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When the leaves start turning in the Fall, there are two things of which most red-blooded Americans can be sure.
Jimmie Johnson will be contending for another NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, and all across the country fans are embracing the college football season.
| While Johnson is contending for another title, he still keeps an occasional eye on what’s happening on the gridiron. But when push comes to shove, he grins and admits he really doesn’t know all that much. He follows the Oklahoma Sooners only because his wife, Chandra, is a big fan. Chandra Johnson is a native of the state and attended Oklahoma University. |
“You know, I’m working my way into being more involved with other sports,” Johnson said. “Through my wife and through the open arms of OU and their great athletic staff, especially (head football coach) Bob Stoops, I’ve become a big Sooner fan. There are some other guys there that I know as well who take great care of us, and my wife is Sooner through and through. So as far as college football loyalty goes, that’s where my heart lies.”
Johnson used his inside connections to claim a spot on the OU sideline during last year’s Bowl Championship Series national title game, which the Sooners lost to Florida.
“That first half, man, I thought absolutely they had it last year. Then the second half didn’t go the way we wanted,” Johnson said.
“It’s just great to watch and it’s great to be a part of,” said Johnson. “I’m enjoying learning different aspects of other sports. I’ve been so involved in my sport, it’s almost embarrassing in some ways how little I really know about other sports. Yes, I know baseball; yes, I know basketball; yes, I know football. But I don’t know it really all that well.”
He’s trying to get to know it better. He has help available – albeit on a pretty limited basis – within the walls of the team race shop.
Johnson’s team owner, Rick Hendrick, is a devout college football fan.
“We’re in ACC country in Charlotte, so I pay attention to a lot of those games,” he said. “N.C. State and Carolina are both supposed to be solid this year, so that should be a fun matchup to watch at the end of the season. Those two fan bases are really strong and like to go after each other. They’re like NASCAR fans with their favorite drivers.”
For the NCAA championship, Hendrick sides with the popular polls.
| “I think Florida will be good with Tim Tebow,” Hendrick noted. “He seems like a sincere young guy with a good family and very strong morals. He’s a great leader.” | 
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Johnson might not get as much input from crew chief Chad Knaus, however. Knaus is clearly focused on racing and has no knowledge of college football.
“Seriously, I’ve got nothing for you,” said Knaus when asked about it.
Car chief Ron Malec wasn’t much more informed, picking Wisconsin to win it all this season for no other reason than he “likes the Big Ten.”
And shocks specialist Pete Michel said his prediction for the next BCS champion is usually the underdog.
“I follow it a little bit, when I can,” he said. “I don’t get to watch too many games. I pretty much just always root for the underdog. I’m that kind of guy. Both the schools I went to didn’t have very good football teams – I went to the University of New Hampshire (for undergrad) and then I went to University of North Carolina at Charlotte for my engineering degree. They don’t even have football yet and they’re trying to get it.”
For college football guidance, Johnson would be better off going to pit crew coach Greg Morin, who played in high school in Raleigh, N.C., or to brake and suspension specialists Rich Gutierrez and Jeff Cook.
Morin’s pick this season is Texas, although he’s always pulling for his alma mater, East Carolina.
“I pull for the Pirates. Being from Massachusetts, I also follow the Boston College Eagles,” Morin added. “Being an ACC team, I get the chance to see them play locally in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.”
“I can like East Carolina all day, but I don’t see them going to the BCS title game. Conference USA is good, but the BCS is better. I think the sleeper team you’re going to find is Texas. I think a lot of the guys are looking at Florida and USC. But I think the big challenge will be beating Texas. I don’t think many guys left that squad. I think they lost two (from last year). So they’re going to be tough to beat,” he added.
Morin has another motive when he watches college football these days. Sometimes, even when he’s off the Hendrick Motorsports clock, he’s still working.
“We do a lot of our (pit-crew) recruiting from college football programs for our developmental program,” Morin said. “You kind of watch from a fan aspect, but also from a performance aspect – because guys who are going to have their dreams crushed come the end of their college careers by not being able to go on to the next level may be the perfect next jackman or next tire changer.
“There are probably a good 20 to 30 percent of the guys on pit road who played college sports on some level. Mostly football, but also some baseball players and some wrestlers. Those are the three big areas where we find the athletes who fit what we do over the wall,” he noted.
Gutierrez and Cook admitted to being big college football fans as well, and both think Florida is the best choice to repeat as BCS champion this year.
“I’m a fan of Virginia Tech. But Florida is tough. It’s hard to pick somebody to win it. But if I had to do it, I would say Florida. If I was a betting man, I would say Florida,” Gutierrez said.
Cook added: “I’ll go with Florida. I’m a Duke fan, so I can’t go with them in football.”
Obviously, Cook is a wise man. Johnson, meanwhile, continues to try to discover the magic of college football whenever he can, which, unfortunately for him with his incredibly busy racing schedule, is not all that often.
“I’m learning. And the one thing it reminds me of, especially when football comes around and we slow it down a little bit for a little while, is how fun it is to be a fan,” Johnson said. “I mean, I like nothing more than going to the stadium, buying a ticket, grabbing a beer, grabbing a hot dog and watching a game. Because I’m always inside this fence (in NASCAR), I don’t get to experience being on the other side very often. And that’s how I grew up: in the stands, enjoying stuff. I love going to football games and stuff like that.”
He especially loves the fact that he can maintain anonymity in the stands at a football game.
“It’s been fun. When you’re in the stands, rooting for the same team, people seem to leave you alone. They may say, `Hey, good job.’ But everybody is really focused on what’s happening to your team on the field in front of you,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he also can learn from studying the nuances of what transpires in college football and other sports.
“One thing I really enjoyed watching from the sidelines of the OU-Florida championship game was how hard those guys leaned on each other,” he said. “I mean, there were some plays that didn’t go the way they wanted to. To see those guys literally – in a loud verbal way – rallying around each other, just hammering on each other, was really something. I was like, `Man, they’re not holding back; they’re really laying into one other, but they’re picking each other up at the same time.’
“So I see different aspects of other sports that help me appreciate what they’re all about – the intensity and the differences in them, compared to what we do.”
When asked to compare the No. 48 Lowe’s race team to a college football team, Hendrick relishes his role the most.
“Chad’s the coach, making the tough calls and working through the game plan,” Hendrick said. “Jimmie’s the quarterback with great fundamentals. He’s like a Peyton Manning. The pit crew protects the driver’s position like an offensive line protects their quarterback. The owner is the cheerleader and the Monday morning quarterback.”
But when they line up at start/finish in the Chase for the Championship, the men of Team Lowe’s Racing can be just as intimidating as lining up against the top college defense in the country. They have playbooks, they have helmets, they have points to win and positions to defend. And another title ahead in their sites.