Jimmie Johnson: "I'm the guy for a year. I'm going to enjoy every damn day." Credit: Autostock

Johnson ascends to top with refined vengeance

In the wake of racking up a Nextel Cup Series-best 22,436 points from 2002-05 Jimmie Johnson knew the naysayers were baying at his garage door: Runner up. Second best. Bridesmaid.

Vince Lombardi may have said it most famously, but Johnson lives it. He drives for team owner Rick Hendrick, whose organization boasts of five Cup championships since 1995. Johnson's car owner is Jeff Gordon, who won four of those titles.

"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

But there's more to Lombardi's oft-quoted words: "Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

In a sport where second place is the first loser, Hendrick had not won the series' championship since 2001. For Hendrick Motorsports -- and Johnson, by extension -- losing had become habit.

"There's a lot of motivation being runner-up and being so close to it," Johnson said, "especially sitting through the banquet, all the things that take place during banquet week, watching the champion experience all the great things, sit on stage. I think anybody with a competitive spirit wants that to be them.

"The last four years watching the ceremonies highly motivated me. I remember Rick and I talking last year during the banquet, saying, 'This stinks being down on the ground level.' We want to be up there on the stage getting all the praise. It's a very motivating experience, to say the least."

From 2002, when he made his Cup Series debut, through 2005, Johnson had the most wins in the series (18), the third most second-place finishes (10), the second most top-fives (53) and the most top-10s (86). But he always came up short in the points: fifth, second, second and fifth.

In those four years Johnson supplanted Mark Martin, who has finished second in the final point standings four times, as the poster boy for what could have been.

After falling eight points short in the inaugural Chase in 2004, Johnson was primed for another title run last year. He began the Chase fourth in points, took the lead after a victory at Dover and then began a slide that ultimately put Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus on the verge of going their separate ways. Johnson crashed in the season finale at Homestead and finished 127 points behind champion Tony Stewart. Despite two wins, four top-five finishes and seven top-10s, Johnson and Knaus had failed again.

Then came 2006, a watershed season for Hendrick, Johnson and Knaus.

Daytona was at once a glorious triumph for Johnson and a career low point for Knaus, who was ejected from Speedweeks after NASCAR said the No. 48 car failed post-qualifying template inspection in the rear window area. As a result Knaus was fined $25,000, suspended until March 22, and was placed on probation until Dec. 31.

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"I think what we were faced with at the beginning of the year as we look back, that really was the defining moment for this race team, period. Not only the season, but just us in general," Johnson said. "Chad is a self-admitted workaholic. He just puts himself through too much. As last year wound down, he admitted, we all recognized, he just worked too hard and burned himself out.

"We had a plan in effect for him to start counting on more people, surrounding him with guys he really trusted and believed in. He started building that confidence in those guys over the offseason. ... We hit Daytona. He was suspended. We were like, 'We really need to live by this theory; we're forced to.' Through that, I think that set the pace for the year. Chad was able to pass on responsibilities to other guys, had some free mental space to focus on the right things."

Johnson won the Daytona 500, finished second at California, won again at Las Vegas and finished sixth at Atlanta under interim crew chief Darian Grubb. Johnson would lead the point standings for 22 of 26 weeks leading to the Chase -- including notable victories in the non-points All-Star Challenge and the prestigious Brickyard 400 -- and was widely regarded as the driver to beat during the 10-race playoffs.

A season-worst 39th-place finish at New Hampshire, however, dropped Johnson to ninth in points and began a stretch of four consecutive races -- Loudon, Dover, Kansas and Talladega -- where he failed to crack the top 10 that culminated with a 24th-place showing at 'Dega after being less than a lap away from what seemed to be a victory.

"Even though things were stacked against us, we really just wanted to perform," Johnson said. "We wanted to show what this team was capable of doing in the Chase. Even if we didn't end up with the big prize at the end, we just wanted to go out and run well, be respected for our performance, our effort, just go out and race, and race well."

