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NASCAR: Johnson battles back for seventh title
Sunday, 20 November 2016
Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service / Images by Getty Images for NASCAR, Call him Seven-Time.
Jimmie Johnson joined NASCAR's most exclusive club on Sunday, winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, putting the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on par with icons Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
"You're a good man, you're a great champion, and now you're a seven-time champion," crew chief Chad Knaus radioed to Johnson, who grabbed the lead from Kyle Larson through Turns 1 and 2 during the first and only attempt at a two-lap overtime.
Johnson pulled away to win by .466 seconds. Polesitter Kevin Harvick ran third, followed by Championship 4 contender Joey Logano, who finished second in the final standings on the strength of his fourth-place run.


"Oh, my gosh, there is no, no way on earth," said Johnson, who picked up his first victory at Homestead, his fifth of the season and the 80th of his career. "Just beyond words. Just didn't think the race was unfolding for us like we needed to be the champs, but we just kept our heads in the game. Chad called a great strategy, made some great adjustments for the short runs.
"Luck came our way and we were able to win the race and win the championship. So grateful for the opportunity, and so thankful and blessed. I am at a loss for words."
Until the closing laps, Johnson seemed the least likely of the four finalists to win the championship. Carl Edwards was leading on Lap 252 of a scheduled 267 when Dylan Lupton's contact with the Turn 2 wall caused the fifth caution of the race.
On the subsequent restart, Edwards tried to block Logano into Turn 1, and the resulting nine-car wreck left Edwards' No. 19 Toyota crippled against the outside wall. The wreck knocked Edwards out of the race and left him fourth in the final standings.
Kyle Busch restarted next to Johnson on the inside of the second row on Lap 263 – after the accident that ended Edwards' night – but Logano, who had pitted for fresh tires on Lap 260, surged forward as Busch slipped back.
Larson, who led a race-high 132 laps, held the top spot with Johnson in second and Logano closing in third when Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Ford nosed hard into the inside wall off Turn 2 to cause the seventh and final caution on Lap 263.
On the ensuing overtime restart, Johnson started second to the inside of Larson, and cleared the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet through the first corner. Logano slipped to fourth and out of the championship picture.
"That last restart, I was hoping to get Jimmie there and trying to get either to the inside or outside of him," Logano said. "I just timed it a little bit wrong to get underneath him. I bumped him at the start/finish line, and I just didn't have enough time to get under him.
"We lost some time there, and unfortunately we finish second. The championship means so much and everyone forgets about second place. That's what stinks. But overall I'm proud of this team. This will be motivation for next year. This hurts."
Busch restarted 13th in the overtime after pitting for fresh tires, charged up to sixth over the final two laps and finished third in the championship standings.
"All in all, we fought hard tonight," said Busch, the defending series champion. "We gave it everything we had. We didn't come in here with the greatest race car today, but we knew that we had enough of a one that we could run with those guys, and we showed that when the lights came on.
Johnson, who didn't lead a lap until he beat Larson to the stripe on the final restart, had to overcome more than his share of adversity to reach his holy grail. In the first place, he surrendered his 14th-place starting position and took the green flag from the rear of the field after NASCAR discovered unapproved modifications to the "A" posts of the No. 48 Chevy during pre-race inspection.


By the time the first caution flag waved on Lap 27, however, Johnson had driven up to 17th place. But less-than-stellar pit stops kept him mired in traffic behind the other three championship contenders for the majority of the race – until an adjustment under caution on Lap 172 brought his car to life.
Notes: Tony Stewart finished 22nd, two laps down in his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race ... Toyota won its first manufacturers championship in the series, in the car maker's 10th season in NASCAR's top division.

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NASCAR: Johnson, Knaus master head games

Sunday, 20 November 2016
RACER Staff / Images by LAT, Getty Images for NASCAR
Even for a six-time (now seven-time) champion, starting from the back of the field in the biggest race of the year – which Johnson had to do after the team was deemed to have made unapproved changes – is a daunting task for both driver and crew.
But when it arguably hurt his competition on Sunday – a late-race pit stop lost defending champion Kyle Busch several spots before the final restart – Chad Knaus' 48 crew was able to get the job done, much as they did for most of the 2016 season.

