Johnson

tkj24

tkj24

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On an XM satellite program, Jimmie Johnson recently disputed the notion that today’s drivers are fundamentally different from those who came before.

“There isn’t a driver on the circuit, including Jeff Gordon, that isn’t a beer-drinking, fun-loving guy,” said the reigning Nextel Cup champion. “All of us are that, but all of us have worked our butts off from racing local short tracks, eating the hell out of fast food restaurants, sleeping at truck stops.

“We’re all normal guys, and that’s cool about our sport. Everybody can root for who they want and say what they want, but I’ve always had that problem and I grew up in Southern California, going to Lake Havasu and partying on Easter break and Fourth of July and riding my dirt bike, doing all that same stuff and, you know, everybody gets labeled with something.”
 
In many ways, Jimmie is correct in his assessment of the drivers. Thinks about this...if not for the "call", Carl Edwards would be right now on summer vacation from school, preparing for next years new class that he'll be teaching. Don't know what Jimmie Johnson would be doing to make a living, but I'm sure it wouldn't nearly as lucritive as what he's doing right now. But in my mind, there would be plenty of differences in what the old guard would do if not racing than what these high dollar boys would do. It used to be that those guys and gals that entered the racing leagues were gear heads, guys and dolls who worked on cars during the day, mostly to make money. If that wasn't their main occupation, it was certainly their hobby and next to piloting those cars on the track, they were the main mechanics who worked on the cars to get them to run up front. In the beginning, many of those guys worked on the cars to make them fast were the bootleggers, but contrary to popular belief, those boys weren't the norm. Yes, they were a big part of the beginning, but I defy anyone to find more than four or five bootleggers who were actual racers or car owners.

Jimmie says that all the guys now are beer drinkers and partiers. I'm sure that the majority of them now days are just that, but let's not forget there are a few of the guys on the circuit that don't drink and plenty of them are more than a little religious. I'd say that twenty years ago, more than a few of them were in that category, but these days, it seems that Jimmie's definition of a driver is more the norm than not.

Today's driver is a skilled pilot of a technological hybrid of an automobile. If compared to a robot, he would be more like that than a normal everyday human who sits behind the wheel of his normal street car. In the beginning, the driver would get out of the car and stick his head under the hood or under the car and would be the chief mechanic. Not so today. Jimmie might very well know how to rebuild his wife's Camaro (but I would doubt it seriously) but Hendrick wouldn't be in his right mind to let Jimmie take control of the engine shop, or even to work there. Jimmie might have a great working knowledge of what goes on there, but he knows, as well as most everyone else, that his job is to wheel the car around the track, not work on it. Jimmie also isn't in charge of getting his car from track to track and finding a place to sleep. Nope, his job is a heap bit different than those of fifty years ago.

Today's drivers are a world apart from the pioneers of the past in NASCAR, but one thing that is common is the will to win. When it comes to that, there isn't a bit of difference.
 
buckaroo said:
In many ways, Jimmie is correct in his assessment of the drivers. Thinks about this...if not for the "call", Carl Edwards would be right now on summer vacation from school, preparing for next years new class that he'll be teaching. Don't know what Jimmie Johnson would be doing to make a living, but I'm sure it wouldn't nearly as lucritive as what he's doing right now. But in my mind, there would be plenty of differences in what the old guard would do if not racing than what these high dollar boys would do. It used to be that those guys and gals that entered the racing leagues were gear heads, guys and dolls who worked on cars during the day, mostly to make money. If that wasn't their main occupation, it was certainly their hobby and next to piloting those cars on the track, they were the main mechanics who worked on the cars to get them to run up front. In the beginning, many of those guys worked on the cars to make them fast were the bootleggers, but contrary to popular belief, those boys weren't the norm. Yes, they were a big part of the beginning, but I defy anyone to find more than four or five bootleggers who were actual racers or car owners.

Jimmie says that all the guys now are beer drinkers and partiers. I'm sure that the majority of them now days are just that, but let's not forget there are a few of the guys on the circuit that don't drink and plenty of them are more than a little religious. I'd say that twenty years ago, more than a few of them were in that category, but these days, it seems that Jimmie's definition of a driver is more the norm than not.

Today's driver is a skilled pilot of a technological hybrid of an automobile. If compared to a robot, he would be more like that than a normal everyday human who sits behind the wheel of his normal street car. In the beginning, the driver would get out of the car and stick his head under the hood or under the car and would be the chief mechanic. Not so today. Jimmie might very well know how to rebuild his wife's Camaro (but I would doubt it seriously) but Hendrick wouldn't be in his right mind to let Jimmie take control of the engine shop, or even to work there. Jimmie might have a great working knowledge of what goes on there, but he knows, as well as most everyone else, that his job is to wheel the car around the track, not work on it. Jimmie also isn't in charge of getting his car from track to track and finding a place to sleep. Nope, his job is a heap bit different than those of fifty years ago.

Today's drivers are a world apart from the pioneers of the past in NASCAR, but one thing that is common is the will to win. When it comes to that, there isn't a bit of difference.
Click to expand...
For a start lets go with ::)
Bob Flock
Fonty Flock
Tim Flock
Junior Johnson

All of th early moonshine runners stated that their "moonshine cars" would put to shame the cars used in stock car racing. There was simply no comparison as to how much faster the moonshine cars were over the stock cars.
 
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