host an interactive fan fest for Marines and their families from 3-7 p.m. The rock band Saving Abel will appear.

The day will conclude with a homecoming celebration from 7-10 p.m. at Lowe’s, 9416 Mission Gorge Road, Santee. The event will include music, video tributes and special guests.

On Tuesday, from 10 a.m.-noon, Johnson will be at Auto Club Speedway to participate in a breakfast and Q&A for 700 of the track’s pre-registered guests.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited Johnson’s accomplishments this past Monday, just hours after Johnson became the first driver to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup titles. “His performance is a testament to our state’s championship spirit and I am proud to say he’s from California,” the governor said.

On Wednesday, the party will head to Las Vegas, culminating Friday night with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony, which will be televised live at 9 p.m. on SPEED.

Johnson, 34, sewed up his fourth consecutive championship last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Among his myriad accomplishments:

• Johnson’s 141-point margin of victory over Mark Martin was the largest in the six-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He beat 10 of the other 11 Chase drivers by a margin of more than one full race.

• Johnson has 47 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins, which puts him 13th on the all-time list. His winning percentage of 16.2 percent is sixth-best all-time.

• In the 144 total races from Johnson’s championship years of 2006-09, Johnson has 29 victories, coming in some of the most prestigious races in all of motorsports: Daytona 500 (2006), NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (2006), Brickyard 400 (2006, 2008, 2009).

• In those 144 races, Johnson had 64 top fives, 94 top 10s, an average finish of 10.5, and 6,340 laps led (14.9 percent).

• During his title years, 2006-09, Johnson collected 12 wins, 24 top fives and 31 top 10s in the 40 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races. He averaged a finish of 7.1 and led 2,756 laps (21.5 percent).

• Johnson is the only driver to make all six Chases. In the 60 Chase races since 2004, Johnson has a series-high 18 wins — for a winning percentage of 30 percent.

• He is the only driver to win four races during the 10-race Chase (three times: 2004, 2007, 2009).

• Johnson has finished in the top five in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com! Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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