NASCAR Fans Take Jimmie Johnson’s Greatness For Granted
Jimmie Johnson is to NASCAR what Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are to the NFL. However, NASCAR fans don’t seem to be able to understand and respect the greatness that they are currently living through.
Every NASCAR season that Jimmie Johnson gets off to a slow starts, fans begin to ask if this is finally the beginning of the end. Much the same happens with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots over in the NFL. While it’s one thing to root against Johnson, it’s another to not appreciate and respect everything that the seven-time NASCAR champion has accomplished and has yet to accomplish.
On Monday Johnson won for the second time in 2017. The win at Bristol marks the 11th time in his career that he has won back-to-back races. The two wins come on the heels of a slow start that once again hate critics openly asking if Johnson and the No. 48 team were beginning to lose a step.
How a seven-time champion, fresh off of his seventh title and only a handful of races into the new season could be deemed as losing a step is somewhat beyond me. However that is neither her nor there.
When it comes to Johnson and the No. 48 team, NASCAR fans need to take a step back and appreciate the history that they have had the honor of witnessing. Johnson’s second win of 2017 means that he has yet another season of 2+ wins, something that he has done every season in his 16-year NASCAR career. The win at Bristol is also the 82nd of his career, which is good enough for seventh-most in NASCAR history. Johnson is now one win away from 6th (Cale Yarborough) and two wins from 4th and 5th (Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison both who have 84 wins). If Johnson wins five races this season (something he has done 10 times before) he will move into 4th on the all-time list by himself.
At that point Jeff Gordon (93 wins) would be next on the list.
Given Johnson’s body of work over his career and the likelihood of him racing for another 3-4 seasons, it’s more than reasonable to believe he will pass Gordon for 3rd on the all-time wins list. It also stands to reason that if Johnson continues at his current level over the next few seasons, he will indeed be in contention for that record-breaking 8th championship.
Despite all of Johnson’s success, current NASCAR fans seem content to spend more of their time detracting from his accomplishments as opposed to respecting them and that’s a shame. Johnson has already won more races than the beloved Dale Earnhardt and while he won’t come close to Richard Petty’s 200 wins, he might give 100 a run for its money.
Johnson is easily the greatest driver of this generation and the argument can already be made for him as the greatest driver of all-time. There comes a time in sports where allegiance for a team or driver has to go out the window and that time has come for Johnson. It doesn’t matter if you root for him, root for HMS, love Kyle Busch, worship Dale Jr., or pledge your support to any other driver on any other team.
What Johnson has accomplished and will continue to accomplish is something that only comes along a handful of times throughout the history of a sport. Those who continue to blindly hate on Johnson for being one of the greatest ever are nothing more than haters, and there isn’t any other way of looking at it.
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As a fan of a football team that plays in the same division as the Patriots, I spent many seasons hating Brady. However, over time and as the accomplishments continued to pile up, that hate turned to respect. Respect is not given it’s earned and Johnson has done more than enough in NASCAR to earn said respect. So, it’s about time that fans who aren’t given him that respect, finally take a step back and do so.