MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Jimmie Johnson wasn’t thinking about passing Dale Earnhardt on the all-time win list as the Hendrick Motorsports driver pulled away from Kevin Harvick and everyone else two weeks ago to score his victory at Auto Club Speedway.
Career win No. 77 might has well have been No. 14 or 42 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver.
Getting No. 76, which came earlier this year at Atlanta Motor Speedway? Now that one was big, the six-time series champion said.
“There was a really interesting post that I saw that had Dale and myself standing there and our stats,” Johnson said Friday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. “And I was like ‘Wow.’ For me, everything was about tying him. Passing him, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it. It was all about tying him.”
The Auto Club race, where Johnson pulled ahead and into sole possession of seventh place on the all-time win list, was too hectic, too last-minute to ponder the possibility. It was also the conclusion to a week of he and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s back and forth regarding their Batman v. Superman paint scheme promotion.
“Fontana was all about the Superman car, trash talking Junior, we win the trash talk, five laps to go and we’re going to finish ninth or whatever,” he said.
“(Then) killer pit stop, great restart, great couple of laps, we’re in Victory Lane and just having an awesome time. It was more about those series of events than it was about (passing) Dale.”
The battle for No. 78 begins here this weekend at Martinsville, site of Sunday’s STP 500 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and where Johnson has won eight times.
Johnson, 40, admits that he pays little mind to records. To hear them, he said, “just blows my mind.”
It took the former off-road racer just 13 starts to win his first Sprint Cup race, and the first championship came in his fifth full season. From 2003-10, he and his No. 48 team won 53 races and five consecutive championships.
Even though he lived it, Johnson said he still has trouble comprehending such an incredible run of success.
“I didn’t even know what was going on in that period of time,” he said. “We were just having fun and looking forward to the next race. Life was simple in a lot of ways. Just married, finding my footing in the team, everything was climbing. Everything was just getting better and better and better every day and all this neat new stuff was going on.
“Even leading into our championship in ’13, really when the streak came to an end, have a couple of years off, recalibrate (and then) finally look back, it’s like wow. That was pretty insane. Five had never happened before. Holy crap.
“Again, it’s just wild to look back on it all. I can’t believe we did it.”
What has been the key to his success? There are others still active that have been around longer, enjoyed their own success but not come close to rivaling what Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 team has accomplished.
“It’s not just me, for starters,” he said.
A large part has been because of the consistency of the team. He’s been at Hendrick Motorsports since moving up to Sprint Cup, and HMS has set the standard for competition for many years. He and Knaus have been paired together since the beginning and sponsor Lowe’s has been in a primary role exclusively.
Still, Johnson has done his part. Lessons learned early in his career, he said, continue to pay dividends.
“I’m a coachable athlete. I don’t know if everyone is,” Johnson said. “Chad isn’t the smoothest with his delivery but again because I’m coachable and I’m willing to learn — and honestly I think because of all the years of not having success but doing just enough to make it to the next level, those were humbling years. Years that I had to keep an open mind about what I was doing, what the cars were doing, and I really think that helps me today. I think that’s a big part of it because when you go through it — every year there are new tires, (there’s been) three or four generations of cars, engine packages, gear rules now, all the stuff.
“If you say ‘this is how I drive a car, make it work for me,’ you’re going to be fine for a window (of time), but when it changes, it might leave you or it might come into your (driving style).
“To stay so consistent over many generations of cars, I think you just have to keep an open mind and I think my early years taught me that and wired me for that.”
Johnson said he hasn’t begun to think about stepping way and continued success will likely only prolong his career. Good news for his fans, not so good for the competition.
With two wins already in his pocket through five races, Johnson’s streak of multiple win seasons is at 15 and counting. He’s two years removed from title No. 6, with subsequent points finishes of 11th and 10th. The battle for a record-tying seventh title, a mark currently shared by Earnhardt and Richard Petty, is attainable, but certainly not guaranteed.
Johnson, understandably, wants No. 7. But he doesn’t want the pursuit of it to change who he has become.
“Without a doubt I have a shot at history that I need to really put a strong effort for,” he said. “I feel that in my heart; I have that support at home. We want to go for that.
“If that happens quickly, I don’t know what happens then. If it takes a long time, that might be like ‘sweet.’ If it never happens, I’m happy.
“And that’s the thing that I’m trying so hard now to race with — being content with what I’ve accomplished and racing for the right reasons in my opinion, because I enjoy it, because I’m competitive. I’ve never been driven by stats and I don’t want to fall into that trap.
“I look back and think that the lessons I’ve learned and the road that I’ve been on has led to the success. I don’t … want to change and be driven by having to have a seventh championship. Because I never thought I’d have one to start with. I don’t want to change who I am along the way.”