Jimmie Johnson had dinner with Georgia and Richard Pearcy of Altamont, Ill., in Miami. Credit: Levi Strauss Signature

Dinner with Johnson 'awesome' for Pearcys

Nextel Cup champ dines with Levi's sweepstakes winners

Jimmie Johnson will have at least two more fans when he defends his title in the 2007 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard than he did when he won this year's event.

Georgia and Richard Pearcy of Altamont, Ill., scored a one-in-40,000-plus victory in Levi Strauss Signature's "Have Dinner with Jimmie Johnson" sweepstakes.

	Just before Jimmie Johnson kissed the bricks at Indy, Georgia and Richard Pearcy signed up for a contest to have dinner with the No. 48 driver. Credit: Autostock
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Of course, when the contest opened in June, the folks from Levi's had no idea dinner with the 2006 Nextel Cup champion would be in the offing, along with race tickets to all three events of Ford Championship Weekend, plus "cold" access to Homestead-Miami Speedway's pit area.

And when the main event -- dinner at a posh restaurant in Miami's hip South Beach area -- took place on the eve of the opening of practice for the recent Ford 400, the finale of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, it pointed out that sometimes the significance of an event is better measured by what it means to individuals, rather than its impact on the greater public.

"To meet Jimmie Johnson and to sit down and have supper with him and actually talk to him -- awesome," Georgia said. "Nothing like this has ever happened to us. Everybody we've told is so excited.

"Things like this don't happen to people around here."

Other than a drastic rush to change plans for a party -- since the contest winner wasn't drawn until Nov. 9, six days before the winners would have to depart for South Florida, what was the impact?

"I had several people ask me how big my suitcase was," Georgia said, laughing. "And they were some pretty good-sized guys, but that was how much people wanted to go."

For four days the Pearcys -- Georgia, a nurse, and Richard, a professional truck driver -- waited for someone to tell them the whole thing was a mistake, or a joke. It wasn't until their race tickets and travel package arrived that the Pearcys, who got hooked on the sport when they attended the first of eight consecutive Brickyard 400s in 1999, really believed it.

"To meet Jimmie Johnson and to sit down and have supper with him and actually talk to him -- awesome. Nothing like this has ever happened to us. Things like this don't happen to people around here." - Georgia Pearcy

The very entry in the contest was almost an afterthought for the Pearcys, who have made the trip to Indy an annual event due to its proximity to home and its affordability.

"Everyone's asked us, 'How do you get in one of them contests, and how did you win it?'" Richard said. "Honestly, it was just dumb luck."

Since it's usually their one racing stop of the season, the Pearcys -- as many fans do -- make an event of it. They camp and visit the spectator midways packed with souvenir vendors' trailers and manufacturers' giveaways.

The Levi Strauss Signature "Fit Pit," where fans can view products, pick up information and get precisely, electronically measured for Levi's jeans, was one of their stops. They entered the contest and forgot about it.

"We didn't think about it at all," Richard said. "We were just going through all the show trailers and the Levi's area, where they sized you for blue jeans and gave you some handouts. That's just what we do when we go to the races.

"We try to meet people and get whatever they might be giving away and play the contests they have going. We entered, but we didn't realize it was a sweepstakes to have dinner with Jimmie. It was a total surprise when they called us and told us about it."

The night of the event was a lifetime highlight for the winners. Barton G's in South Beach isn't a place the Pearcys would frequent on their own.

	Three days after having dinner with Georgia and Richard Pearcy, Jimmie Johnson collected his first Nextel Cup.
	LONG WAIT IS OVER Jimmie Johnson's road to the top of NASCAR was long and difficult, but the celebration was obviously well worth the wait.  •   Complete story, click here Awards CeremonyCatch all the action from the Nextel Cup Awards Ceremony Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

But Johnson, who had agreed to spend a good chunk of the evening before he opened the most important race weekend of his career with two people he'd never met, would fit right in there.

And the interesting thing was, according to the guests of honor, no one in the place knew they were sharing plate time with the 2006 Nextel Cup champion-to-be.

"It was really cool," Richard said of having dinner with the man who would be crowned champ three days later. "It was just like friends sitting around and talking, that was how laid-back it was."

That was the biggest eye-opener of the weekend for Richard.

"I guess it was that he was just like a real person," Richard said of Johnson. "He doesn't act like he's better than anybody. I guess you could say he's just a down-home good old boy.

"It was quite an experience because that restaurant was a bit more high-toned than anything I've ever been into in my life. But as far as anyone even noticing Jimmie -- I didn't notice that anyone even noticed that he was there."

"The most impressive thing, to me, was that he went out of his way to be with us," Georgia said. "I had a few things for him to sign, and he did that, but he sat there for more than 30 minutes and just talked to us about everything from high school to driving fast in cars to motorcycle and our careers.

"It was just like sitting down and talking to somebody around [home]. And if anybody knew he was there, no one approached him."

The Pearcys are somewhat unique in NASCAR fandom, where people seem to live and die with their heroes. Before Homestead, Johnson was not a particular favorite of the couple.

"We've rooted for Jimmie now and then, but he's not our sole favorite driver," Georgia said. "I like Mark Martin, and [Dale Earnhardt] Junior some, and Carl Edwards -- but I do like to see that orange No. 20 car in everybody's rearview mirror, because I'm not much of a Tony Stewart fan [laughing]."

"We like NASCAR," Richard said. "We have our favorites, but it's not like nobody else counts. I still like Bill Elliott, but he's kind of faded away, so I switched over to Mark Martin -- and now Jimmie Johnson's on the list, too."

And there'll be one more Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 flag flying over the Brickyard in late July.

"When we go over there to the Brickyard and set up our camp and put out our flags," Richard said, "well, we bought a new Jimmie Johnson flag to hang this year."

"I think this trip, and meeting [Jimmie] was the best thing that's ever happened to me," Georgia said, "next to meeting Richard and getting married."