"I think the strength of this team is being able to look adversity in the eye and just deal with it," said Knaus, who now Knaus sits one shy of the all-time crew chief championship record held by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Inman. "If you look at us throughout the course of our career, we've had crashes, we've had engine failures. We've had poor qualifying efforts. We've had things happen throughout the course of the race that we've been able to come back and win through.
"This team is solid from the standpoint that – just we might get wavered, we might get shaken, we might get knocked back on our heels, but then we bounce back and we start jabbing right back, and that's the way that we've rolled, and we're going to continue to work that way until we're done."
Johnson made it from 40th to the top 10 in about 30 laps, but handling issues seemed to dampen his optimism to the point where Knaus had to work a bit harder to get on the same page as his driver. Sometimes it's successful; sometimes it's not.
"Look, there's not one of us in here that can say we have any idea what guys through these guys' minds as they're out there racing these cars at 200 miles per hour," Knaus said. "We can act like we do, we can pretend that we do, we could pretend that we understand, but nobody in here does, nobody. When they're in that situation and they start to clam up, the best thing you can do is try to be their friend and try to make their realize that, hey, we're going to make it better, we're going to go forward.
"We probably are better at it [dealing with adversity] now than what we once were. I think a lot of it comes from security and comfort. I know that he believes in me, he knows that I believe in him. We know that we're not in fear of our jobs. We know that we've been able to win championships and win races. We've made a mark. We've made our mark."
"What happens from this point is – you know, is the toppings on the ice cream, right. So there's a lot of comfort in that, and there's a lot of guys out there right now, they don't have that comfort. They don't – if they'd won a championship, yeah, they'd have been heroes. They didn't win the championship, okay, well, maybe not so much now. Guys that win races, guys that don't win races. Guys' jobs on the line, not on the line. There's a lot of things that go through that as you go through sports, in any sport.
Tean owner Rick Hendrick considered splitting up the Knaus-Johnson partnership this summer – ending a 14-year run that built one of the most successful partnerships in NASCAR history. It might be hard to imagine.
"I love [Jimmie] like a brother," Knaus said. "Jimmie has taught me more about life than life itself has taught me. He's taught me about family. He's taught me about relationships. He's taught me about being a champion. You know, when we started this thing, all I was just a racer guy, and he was a cool California kid, and we kind of grew up together.
"To be in this situation to where we know he's got a handful of years left, whatever they may be, and for Jimmie and Mr. Hendrick to want me to stick with the 48 car and be at the helm of this ship, man, it's flattering. It really is flattering, because let's be honest, I'm getting older just like everybody else is. None of us is as young as we once were, and I look forward to the future with these guys."

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In the King's Court
The King, Richard Petty, narrates an essay that looks back at how Jimmie Johnson earned his shot at history and the importance of seven championships in NASCAR.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bj9_C8mHmI

Published on Nov 17, 2016

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Francisco Flores
Richard Petty said it best in the video, "in my day a driver had to maintain a certain level of greatness throughout the season. now there's a sprint to the finish, a driver has to be at his best for 10 weeks." If it weren't for the Chase, Jimmie would have 1-2 championships and Jeff Gordon would be the 3rd 7time champion









gman8825
you do realize Johnson has won by the old points system also meaning season long. he has won championships in every format NASCAR has come up with except the current one. people need to stop making excuses or comparing him, and realize the greatness that he is as a race car driver. he is one of the all time greats to ever climb in a car and one day all his haters will realize that once he is gone

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[h=2]Jimmie Johnson[/h] Jimmie Johnson is ahead of the pack. | Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

2016 Total earnings: $21.8 million
Welcome to the top of the leaderboard, Jimmie Johnson.
In 2016, the superstar driver took home his seventh NASCAR title, earned a whopping $16.8 million in winnings, and, thanks to deals with brands like Chevrolet, Seiko, and Gatorade, netted $5 million in endorsement and licensing money. With $21.8 million in total earnings, Johnson is officially the one to beat.
Information courtesy of Forbes. To see Forbes’ complete list of “NASCAR’s Highest-Paid Drivers 2017,” check out the gallery here.