Who would you rank No. 1 heading into the 2007 Daytona 500? Jimmie Johnson Matt Kenseth Tony Stewart Dale Earnhardt Jr. Someone else

On the final lap at Talladega Johnson was running nose to tail with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Johnson's Hendrick teammate, Brian Vickers, was tucked up behind Johnson and the duo looked to freight train Earnhardt in the waning few seconds of the race. As Johnson moved to the inside of Junior, the No. 8 car made a move down the track. Johnson and Earnhardt ultimately were spun to the infield as Vickers got into Johnson, who in turn slapped Earnhardt.

"I think after Talladega, that was probably the low of emotions in the championship," Johnson said. "But still at that time no one ever said, 'We can't do this.' The meetings we had, the gatherings we had at the racetrack, just being around each other, we just kept telling ourselves, 'This isn't over, keep fighting, it's not over.' "

Eighth in points and trailing Jeff Burton by a seemingly insurmountable 156 points with only six races remaining, Johnson, Knaus and the No. 48 crew put on a clinic down the stretch: second at Charlotte; a win at Martinsville, when Burton's engine grenaded and breathed life into the Chase hopefuls; second at Atlanta; second at Texas; second at Phoenix; and ninth at Homestead.

It was at Texas that Johnson assumed the Chase points lead, a position he would not relinquish over the final 712.5 miles of the season.

"I think going through those experiences got me ready to deal with this year," Johnson said of previous years' shortcomings. "The slow start to the Chase, the adversity we were faced with, the chaos of the contact with Vickers at Talladega, needing to go on a tear and race our way back into this thing, all of that, you can see different pieces of what we did this year in the Chase, over the last three years of the Chase, four years we've been in Cup, there have been pieces of that in all of those years.

"I think all of that built up and helped us keep our composure and be smart this year in the Chase and do what we needed to."

And now that he's the guy with the bull's eye on his back?

"The high that you're on from winning a race is short-lived," Johnson said. "You go to the next race and somebody else is the race winner. In most cases, somebody else is the race winner. I'm the champion and no one is going to be the champion until next year this time. I get an entire year of riding this high. That's probably the biggest thing: I'm the guy for a year. I'm going to enjoy every damn day of it."

Head scratcher of the year

What the heck has happened to Robert Yates Racing? Two seasons ago, Elliott Sadler carried Yates' banner into the Chase. Last year, Dale Jarrett won at Talladega. By the time Preseason Thunder begins in less than two months, RYR will have David Gilliland and a driver yet to be named in the Nos. 38 and 88.

CUP SERIES •   By the Numbers •   Driver Standings •   Race Results •   Loop Data Stats •   2007 Schedule

David Gilliland and a driver yet to be named? This is Robert Yates Racing -- not Joe Schmo Motorsports. The same RYR that started with a bang in 1989, winning two races with Davey Allison. The same RYR that finish third in the point standings in 1991 and '92 with Allison. The same RYR that finished second in points with Jarrett in 1997 before finally claiming the Cup championship in '99 with DJ.

But times have been hard since 2000: 503 starts, 15 wins (one in the past 146 starts), 95 top-five finishes and 186 top-10s. This year, RYR combined for only two top-fives and nine top-10s in 74 starts -- the first time in 18 years that a Yates driver did not visit Victory Lane.

Not that anyone noticed, but ...

At least one rookie finished in the top 15 in all 36 races. ... Five of the six rookie of the year candidates had at least three top-10 finishes. ... Denny Hamlin's eight top-five finishes were more than the other five rookies combined -- Clint Bowyer (4), Martin Truex Jr. (2), Reed Sorenson (1), David Stremme (0) and J.J. Yeley (0). ... And while Hamlin was the only rookie to win a race (both Pocono races), it's safe to say the 2006 rookie class won't soon be forgotten.

Looking ahead to 2007

• NASCAR CEO Brian France already has hinted at changes to the point system and the Chase, and the controversial Car of Tomorrow is being prepared for its debut at Bristol in March.

• There is a new television package in place, with ESPN / ABC replacing NBC. What remains to be seen is if 2006's dip in TV ratings was an aberration or a harbinger of things to come. How will Juan Montoya's first season factor into the equation?

• And then there's the whole Toyota storyline, which could prove to be more divisive among the fans and the Daytona Beach headquarters than Rockingham and the Labor Day race at Darlington being shuttled off the schedule.