NASCAR Shop News: Jimmie Johnson Wins – Controversial Comments?
Monday, March 30th, 2009NASCAR Shop – NASCAR NEWS
It has started already. The NASCAR crowd always seems to want to jump on the slightest remark by a driver and twist it into something that it was not intended to be.
After winning NASCAR’s 2009 Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 today at Martinsville, Jimmie Johnson made the following innocuous statement: “It might sound crazy, and I heard some comments when we were doing interviews on the frontstretch, where people assume and expect us to win. We don’t take this for granted. It’s a great track for us. We hoped that we would. You never know.”
Johnson continued, “No one would have thought that Jeff [Gordon] would go winless last year. You know, you can’t take things for granted. We’re very relieved to get the first one of the season. Hopefully there are many more to come.”
Immediately, NASCAR fans and news writers have begun to jump on this remark and are trying to contrast Johnson’s attitude with that of Tiger Woods, who also won a golf tournament today. After Tiger’s amazing comeback win, Woods stated that he expects to win every time he tees it up. Detractors are surmising that Jimmie Johnson doesn’t have the same drive, the same winning attitude as the great Tiger Woods. This is ludicrous!
There is a huge difference between the two sports. In golf, the player has absolute control over everything that happens during his round. He has no team members that he must count on in order to achieve a victory, no equipment that could fail him at any moment.
In NASCAR, the slightest miscalculation by the pit crew, a tenth of a second difference in a tire change, a failing engine part or other car malfunction can all keep a driver out of the winner’s circle. Indeed, the crew and the car may very well have more of an impact on the results of a race than the performance of any driver.
Because of this, Jimmie Johnson’s comments are hardly surprising or in the least bit inaccurate. You can’t take things for granted in NASCAR. Too many things that a driver has no control over can go wrong.
Give me a break NASCAR fans and writers! There are plenty of controversial events that occur during a NASCAR season that are well worth commenting on. This is certainly not one of them. The defending three-time NASCAR Champion certainly deserves a little better than this!
The NASCAR shop Quote of the Day: “Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.” – Astronaut, Neil Armstrong
