Source:
www.foxsports.com
Get ready for the new Jimmie Johnson
Reid Spencer / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 hour ago
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Quick!
Think of all the personality traits you'd ascribe to NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson.
Charming, intelligent, disarming, thoughtful, competitive and focused all might come to mind. You could even throw in courteous and kind.
Goin' out West
Think NASCAR drivers all hail from the South? Think again. Lee Spencer says the West Coast is well represented on the Nextel Cup tour.
Now you can add outspoken and edgy to the list. That's right. Johnson is using the platform of his championship to dispel the bland, Boy Scout image he knows he projects in public — and thinks is undeserved.
So don't be too surprised if you hear the champ question the cost savings of NASCAR's current sacred cow, the Car of Tomorrow, or take issue with the new structure of the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
This is the new Jimmie, imbued with the authority of his title. Though his delivery might be as low-key and matter-of-fact as ever, the message is not.
Johnson, 31, was in town for Wednesday's Jimmie Johnson Day in San Diego, a celebration complete with proclamations from Mayor Jerry Sanders and the County Board of Supervisors, not to mention a message from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Enshrined in the city's Hall of Champions in Balboa Park, Johnson, who was born in nearby El Cajon, is the first driver in any of the speed sports named athlete of the year in San Diego. After the festivities, at a lunch table on the Hall's second floor, Johnson fielded questions from a handful of writers and made his feelings crystal clear.
"For me personally, it's been hard to have my personality show up on camera, in articles, on the radio," Johnson said. "When I go to work, I put on my work shoes, and that's what I do. I go to work, and I treat it as a professional.
"But after work and away from it, I have just as much fun as everyone else out there. But I've had this labeling put on me as being too 'PC' or too correct, and it's been hard to really see my personality. But it's only because I take my work seriously."
Johnson also takes his sport seriously, and he's acutely aware of the enormity of resources the conversion to the Car of Tomorrow has required at Hendrick Motorsports, which fields his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet.
"It's costing us $19 million to convert from the current package to the Car of Tomorrow, so I don't see how it's saving us any money," he said. "The car was designed to save money and close the gap (between the large and small teams), but the thing nobody noticed was that the gap was closing because we perfected this (current) package. NASCAR knew all the areas the teams were working in, and the bottom (of the field) was catching up.
"But now it's changed, and it's wide open again. And unless you're a new team coming in, I don't know how it's going to save you money. Maybe that's what they're focusing on — new teams coming in the sport. But for all the existing teams, now all our cars are obsolete and we're starting over."
As to the Chase, Johnson takes issue with the new format, which he feels diminishes the importance of the first 26 races. After the Chase cutoff at Richmond in Sept., 12 drivers will be seeded according to number of victories, with no extra benefit to the driver leading the points at the cutoff.
"I'm still trying to get over the Chase in general, and now we've got a change in the Chase," Johnson said. "I'm disappointed, because it takes away from the first 26 races. All you've got to do is be in the top 12, and you've got some crazy seeding based on wins, and I'm not sure that format's going to inspire anybody to win. We're always trying to win as it is.
"I don't know how it's going to make for a better show. That's been a concern of mine all along. I think there needs to be more separation in the points, and in my opinion, they needed to have a bigger break when you got into the Chase. All that's built on the fact that we have 26 races, and I think there should be more credit given to a team over those 26 races, and it's kind of going the other way now. It's less credit for what you accomplish during the season.
"The leader has nothing. It's crazy."
Johnson believes hosting his own show on XM Satellite Radio — aptly titled "Jimmie Johnson...Not What You Expected" — will give fans a more in-depth look at what makes him tick.
In that context, and in general, you can expect Johnson to speak his mind without holding back. That's what a champion can do, and Johnson has already grown into the role.
After the Hall of Champions event, Johnson weighed in on a variety of subjects:
# On Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s enormous popularity: "Junior's fan base is the fans that live, eat and breathe every single second of NASCAR. They're going to be vocal, they're going to be there, and they're going to cheer for their guy. That's just how it is. As I experience more and more of our sport, I have a huge fan base, Jeff (Gordon) has a huge fans base, but our fans might not be at the race. So the Southern fans that support Junior, those guys are there in force, getting rowdy for their guy, and it's cool to see it.
"It's got to be one heck of a rush to be in Junior's situation to see all that. It's not just myself that they boo. They boo a lot of people, and it's fun to watch and see it. It's crazy. It's the Red Nation, and he's got it going on out there at the racetracks."
# On Toyota's debut in Nextel Cup: "I'm not sure how other people feel about it, but personally, I think it's good for the sport. I think competition is really what founded our sport in a lot of ways, obviously on track, but then you look at the reason Home Depot got into the sport — well, Lowe's was in it. You look at Budweiser and Miller. The competition is what makes corporate America spend money in our sport and advertise.
"So I think Toyota's great, and it's going to put a lot of pressure on the manufacturers to supply more technical support, more financial support, more marketing support to brag about their accomplishments. So it's good for the sport. It really is."
# On the one thing that makes him most nervous: "The thing I hate the most and despise doing is the public speaking part of the banquet. That is the toughest thing in our sport to do, to stand up there, write a speech, deliver the speech and make it sound like you're not reading it. I'm more nervous for that that anything else that we do. I hate it."
# On his racing wish list: "Some day I'd love to race at Le Mans, and then I'd also love to run Indy, the 500."
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