November 30, 2006

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

Jimmie Johnson is this year's NASCAR version of President Bush, like Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch before him.

Love him or hate him, he is your reigning Nextel Cup champion for the next year.

I'm sure you've heard all the criticisms of Johnson by now - bland, robotic, too corporate, too perfect.

Too nice.

More than Jeff Gordon's protégé - Gordon's MiniMe.

He wins too much.

He whines too much.

He only wins because his crew chief cheats.

He's only successful because he has Jeff Gordon's cars.

He doesn't accept responsibility for his actions on the track.

He has a unibrow.

And then, there are the criticisms that are unfit to print.

But fans only know Johnson by the image he projects - and he is a man who typically holds his cards close to the vest.

He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He doesn't speak his mind and the consequences be damned like Tony Stewart. He doesn't embrace his good looks like Jeff Gordon.

In fact, Johnson doesn't reveal much of anything about himself, which leaves fans feeling like he has closed himself off behind an impenetrable wall of privacy.

On paper, Johnson has everything a sport would want in its champion: He's clean-cut, polite, determined and skilled. He loves his wife and comes from a close-knit family. He races hard and makes his sponsors proud.

He captured NASCAR's trifecta this year - the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, and the million-dollar All-Star Challenge, along with wins at Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville.

He launched the Jimmie Johnson Foundation this year, which donates thousands to worthy charities like Make-A-Wish, the American Red Cross, and the Victory Junction Gang Camp - where he has pledged to fund the construction of a bowling alley to benefit chronically ill children.

But go to any NASCAR race on the circuit, even one in Johnson's home state of California, and you will be hard pressed to find more than a handful of fans decked out in full Jimmie Johnson gear.

It's not that Johnson is unlikable in the way that, say, Kurt Busch is felt to be.

It's just that he gives off a certain vibe of cool inapproachability that fails to ingratiate him to fans.

Johnson has made efforts to connect with the NASCAR Nation this year via his "Chase Diary," in which he shared his thoughts and feelings after each of the ten races leading up to his title winning run at Homestead.

But even there, Johnson was detached.

"Well we did it. That was a pretty cool day wasn't it?" Johnson wrote in his post-Homestead entry.

Not exactly the outpouring of emotion you might expect from a driver who twice finished second in the standings - a guy who said he would trade all his racing wins for a single championship.

It is his guarded nature which prevent fans from achieving a desired level of closeness with Johnson.

Yet when he does say what's on mind, it can be off-putting. After winning this year's Daytona 500, with crew chief Chad Knaus serving a four-race suspension for alleged cheating, Johnson was less than gracious in Victory Lane: "After all the trouble this team has been through and all the criticism, I'm dedicating this win to the haters of the 48 team. We won and we're in Victory Lane for the Daytona 500."

Not exactly a stellar public relations moment.

Perhaps his cause would have been better served dedicating the win to the fans who stuck with him the past few years, when it looked like he might be relegated to the "always-a-bridesmaid" category. It isn't easy being the fan of an unpopular driver.

But overall, it isn't what Johnson has done but what he hasn't that has created the current tension.

He has been unable to supercede an air of aloofness that prevents the public from developing any real connection with him.

Until he learns to be himself, Johnson the Champion may have the respect of many fans, but he won't have their hearts.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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