Thank goodness Jimmie Johnson‘s sense of humor is as keen as his racing skills and that his life perspective balances his competitive zeal.
After experiencing rare back-to-back poor finishes (41st at Dover and 39th at Charlotte) and being eliminated from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup after just the first round, Johnson took the time to engage and indulge his critics on social media this week.
The exchanges are both amusing and telling. And typically head-shaking.
This week on Twitter, someone accused him of “only helping the 88 (teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.)”, which the person felt was shameful “after all the 24 (teammate Jeff Gordon) has done for you.” And then the person told the six-time champ and 74-time race winner, “you suck.”
Others jumped into the Twitter conversation to defend Johnson, who said — tongue-in-cheek — “I thought I’d get a little slack with the back to back parts failures. Guess not.”
In fact, it is an extremely rare thing for Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet to suffer such mechanical problems and particularly in back-to-back weeks. It is not, however, the first time.
Way back in 2004, he had three consecutive engine failures with finishes of 36th (Indianapolis), 40th (Watkins Glen) and 40th (Michigan). In 2007, he crashed two straight weeks, earning 37th and 39th-place results at Chicago and Indianapolis, respectively, prior to earning his second Cup championship title. Last year, he scored back-to-back 42nd-place finishes because of crashes in July races at Daytona and New Hampshire.
Those are the only other instances in 14 seasons (501 starts) that Johnson has posted back-to-back finishes comparable to the forgettable two-week run he’s currently on. Two weeks ago at Dover he called the faulty axle seal — which eliminated him from the championship Chase — a “freak accident.” And on Sunday, his Chevy was sidelined again, this time for an oil pump problem.
Johnson is the modern era standard of excellence — his five consecutive titles from 2006-2010 unprecedented. Not having him competing for the Sprint Cup Series championship should feel like a trophy-gimme for those more accustomed to having to overtake him.
“Seeing Jimmie get eliminated by a mechanical part failure is really kind of disheartening as a competitor,” Brad Keselowski told FOX Sports 1. “You want to beat him on the track as a driver and a team.”
Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Earnhardt agreed that the absence of Johnson as a title contender “feels weird.”
While a record-tying seventh Sprint Cup trophy will have to wait another year, expect Johnson to drive like a guy with nothing to lose on a path of redemption that has largely ended in Victory Lane.
At a time when a win is so vital for the other Chase contenders, there’s no one more likely to crash the party.
Johnson’s 22 combined wins at the next six Chase venues is tops in the series. He won at this week’s stop, Kansas Speedway already this season, finished runner-up at next week’s venue, Talladega Superspeedway, in the spring and has won the previous two races at the Texas Motor Speedway, where the Chase heads on Nov. 8.
If you think it’s a rough week on Twitter when when Johnson isn’t competitive, imagine what will happen when the team gets back into the groove.
Fortunately, he can handle it. A little victory champagne and some confetti makes for a fantastic rebuttal.