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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Q&A - Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Johnson visited New York to celebrate his fourth consecutive championship...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 25, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Only hours after winning his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, Jimmie Johnson headed to New York. (Photo: Getty Images)
Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. Jimmie Johnson reckons that title sounds mighty fine to him, as well it should.

Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team blew away the competition in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. In fact, Johnson was so dominant that his teammate Mark Martin was the only driver to finish within one full race of Johnson in the points.

In the five previous years of the Chase, the biggest margin of victory was 79 points; Johnson beat Martin by 141. Eight of the 12 drivers in the Chase finished more than 300 points behind Johnson.

The first man in NASCAR history to win the Cup title four years in a row spent the early part of Thanksgiving week doing a media tour of New York as part of his champion’s obligations.

While in New York, Johnson participated in a NASCAR media teleconference on Tuesday. Excerpts follow.

Welcome, Jimmie. That four time sounds pretty good to you, I guess.

That sounds great. I'm so proud of what we've done. Enjoying everything that's coming with it, and it's been really exciting time.

Jimmie, it's been a busy 48 hours I imagine.

It has. It's been real busy, but great reason to be doing some — great chance to talk about what the team has accomplished, what we've done, and to make history here is pretty neat.

I was wondering if you could put into some kind of perspective what it means for your team to win another championship. I mean, you've gotten a lot of credit, but how much does the team really kind of factor into everything?

They're a huge part of it. We are a team. I couldn't do it without them and they couldn't do it without me. It starts with Rick and his vision and what he has given us all to work with in his 25 years in the sport. He's just done an amazing job. I'm happy to make him happy, I'm happy to make him smile.

And I look forward to what the future holds for us, as well. I think the company is only becoming stronger. I think I'm only becoming a better race car driver, and our team is working really well together. The fact we took one, two, three in the points also gives the company a lot of pride.

What are you expecting from Champions Week in Las Vegas?

I'm excited for it. … I do understand the reasons we were in New York, and I'm going to miss that from being here in the Big Apple. But I think from working the banquet like I have the last three years and being the champion and running around town, we're going to have a lot more free time and better use of time in Las Vegas. With the holiday shopping and all that goes on in the city, we spend a lot of time riding in an SUV from obligation to obligation. Maybe it'll allow me to have a little bit more sleep between all the fun that we're having.

Are you irked by the criticism that you're too nice or too mellow or not controversial enough?

No. I mean, over the last couple years my fan base has grown leaps and bounds. You can read any of the data that's provided and skewed in a variety of different ways, and there's a lot of very favorable data that's out there comparing me to other athletes worldwide and a lot of really cool things that have gone on.

And then within our sport, I'm racing with some of the great, and there's different reasons why guys are — obviously (Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s) success and Junior's popularity is there for a lot of different reasons. One way people measure things is based on souvenir sales, and our souvenir sales is one of the few that has been showing an increase. But we have had the same paint scheme for a long period of time.

So I guess the bottom line is there's a lot of factors that play into that. I'm very proud of the fan base that I have. It's a very large fan base, and it's growing rapidly.

As far as being controversial, I do my fair share of stupid things and say stupid things, but in general I try to be a good sport. My parents instilled sportsmanship in me. When I tune in to watch football, I'm not the one that's watching T.O. or Ochocinco or whatever his name is these days; I'm more a fan of Jerry Rice, a guy who's out there grinding it out, scores a touchdown and runs back to the sidelines to figure out how they're going to win the game.

We're all ourselves. I've stayed true to myself and will continue to do that as time goes on.

I'm just wondering about the rookies in the Chase this year. If you can talk about that. In particular Juan Pablo Montoya started well but he faded the last few races and then Brian Vickers made it with a three year old team and he never just seemed to find his feet anywhere in the Chase.

Yeah, I have to say I was surprised that the 83 team (Vickers) didn't have more luck in the Chase. I know being friends with Brian, he shared with me a few mechanical issues they had that were unforeseen and led to some bad results. But in general they were so hot before the Chase, I don't know what went on during the Chase.

Juan, it completely blew me away and I think the entire industry the success that he has had. The team has been dealing with some difficulties, financial difficulties and a merger, and there's a lot of something going on, on top of the fact he's still trying to learn these cars and tracks. So I really think that he and Brian Pattie have done an awesome job. They've showed that they're going to be around for a long time and be a team to worry about.

Is this something that time fixes do you think?

It does. Experience is everything. It took us four years to really hit our stride. I look at the 5 car and Mark Martin and look at what those guys did in one year working together. It's hard to think of Mark as a rookie by any means, but he was with a new team, and they did have some growing pains getting started and came on super strong. I think time is going to help the 5, time is going to help the 42, and really all teams for that matter, especially the longer the team can stay together. The years together really make a big difference.

Has it been any more, I guess, fulfilling, humbling, odd, what have you, having caught Jeff (Gordon) so fast, considering his impact on the early part of your career and the performance level he was at when you first got into the sport?

Yeah, it is humbling. I can remember looking at him with wide eyes, and it was like, “Wow, how did you do it? How do you get there?” And really coming to grips with it in my mind that there's no way I would ever do it. So to be here and to have the same amount of championships and the experience and all the success we've had and race wins, it's hard to believe. When I really think about it, it is really, really hard to believe that eight years ago, I was like, “Hey, man, can you help me win one?” And here we are with all this.

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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