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New livery for Jimmie Johnson:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...olet-48-a.html

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[h=2]RACER@25: Issue No. 124, August 2002 - Who is Jimmie Johnson?[/h] By RACER Staff

The start of RACER's second decade of existence coincided with several shifts in the racing landscape. In NASCAR, a 26-year-old motocross racer-turned-rookie won the pole in his debut race and quickly followed with his first win at Fontana. El Cajon, California native Jimmie Johnson was just "riding the wave, trying to experience stuff" as he absorbed a life where racing sometimes drowned in the sea of publicity and the criticisms for a young man being given the enviable resources of Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports.
It seems crazy now, but 15 years ago RACER wanted to know: "Who is Jimmie Johnson?" In "Sudden Superstar," Ben Blake examined the rookie who acted like a veteran, thrown in during the Year of the Young Guns – namely Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, who was still finding his footing after he was thrown "straight into the boiling fat" by Richard Childress after Dale Earnhardt's death. Blake captured a young man set to disprove the notion that he was handed the farm. "My dad [Gary] would kick my butt if I changed any," he said. "And I've got a lot of friends and family along the way who would stomp me into the ground if I let this get to me."
An interesting footnote to the Jimmie Johnson story came in January 1993, when RACER founder Paul Pfanner was introduced to Johnson by NoFear apparel’s marketing guru, Jim Hancock, while the future NASCAR superstar was racing at Anaheim Stadium in the Superlites class of the Mickey Thompson stadium off-road series. Within a few months Johnson and Pfanner were having a blast battling wheel-to-wheel in karts along with a host of top IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA, off road and SCCA racers as well as Supercross stars and assorted racing luminaries on a fun racetrack laid out on No Fear’s employee parking lot. These wild evening races occurred regularly over the spring and summer of ’93 and Johnson stood apart in his smooth, fast and clean driving style. Jimmie was something special and Pfanner and others who raced against Johnson at NoFear soon began to sing his praises. Supercross and off-road legend Ricky Johnson (no relation) soon pointed young Jimmie out to GM’s powerful and very astute motorsports director, Herb Fishel, and the rest is history.

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Johnson wins rain-delayed Bristol

Monday, 24 April 2017


By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service / Image by LAT

A week off and an extra day at Bristol did nothing to break Jimmie Johnson's momentum.

Grabbing the lead from Kevin Harvick on Lap 480 of 500 in Monday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Johnson stayed out front for the final 21 laps and beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line by 1.199 seconds.

The checkered flag was Johnson's second at the .533-mile short track, his second straight this season and the 82nd of his career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, leaving him one victory behind Cale Yarborough for sixth on the career wins list – and two behind Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison.

"That's just mind-blowing," said Johnson, who started 11th and led three times for 81 laps but didn't get to the front for the first time until Lap 394. "I wouldn't be here without (owner Rick) Hendrick's support. Thanks to him and to Jeff Gordon for believing in me.
"For Hendrick Motorsports to make this job kind of a family environment for all of us to thrive in has been a perfect environment for me and (crew chief) Chad Knaus and for the consistent group of guys behind me through all these years has led to the environment to win 82 races, or whatever it is, which is just insane.
"I'm truly humbled. I'm excited to win back-to-back races. I'm excited to win at Bristol. I guess we'll be at Indy testing for the next two days (at a Goodyear tire test), and we'll show up at Richmond and try again."
Bowyer passed Harvick, his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, on Lap 485 to post his best finish since running second at Richmond on April 27, 2013.
Harvick held third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano. Polesitter Kyle Larson came home sixth after leading the first 202 laps, but the driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet had to recover from a Lap 421 penalty for speeding on pit road.
The second-place run was bittersweet for Bowyer, who is looking for his first win since the fall Charlotte race in 2012. The driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Ford had visions of victory after he passed Harvick, but he couldn't run down the seven-time champion in the last 15 laps.
Harvick got the lead by staying out on old tires when the rest of the contenders, except for Denny Hamlin, came to pit road under the final caution on Lap 465.
"I thought our Jimmy John's Ford was the fastest car," Harvick said. We just needed track position. I think we showed how fast it was there on no tires and kind of able to hold our own... A good weekend, and we'll just keep going."
Notes: Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell out of the race in 38th place when oil on his tires from a broken oil cooler launched his No. 88 Chevrolet into the Turn 1 wall after a restart on Lap 218... Kyle Busch, one of the pre-race favorites, blew right front tires on two separate occasions. The second instance knocked Busch out of the race on Lap 384, after he had climbed back into the top 10. He finished 35th... Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Erik Jones ran in the top 10 all afternoon until a cut tire and subsequent contact from AJ Allmendinger's Chevrolet damaged his No. 77 Toyota. Jones salvaged a 17th-place finish as the second car one lap down.

