Results tagged “Jimmie Johnson” from Haddock in the Paddock

Just when it looked like the Chase was going to be a two-driver race between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, along comes Jimmie Johnson and the ghost of Cale Yarborough.
Johnson has won the past two Cup championships and has a chance to join Yarborough as the only driver to win three straight.
Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Petty are recognized as the top drivers of their eras, but no one, not ever Petty, could touch Yarborough for three years.
Johnson has won the past two Cup races, including the Labor Day race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, and stuck his nose between the top two drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
That gives Johnson four wins this year, to Busch's eight and Edwards' six. No other driver in the Chase has more than one win.
But leave it to Johnson to try and play the role of underdog as the Chase starts at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend.
"I'm trying to show up at next week's race scared, worried about 11 other guys, and worry about doing my part," Johnson said. "And the thing is I have confidence in what my abilities are and what my team is capable of and the packages we have put together in the last five or six months -- short track, big track, all of it."
There are five drivers in the Chase without a win. Some pretty big names are on that list, including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. It's hard to imagine Gordon and Stewart going a full Cup season without a win.
They should at least win one of the Chase races.
But like in Chase's past, Johnson is getting hot at the right time. He says he's worried about the other 11 drivers in the Chase. Busch and Edwards should be the ones worried about Johnson ruining their great seasons.
"So you know, there's a lot of cars... you just never know what's going to happen," Johnson said. "So I want to show up next week worried about all 11 of them and just do my job."
For the past two years, his job has been winning Cup champioships.

Carl Edwards, the hottest driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and Jimmie Johnson, who won last year's Labor Day Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, were the two fastest drivers in the first practice on Saturday at the track.
Edwards had a top lap at 177.958 mph. Johnson, the pole winner for the race, had a top lap at 177.117 mph.
A couple surprises in the top 10 in practice were David Ragan and Brian Vickers.
Ragan had the fourth fastest lap and Vickers had the sixth fastest.
The cars and drivers will return to the track for a final practice session at 5:20 p.m.

Kyle Busch is up for two ESPYs and Jimmie Johnson is up for one.
Busch is nominated for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Driver. Johnson is up for Best Driver as well.
Dario Franchitti, who recently lost his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride with Chip Ganassi, is also nominated for Best Driver. He did win the Indianapolis 500 and the IRL IndyCar Series championship last year.
The other drivers nominated for Best Driver are:
Lewis Hamilton, Formula One
Scott Dixon, IRL
Tony Schumacher, NHRA

The others nominated for Best Breakthrough Athlete are:
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
Stephen Curry, Davidson Basketball
Ana Ivanovic, Tennis

Jimmie Johnson, winner of two straight NASCAR Cup championships, wants to join Cale Yarborough as the only driver to win three Cups in a row and has his sights on reaching Jeff Gordon's mark of four Cup titles.
Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images for NASCAR

Jimmie Johnson will race in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the opening race in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, with drivers Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser in the No. 99 Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac-Riley.
"This is going to be a lot of fun," said Johnson, who will be making his fourth start in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. "I really want to win the Rolex 24 and have tried a couple of times. I think joining this team will give me the best shot ever. What these guys were able to do last season was amazing. I have nothing but the highest respect for this team, drivers and the Rolex Series and hope I can celebrate with them when we roll the Lowe’s/GAINSCO car into victory lane.”
Johnson finished 36th for the Riley-Matthews team last year. His best finish came in 2005 when he finished second for Howard-Boss Motorsports.
"I have said this before and don’t mind telling everyone again: One of the coolest things I have ever done in my career is watching the sun come up over the Daytona International Speedway at daybreak from behind the wheel of a prototype," Johnson said. "That was such a beautiful sight and such a peaceful, cool feeling. I'm going to make sure I am in the car when the sun comes up this year."
The normally red painted No. 99 will also carry the blue and silver Lowe’s paint scheme similar to paint scheme Johnson drives each weekend in Cup racing. The team will participate in the traditional three-day Rolex 24 test on Jan. 4-6.

Jimmie Johnson, the two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion, will race in three Nationwide Series races in 2008. One of those races will be Aug. 30 at California Speedway.
Johnson will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet Impala in both races at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina in addition to the California Speedway race.
“I always love running the Nationwide car,” said Johnson, whose No. 5 Chevrolet will be fielded by JR Motorsports in partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. “We have raced in this series a few times over the last few years and performed pretty well. It’s a fun series to drive in. I want to have fun, but I would like to get a few more victories there. I have one from 2001, but I would like a lot more.”
Johnson has raced these same three races, in what was the Busch Series, in each of the past two years. Johnson has won the past two Cup Series championships. Last year, he won 10 races, the most of any driver in the series, and has 33 career Cup victories, which ties him for 18th in NASCAR history.
“We are very pleased to sponsor Jimmie in this series again in 2008,” said Bob Gfeller, Lowe’s senior vice president of marketing and advertising. “Our customers, employees and race fans love to see the two-time NASCAR champion on the track on Saturday as well as Sunday.”
Johnson has 87 starts in the old Busch Series and won the Chicagoland Speedway race in 2001.

By winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway last weekend, Jimmie Johnson is tied with Fireball Roberts for 19th in career Cup wins. They have 33. Next on the list is Mark Martin with 35.
Since Martin might have a win or two left in him before he calls it quits, it could be a while before Johnson catches him.
After that, Bobby Isaac is 16th with 37 wins and Tim Flock is 15th with 39. Johnson is still well behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who has 81 career Cup wins. Gordon is fifth on the list.
Barring disaster, Johnson will win his second career Cup championship after the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. If he doesn't win the championship, only Gordon can catch him.
“No matter what happens, we know the Nextel Cup trophy will be at Hendrick Motorsports and that’s a great thing for our organization," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "The lead that we have, it's a nice, comfortable position to be in. But we've got to go down there and run 400 miles. That's bottom line. If we don't run the full distance of the race then we’re in trouble."
Johnson probably doesn't have a lot to worry about. The car his team is taking to Homestead is a three-time winner. It won races at Las Vegas, Atlanta and the Labor Day race at California Speedway. It's a good car and it will be the last time Johnson will be able to drive it. Next year, all the Cup races will be with NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, meaning Chevrolet teams will be running the new Impala model and putting the Monte Carlos on the shelf.
But it doesn't look like Johnson is putting too much thought into what car he is racing at Homestead.
"The lead takes some pressure off, but we're going to go down there and try to keep it simple like we've done," Johnson said. "Go out there, run our race, do our thing. I'm just trying to keep it simple and not get caught up in things. Last week was a good example of disappearing and going on vacation for a couple days. Not reading or seeing any highlights on TV, nothing, I was completely out of the loop. I hope I can do that this week. Show up, keep it simple, and get in the race car and go. I don't want to act like it's our championship yet. We have a nice margin in the points right now. But 400 miles, that's my goal. I have to run 400 more miles, and we'll get nuts after that.”