Jimmie Johnson Is Good… But He’s Lucky, Too

FONTANA, CA - FEBRUARY 21: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway on February 21, 2010 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The remark came in response to Johnson’s win at Fontana, Calif. in the second race of the season. NASCAR called a caution while Johnson was on pit road, but he beat the pace car back to the scoring line, came out the leader, and won the race. Harvick finished second.
 
A month later to the day, Johnson managed to take control late in the race to earn his first win at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch, who finished third, probably had the strongest car that day, but got boxed in and ended up in third place.
 
Busch later commented that of all the possibilities, the car you least want to see coming up behind you is Johnson’s. “I would rather lose to any of the other 41 cars out there than the 48 car,” he said.
 
There is no denying the existence of luck. It’s lurking out there, just waiting for someone to brush against it as they purchase a winning lottery ticket, swish a basketball through the net from half court while blindfolded, or find that missing-presumed-gone-for-good diamond earring when emptying the vacuum cleaner.
 
But as any good — or bad — Vegas gambler will tell you, you don’t marry your luck. You can only have a date with her once in a while, and she’s awfully fickle. It seems to be a case not of you choosing luck, but of luck choosing you.
 
Granted, Johnson was absolutely on the receiving end of some good luck at Fontana, but as he pointed out after the race, “… You don’t get lucky and win four championships and 48 races.”
 
Good point. And that’s 50 wins now, by the way.
 
Realistically, you can’t get mad at a guy for getting a lucky break. So what are the other drivers really so worked up about? Why do they seem to feel that no matter how much they do, it isn’t quite enough?
 
Because Jimmie Johnson has managed to accomplish one of the most difficult feats in sports. He has gotten inside his competitors’ heads.
 
He knows it, too. During a NASCAR teleconference on March 23, when asked if his success was taking some of the fun out of the sport, Johnson replied, “No. I’m having a blast … it’s comical. I’m glad we’re doing this to these guys.”
 
Where I come from, them’s fighting words.
 
When that one pesky gnat starts buzzing around your head, the situation goes from annoying to infuriating in a hurry. Instead of methodically figuring out how to brush it away, you just want to slap it. Right now. Hard.
 
The problem with that system is that usually you end up slapping yourself in the head more than once, while the gnat just continues to taunt you. This creates a whopper of a headache, in more ways than one.
 
Let’s take a quick look at some of the guys currently in the top 12 in driver standings. Matt Kenseth: Champion. Tony Stewart: Champion. Jeff Gordon: Champion. Kurt Busch, the winner at Atlanta earlier this season: Champion. Anyone who thinks these guys have forgotten how to drive, or have lost the desire to win, is just delusional.
 
The question in most people’s mind seems to be how to fix things … assuming, that is, that they’re broken. Personally, I think Kenseth, Stewart, Gordon, Busch and at least a dozen more drivers could win any given race. And I have to believe that no matter how frustrated they feel right now, they think the same thing.
 
I was speaking at a local civic club meeting the other day, and during the question-and-answer period, someone remarked that what NASCAR might be lacking is a true hero versus villain rivalry. Past examples people threw out included Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip … Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace … Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon … you get the idea.
 
There seemed to be a potential rivalry brewing between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch a couple years back, but it fizzled out. Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski recently made some folks sit up and pay attention, but apparently they’re now back-slapping buddies.
 
I suggested that perhaps the hottest rivalry going right now is Jimmie Johnson versus the field, but some of them fired back with, “No way. He’s too nice.”
 
Oh, man. If Johnson is going to win a high percentage of the races plus be the hero AND the villain at the same time, that’s a tough titan to topple.
 
But not an impossible one. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team show up each week ready to race, and they have certainly shown that if you give them an opportunity, they’re going to take it.
 
The other guys, AKA the greatest drivers in the world and their teams, know how to build fast cars, and how to race them, and how to take them to Victory Lane. If, in their minds, “winning the race” has become synonymous with “beating the No. 48,” so be it. It’s going to make for some really great racing, and in that scenario, everybody wins.
 
That’s what I call lucky.