Drive for Five? Jimmie Johnson's Reign May Continue

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- With two laps to go, pop star Nick Lachey began clapping and cheering on his good friend. The back slaps and handshakes among crew, family and friends started coming like a slow wave picking up speed as Jimmie Johnson slid his Chevy out of the final turn and approached the last checkered flag of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

His father, Gary, stood behind the growing celebration in his son's pit stall at Homestead Miami Speedway -- a huge smile on his face, a sparkling Superman pin attached over the logo of his Hendrick Motorsports cap.

Superman is the nickname bestowed on Johnson, who on Sunday became the first driver in NASCAR's 61-year history to win a fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship.

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"So proud,'' was about all Gary Johnson could muster in the minutes right after his son officially claimed his esteemed position in sport history. "It still hasn't sunk in. I was fine until the last 100 laps and I kept thinking of something that could go wrong.''

Nope. Since Johnson arrived in the NASCAR's marquee Cup ranks eight years ago, something usually has gone right.

And its time to give Johnson his just due as one of the truly great drivers of all time.

Nice guys can finish first.

Johnson's seven race wins was best among his competitors this season as are his 16 top-five finishes. His four pole positions were second best and his 24 top-10s second only to teammate Jeff Gordon.

He won races when he didn't have to. He rallied when he needed to. And he did it all with class.

A one-time dirt bike rider from a tiny mountaintop neighborhood outside El Cajon, Calif., Johnson has established himself as the class of the field 3,000 miles away in NASCAR-land. And if the 34-year-old Johnson keeps up this pace -- four titles and two runner-ups in eight seasons -- he could challenge Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt's seven-championship tally.

But that wasn't what Johnson was thinking about Sunday evening after clinching his fourth straight title -- a feat that neither Petty nor Earnhardt ever did.

As Johnson sat in his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet waiting for the championship stage to be set up for his confetti celebration and trophy hoist, Johnson confessed his mind wandered back to a modest beginning and unlikely route to super-stardom.

"Just thinking about where I started, riding around in a 1979 Ford Van with a little eight-foot enclosed trailer behind it going to motorcycle races around the country and now I'm sitting there on Turn 2 after winning my fourth championship.'' Johnson said, recalling his family's weekend retreats to the Southern California desert to watch him race as a young boy.

"I thought about my first four-wheel experience and the first time I drove a stock car.

"I was thinking on the back stretch over there that my first race in an ASA (American Speed Association) car was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and I didn't know how to pass anyone. ... So there was a lot of memories like that flipping around my mind.

"It was neat to have a few minutes just to smile and be proud of what we've done.

"Then,'' he joked. "My ADD kicked in and it was time to get going.''

Even as Johnson has proven himself time after time, fans still question the legitimacy of the reverence he receives.

They are critical of Johnson's Chase-format titles, but his own competition insists it's more difficult to win this way than in the past.

"If you had a bad race with the old format, that was one-36th of your season, now if you have a bad race in the Chase, that's one-tenth of your season,'' said Tony Stewart, the only active driver to win both pre-Chase era (2002) and Chase (2005) titles.

Johnson now ties Gordon, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, with four titles -- interesting because it was Gordon who recommended Johnson for the job.

"I was confident in Hendrick Motorsports and I did see something in Jimmie that I thought could be special,'' Gordon said.

"I had no idea it was going to take off and do what it's done. But I sure am happy now because I look pretty good saying, 'oh yeah, absolutely, he's going to do all that.' ''

If Gordon was that confident, it's safe to say Johnson was only cautiously optimistic. He never anticipated making a living driving stock cars.

"Winning a race at the Cup level was my goal when this whole thing started ... and then that happened and I keep re-adjusting my goals,'' Johnson said. "I never thought I'd be here.''

"I'd love to win more championships and more races than what anybody else has done, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.

"I certainly look at the seven championships of Petty and Earnhardt as being at the top, but this [fourth in a row] puts us up there.

"And the cool thing is, we're not done yet. We've got a lot of racing left ahead of us."