{"id":23610,"date":"2019-02-23T13:04:34","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T19:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23610"},"modified":"2019-02-23T17:14:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T23:14:36","slug":"jimmie-johnson-looking-to-jumpstart-hall-of-fame-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/23\/jimmie-johnson-looking-to-jumpstart-hall-of-fame-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson looking to jumpstart Hall of Fame career"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> was appreciative of fellow Californian Kevin Harvick\u2019s<\/strong> kind words to the press corps Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway \u2013 a nod to his often under-appreciated seven-championship run from one of his elite competitors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, pits during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI feel like, in my opinion, Jimmie is one of the most disrespected great drivers that have every come through this garage.,\u2019\u2019 Harvick said Friday, days after having Johnson as a guest on his weekly SiriusXM Radio NASCAR radio show. \u201cJimmie Johnson is just a good old fashioned great guy. He helps people and has done great things in the garage and in a race car, out of a race car, and sometimes I feel like we forget that he has won seven championships and all the races that he has won and all the great things he has done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t like he came from a rich daddy or family that had a lot of money. He came all the way up from the bottom to the top and worked hard and had a lot of success and has won as many championships as Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never feel like he is on that pedestal next to those guys appropriately. Sometimes I feel like as a group, from a fan standpoint, I feel like you are just letting it go by and not even realizing that you are watching one of the greatest careers that will ever come through the garage.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, prepares to drive during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on October 19, 2018 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But as grateful as Johnson was to hear that a fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion had offered the praise, the seven-time champ politely put the focus back on this weekend\u2019s Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a track where Johnson\u2019s five wins are most among this week\u2019s Cup field. He is the highest driver rating (102.8) and has earned the most top-fives (14) and top-10s (16) on the Atlanta 1.5-miler of anyone competing against him.<\/p>\n

But he hasn\u2019t won in since June of 2017 at Dover, Del. \u2013 and last year endured the first winless season of his certain Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n

So while he was humble and so appreciative of Harvick\u2019s praise, he deflected the lauds a bit, preferring to focus on the task at hand – getting back into the win column and just perhaps becoming the first driver in NASCAR history to hoist eight Cup trophies.<\/p>\n

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Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWow, I certainly appreciate those kinds words from Kevin,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said when informed what Harvick had said minutes earlier. \u201cI\u2019m not sure of the context of the question and really the length of his answer and what it was all about, but we\u2019ve had a great run and accomplished a lot of great things; more than I really ever imagined that I would. But, I feel like every driver probably has something that they probably deserve and something they don\u2019t deserve along the way of progressing through this sport.<\/p>\n

“And, I\u2019ve had my good and my bad and it is what it is. Honestly, I quit paying attention to a lot of the public opinion stuff years ago. It doesn\u2019t do me any good and I\u2019m just going to keep my head down and keep working. Some weekends I think things goes your way and you get the praises that you would hope to and other weekends it doesn\u2019t and it\u2019s just kind of the evolution of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s unmatched record at Atlanta certainly fuels the optimism he brings into Sunday\u2019s race. His eighth place finish in last week\u2019s Daytona 500 \u2013 rallying from a late race accident on pit road, not of his own doing \u2013 gives him hope as well. It was promising debut for Kevin Meendering, the first new crew chief for Johnson after a 17-year, seven-title run with Chad Knaus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Johnson won the non-points Clash race two weeks ago at Daytona and the positive start gives the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team momentum to build on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a nice confidence boost,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said. \u201cThe fast cars in general, helped. But the 500 itself with all the challenges thrown at Kevin and the crew, there was no better way to test where we\u2019re at as a group than to go through that.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, there are a couple of things that we need to kind of tighten-up on and get better. But, my guys are eager and ready to go. We had a good week of learning and conversation on how to handle some of those situations a little bit better. But, we were put under the gun with multiple attempts at fixing the car under that six-minute window and got it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think the guys did really good and especially with Kevin leading them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like his competitors, Johnson said he\u2019s mostly unsure what to expect this weekend at Atlanta with the debut of a new engine modification (tapered spacers), which will lower the horsepower by about 200 HP at non-restrictor plate tracks larger than 1.2-miles in length \u2013 like Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think patience is going to be key in general,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said, adding with a smile, \u201cI know none of us were really raised in this industry to have patience, or even our fan base for that matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I think this is one of the more challenging tracks for this rules package. I think California is going to be really challenging for this rules package. When you have a lot of tire falloff and the lower horsepower, I think that will just be tougher and more difficult to race and to get things sorted out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when we go to a track like Las Vegas, it\u2019s going to put on a heck of a show. Just in the test session with 13 cars, I was four-wide multiple times in those little small races that they had. So, I think we\u2019ll have a good flavor of things here in the first five races. Obviously, we\u2019ll go to Phoenix and have last year\u2019s package back, in a sense, with having full power. So, I think these first five weeks will give a good indication of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Johnson isn\u2019t overly-confident with his Daytona top 10, he was cognizant that it marked his fourth top 10 going back to last year\u2019s playoffs. Having new variables \u2013 such as what teams are faced with in Atlanta \u2013 fazes him less, considering all the new adjustments he has internally with his team.<\/p>\n

But to come out of the box fast and to have already celebrated in victory lane once, Johnson looked fittingly prepared to return to a place he\u2019s had so much success \u2013 Atlanta Motor Speedway and its victory lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it all plays out,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said. \u201cThis package is so new to all of us. Some are clearly trimmed out more and more worried about single car speed than others and we\u2019ll just see how this all plays out over this weekend; and honestly, probably the next two or three weekends until we can really get our arms around what we need for qualifying and also for the race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Jimmie Johnson was appreciative of fellow Californian Kevin Harvick\u2019s kind words to the press corps Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway \u2013 a nod to his often under-appreciated seven-championship run from one of his elite competitors. \u201cI feel like, in my opinion, Jimmie is one of the most disrespected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[63,16],"class_list":["post-23610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-68O","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/358278.jpg?fit=4816%2C3095&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23614,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions\/23614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}