Jimmie Johnson has spent seven years in Nascar carefully cultivating his clean-cut, clean-shaven corporate pitchman image, never daring to let his hair down long enough for a strand to accidentally fall out of place.
So it was surprising when Johnson arrived at Daytona International Speedway last week sporting a scruffy beard and a mustache.
“It’ll be around for a while,” he said of his off-season guilty pleasure. “Why not?”
Forty career victories and three titles should be proof enough of what Johnson is about. Yet he still seemingly has something to prove, as Johnson found out when Carl Edwards was picked in a vote by members of the news media to win the championship this year.
“If we won three championships in a row, you’d think you’d be the favorite,” Johnson said. “But we all have to go to the track and prove it out, so it was more, kind of a funny moment, when I was like, ‘Really, what’s a guy have to do to be considered the favorite?’ ”
Jimmie Johnson finds himself in an odd position for someone who has dominated NASCAR the last three seasons.
Fighting for respect.
It’s probably the dullness, the lack of Dale Earnhardt Jr.-like qualities. Or how he always says the right things, careful not to offend anyone.
The belief is that if Johnson showed a little more personality, he would earn more respect for his amazing run that started with a victory in the 2006 Daytona 500. The El Cajon, Calif., native has been collecting history ever since, and wants a record fourth consecutive series title to break the tie with legend Cale Yarborough.
Johnson already has joined an elite group of eight drivers who have won three or more titles. He is one short of matching Gordon, a suddenly attainable feat.
Could Johnson eventually catch Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, who won seven titles apiece in their careers? Never say never.
“Everybody could be caught,” Petty said in January. “I caught somebody to get where I was at.”
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