DARLINGTON, S.C. – Drought is a familiar word for a family of off-road desert racers from El Cajon, California.
In retrospect an 83-race winless streak is nothing compared to falling asleep at the wheel while competing in the 1995 Baja 1000, nearly totaling your trophy truck and having to wait countless hours for anyone to realize you’re missing and show up to pull you out of the desert.
Seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson lived that.
Johnson’s throwback scheme for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) pays homage to that very truck, named “Butch.”
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“I wrecked it twice that year really bad. Once in Barstow and then the big wreck in the Baja 1000,” Johnson said. “Another family bought (Butch) and had it, restored it and were using it again in some lower-level desert racing. I found out where it was, they gave me a fair price to buy it back because of the sentimental value to it and I was able to get it and restore it.”
Butch is a 1990 Chevy Thunder Sportside built by Nelson and Nelson Racing. It’s draped in a purple and orange lightning bolt livery that also can be seen on Johnson’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet this weekend. It’s an opportunity for Johnson to give a little something back to the off-road community and the truck that helped propel his racing career.
“Ally was very gracious to let me have this opportunity,” Johnson said. “I’ve always wanted to throw back to the off-road industry. Within that, there were probably two or three paint schemes that we had to choose from. For me, and the amount of times I’ve told that Baja 1000 story and the fact that we had the truck and were restoring it, it just felt like the right way to go with it.”
Jimmie’s younger brother Jarit did most of the restoration work on the truck, a process that has been on and off for the past eight years. Jarit, too, was racing in that same Baja 1000 in 1995 and knows just how tough both driver and equipment have to be to survive one of the world’s most dangerous races.
Jarit spun several tales of growing up off-roading with Jimmie while driving “Butch” during the annual Darlington parade, which went through the heart of the town that hosts NASCAR Throwback Weekend.
“I was in the same race. I was racing a two-seater Class 10 car,” Jarit said, navigating the streets. “I got stuck in the mud at Coco’s Corner and my dad was in San Ignacio, which is about another 150 miles away. So I was missing and then Jimmie was missing.
“Once I got out of the mud and got down to San Ignacio where my father was, he told me that Jimmie ended up wrecking, but he was OK. But we were in the same race when he ended up crashing it. It was pretty tore up. I mean it smashed the cage down, ripped the right front off of it. It took a lot to get it rebuilt.”
Jarit also sees parallels in Butch’s resurrection and his brother’s fight to get back to Victory Lane, something that hasn’t happened since the first Dover race back in June 2017.
“I mean, there is some spunk in his step,” Jarit said. “Not saying that he hasn’t had that, but it’s just a good-flowing weekend that just gives everybody initiative like ‘cool, check out our paint scheme.’ It’s pretty cool,” Jarit said. “This era of the trophy truck and then the era of the Mickey Thompson truck, which has a similar paint scheme, it sent presents with Chevrolet and Jimmie and look where he is at now. It’s pretty sweet.”
Jimmie Johnson’s win total sits at 83 — the same number as his winless streak. His seven titles, tied for most all time with Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, remain seemingly untouchable in the modern era.
With a little inspiration and a touch of color from Butch, Johnson hopes to tie Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip’s 84 Cup Series wins and set a path toward something no NASCAR driver has ever accomplished.
Eight premier series championships.