Is Jimmie Johnson Good for NASCAR?

I’ve always been a fan of excellence in sports. I admired the Pittsburgh Steelers team of the 70s that won four Super Bowls, with Terry Bradshaw at the quarterback position. Yet I’ve always disliked America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys I’ve always viewed as arrogant; the Steelers where just good and knew it, and let their play show it.

So what is it about a team or an athlete that inspires fans to either embrace or root against them?

Case in point: Jimmie Johnson. He seems an amiable enough fellow. He possesses all-American good looks (that even a beard can’t grizzle), is a good spokesperson for NASCAR, and has talent enough to start the 2010 season with a drive for five consecutive championships, a feat never before accomplished in NASCAR. Yet I don’t care for Johnson.

Is it because he comes across at times as a whiner? He can bump draft another driver into the fence to win a race, call it “racing” in the winner’s circle, only to complain the next week when someone does it to him. Not like I haven’t heard a host of other drivers say the same thing.

Is it because he’s young and handsome and always says the right thing from the winner’s circle, never forgetting to thank all his sponsors, his team for giving him a winning car? No different than any other driver who makes it to the winner’s circle.

Yet last fall, when it became apparent that Johnson would win his fourth championship, while Johnson fans tuned in each Sunday to root on their man, I found myself choosing other forms of entertainment to watch.

Maybe it’s the confidence he and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, possess, which borders on arrogance, that I find so distasteful. Before the Bristol race, Johnson was so pleased with his car, he told his team to have the champagne ready for a post-race celebration. Well, Ty Cobb was arrogant, too, and while I never saw him play, I admire him for what he accomplished between the chalk lines even as I dislike him as a human being.

The fact is, together with Knaus, Johnson has set the bar so high that other drivers and teams are hustling to catch up. But they’ve been hustling for five years. Johnson and Knaus are again, in 2010, the team to beat, as they have been for five years.

I don’t know the secret to their success any more than the other teams and drivers know it. If they did, there might be more drama on Sunday.

I don’t expect NASCAR to change their rules to hinder Johnson’s team any more than I expect the other drivers to gang up on Johnson on the track; what I want to see is another team and driver beat Johnson at his own game.

The truth is, Johnson and Knaus are simply racing at a higher level than the other teams—men racing against boys. The rules are the same, but they’ve found something, some edge, that is leaving the other teams in the dust.

Is it cheating? Not likely, although a few years ago, Knaus was forced to sit out a few races for cheating. If they are cheating, they’re able to hide it from NASCAR officials.

Perhaps it’s as simple as the chemistry between driver and crew chief. Johnson is able to communicate during the race what changes he needs and Knaus is able to give him what he wants to make the car better. Johnson can start a race with an ill-handling car, but by race end be competing for the checkered. Other drivers start with a hot setup only to fade, even as still others can’t improve their car beyond that with which they started.

It’s not rocket science. Or maybe it is and the other teams just need to go back to school.

So I’m tasking the other teams and drivers to step up their efforts to knock the king from his throne. Come November, I want to see 12 other drivers racing for the Cup, with Johnson sitting on the outside looking in.