The rise of social media's popularity, particularly Twitter, has played well with Jimmie Johnson's run of championships.
As his charge to the title has played out during the course of recent seasons, Johnson's use of hashtags, a combination of the # symbol followed by keywords or topics, has been very much in evidence.
With Johnson's latest endeavor -- a quest for a seventh championship -- looking promising, having already locked up a berth in the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, let's take a look back at his previous hashtags and his current one on display.
There was #5time following his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2010. That was followed by #6pack, which appeared during his drive to a sixth title in 2013.
During the Sprint Media Tour ahead of his championship-defending 2014 season, Johnson explained the origins of the hashtag he's been using since -- #se7en.
"Out of memory of Ricky Hendrick, I went with #se7en," Johnson said at the time. The numeral and the peculiar way it was written "was something that was really important to (Ricky). ... He would spell it out that way and had it in a variety of ways."
Hendrick, son of Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick, was one of 10 people killed in a plane crash in October of 2004. He had made 22 starts in what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series that season before stepping out of the car and turning his attention to ownership, driving both the No. 7 and No. 17 throughout his racing career.
"When we were at the Hendrick Christmas party in December, his favorite band, O.A.R., was playing and the whole moment kind of came to a head," Johnson said. "(We were) up front at the stage, singing away. Mr. Hendrick, Linda (Hendrick) ... the whole family and everybody's there reliving Ricky moments, just talking about him and watching his favorite band play.
"I left there thinking 'This is it, it's got to be #se7en, the way he used it and wrote it.' So that's going to be the hashtag."