Jimmie Johnson sets NASCAR record with 4th consecutive championship

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Johnson wins 4th straight NASCAR championship

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The nickname “Four-Time” was claimed long ago by Jeff Gordon, leaving Jimmie Johnson in search of a fresh moniker to cap his record-setting fourth consecutive NASCAR championship.

His Hendrick Motorsports team had it covered.

They call Johnson “Shark” for his “relentless attack on the competition, especially when he smells blood,” said general manager Marshall Carlson.

Johnson never let up in his chase for a championship, or his chase of NASCAR history.

The most dominant driver of this decade wrapped up another title Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he raced hard to finish fifth when 25th place would have gotten the job done.

Johnson’s total trails only the seven titles won by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, and he’s now tied with teammate Gordon.

Finally, Johnson is willing to consider his place in NASCAR history.

“The fact that nobody has done this, I think it puts me near the top,” he said. “I certainly look at the seven championships by both Earnhardt and Petty, their race wins, their being in the sport for the number of years and all that they’ve done — those two guys are kind of at a draw at the top.

“Hopefully my stats and win totals and championship totals can rival theirs. The cool thing is, we’re not done yet. We’ve got a lot of racing left ahead of us.”

All he ever wanted was a chance to race against the very best. Maybe even win a race or two.

Never did he expect to be a champion.

Especially four times over.

The 34-year-old Californian bulldozed his way into the record books, pouncing when the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship began to pull team owner Rick Hendrick into the record books with him. Johnson’s title gave a record 12th overall championship to Hendrick, who was in North Carolina with a niece who was undergoing an emergency liver transplant.

In his absence, Johnson, Mark Martin and Gordon celebrated a 1-2-3 finish in the final points standings, just the second time in NASCAR history a team owner has swept the standings.

Johnson’s title gave team owner Rick Hendrick a record 12th NASCAR championship, on a day that saw the team take the top three spots in the final standings. Mark Martin wound up with his fifth runner-up finish in the standings, while Jeff Gordon was third.

Superman, indeed.

Johnson now stands atop NASCAR as a one-man dynasty, much like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Lance Armstrong in their sports.

Only Johnson hasn’t been feted under a blizzard of confetti by himself. His mighty Hendrick team rules NASCAR the way UCLA once dominated the hardwood or Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls reigned supreme.

There’s seemingly plenty of chances left for Johnson’s tag-team with crew chief Chad Knaus to keep Hendrick and the No. 48 in the title hunt for another decade.

Johnson signed a five-year contract extension to drive for Hendrick through 2015, and Knaus has insisted the No. 48 team can keep this pace for the next several years.

Johnson doesn’t want to take anything for granted along the way.

“I don’t know if we’ll win another championship,” he said. “I feel in my heart we’ll be competitive, but at some point in time, we won’t be that team.”

That’s why Johnson never let up in pursuit of the championship. He raced hard for wins in nine of the 10 Chase races, and for all 400 miles at Homestead, where he threatened to try to run down the leaders to better his eventual fifth-place finish.

It made for a sometimes testy drive into history for Johnson, who was at times annoyed at rival drivers and even Gordon, the mentor and teammate who helped him land his job with Hendrick Motorsports.

Nobody gave Johnson anything, either. The other drivers raced hard around him all day, making Johnson earn every point in a race won by Denny Hamlin, who established himself as a driver to watch in 2010.