Jimmie Johnson Joins List of NASCAR's Elite

Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Cale Yarborough, Lee Petty, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson and now?

Jimmie Johnson.

Yes, race fans, love him, hate him, or feel nothing toward him -- NASCAR's winner of now three consecutive championships has officially joined the list of the most elite drivers to ever compete in the 60-year-old sport.

Yes, it's the driver from El Cajon, Calif. who got his first start in NASCAR's top division at the track he's come to dominate -- Lowe's Motor Speedway -- ever since his inauspicious 39th-place finish there in 2001. JJ is now the most powerful force in a sport that seems to change champions every season.

And yes, Jimmie Johnson is going to be here to stay in the NASCAR world.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver's first experience with a level of fame or notoriety came during a then-Busch Series road course race at Watkins Glen International with Herzog Motorsports' No. 92. In that instance, Johnson lost the brakes on his car heading into turn one and plowed the styrofoam and guardrail barrier at full speed. He emerged to jump on top of his car, pumping his fists.

Certainly, Johnson has come a long way from that scary crash that helped novice fans know Johnson as "that guy who lost his brakes at Watkins Glen," and for proof, just look at some of the numbers the No. 48 has piled up.

Sure, there's the 40 career victories, 101 Top-5s and 156 Top-10s that he's amassed overall in his career, but what's more telling is how well Johnson has raced when all of the marbles are on the line.

In each of Johnson's seven full seasons, his worst point standings finish is fifth and he's a mere 135 points over two seasons away from sitting at five career championships in 2008, rather than three. In the past 30 races in the Chase that he was ultimately the champion of, Johnson won eight of the them and has just two finishes out of the Top-15 in that time -- both in 2005.


Johnson's career winning percentage in Sprint Cup competition is an impressive 15.69 percent (40 wins in 255 races). That puts him just ahead of the second-highest active driver winning percentage, held by his teammate and team owner Jeff Gordon, who has 81 career wins.

The connections Johnson has to Gordon -- the most recent driver in NASCAR history to fully stake his claim among the sport's best ever -- are simply mind-boggling, both statistically and anecdotally. Not only has Johnson won at the same clip as Gordon in his career, but he now sits just one championship back from Gordon's four.

It was Gordon, too, who worked the details of getting the unknown former off-road racer into Hendrick Motorsports after Johnson consulted the four-time champion during a Nationwide Series driver's meeting in 2001 about where to go with his career.

Simply, everything Johnson has done in his foray into NASCAR Sprint Cup competition has been nearly golden -- a Daytona 500 win, two wins at the Brickyard and a record four-race streak of wins at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- and he more than deserves every accolade that I've heaped on him and that will be heaped on him in the coming days and weeks.

Johnson came into this sport under the guidance of a driver in Gordon who changed the face of the sport with his personality and background in a somewhat fan-wrinkling way, and that has somewhat haunted Johnson's likability among the average race fan. He's nearly always been controlled, refined and polished to an extent that leaves a lot of the personality his acquaintances talk about hidden under a rug.

It's been unfortunate in a sense because the fan base for Johnson hasn't exploded like it could have, but I think Johnson has -- if nothing else -- reached a point in his career where fans are forced to respect the accomplishments he's made.

And respect Johnson they should, because both he -- and his trusty sidekick and crew chief Chad Knaus (yes, he managed to go an entire season without a penalty) -- have done what many have thought was impossible in today's NASCAR because the level of the competition has risen so greatly.

Face it, Jimmie Johnson and his three straight championships is an extraordinary feat and for that, he deserves a rightful spot among NASCAR's elite.