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[h=2]Johnson as excited as ever at win No.82[/h] Monday, 24 April 2017



By Kelly Crandall / Images by LAT

By the sounds of Jimmie Johnson's radio after he took the checkered flag at Bristol Motor Speedway, it would be easy to assume he had just won his first race.


It wasn't. The Food City 500 will go down as the 82nd win of Johnson's legendary career, but Johnson was still excited. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Johnson let out an, "(expletive) yeah!" among other things. His burnout, on both the front and backstretch, was just as impressive as ever.

So, what exactly is it that can make Johnson excited after 82 wins and seven championships?


"Well, there's two parts to it," Johnson admitted. "One, this is what we work so hard to do, and I truly feel like NASCAR drivers are the best drivers in the world, and anytime you can ring the bell and win one of these shows, you've done something. You really have. "Then the second piece – which probably led to some of the profanity – was this place, personally, to win here and to run that competitive all day means a lot to me. I've loved this racetrack from afar, made my first laps here in 2000 in a Busch (Series) car, and was like, 'Where am I? What's going on? How do I get around this racetrack?' And it's been a journey since 2000.
"I know we won here one other time, but I think from a consistency standpoint, this is the best we've ever been, and I've been looking and trying to figure this place out. I've come here with the identical racecar that Jeff Gordon wins with, and I run 15th. That's where a lot of that emotion came from is more in the personal category today and getting that win."
With 82 career wins, Johnson sits seventh on the all-time wins list. He is now one behind Cale Yarborough for sixth on the list and two behind Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for fourth. While Richard Petty's 200 wins have always been viewed as insurmountable, David Pearson sits second on the list at 105.
Johnson has been adamant in the past that no driver, including himself, will break the 100-win mark. That's something he continues to assert even as he continues to close in.
"From watching Gordon (who has 93 career wins), he had a 13-win season one year," Johnson said. "It just seems too far out there that I don't think that the 100 is achievable. I hope I'm wrong, I really do. I would clearly love to do that. But again, I've always felt that that's just a such a big number and, with as competitive as our sport is, the new twist with stage racing and what it's done to our series, that's going to be a hard number to get to."
Of course, the ever-over-achieving Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, is looking at 100 and beyond.
"I think we can win every race," Knaus said. "Now, the likelihood of us winning every race is pretty slim. But in all actuality, the ability to go out there and win every single race is there. Yeah. I don't see why not. Why not 150, right? Honestly, from what I've seen out of this team, and what I've seen out of the ability of Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie, I don't think there's really too much that can't be reached."

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[h=2]Johnson benched by NASCAR due to a misunderstanding[/h] Monday, 16 October 2017


Kelly Crandall / Image by Kinrade/LAT



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A misunderstanding is what parked Jimmie Johnson during Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Collected in the big crash on Lap 173, Johnson took his car to pit road for possible repairs by his Hendrick Motorsports team. However, NASCAR had displayed the red flag and no work is allowed during that time. Officials deemed the team had worked on the car before the red flag had been officially rescinded and sent Johnson to the garage, ending his race.

"While we're under red no work or service can be done to the vehicles," Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's vice president of officiating and technical inspection, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday morning. "So, what happens is David Hoots, who is our race director, he will say as he did yesterday the cars that are stopped on the back straightaway [can] fire up the engines [but] we're still under red conditions."

"We talked to Chad [Knaus, crew chief] and Mr. Hendrick after the race. They totally understand, they got it – the situation that happened was David said 'fire them up', they fired the engines up on the back straightaway but we were still under red. The team assumed that they could go back to work."

Believing the red flag had been rescinded and the yellow was back out because the engines had been fired is what ended the No. 48 team's day.

Johnson questioned what happened after being released from the infield care center and called for NASCAR to rectify the situation. The position and points earned for Johnson and Co. are valuable as he is one of the 12 remaining playoff drivers.

"Our officials you would notice were on pit road telling them no you can't do that. Then the red was rescinded and we displayed the yellow, which would have allowed them to go back to work," Sawyer continued. "And because they were under the [damaged vehicle policy], and they worked on it under the red, that put them out of the event."

Johnson finished 24th. Going into the elimination race at Kansas Speedway this weekend, he holds a seven-point advantage on the provisional cutline.