| JIMMIE JOHNSON 2011 STARTS: 25 WINS: 1 TOP 5: 11 TOP 10: 17 CURRENT DRIVER POINT STANDINGS: 1st FINISH IN ATLANTA: 2nd 2010 FALL FINISH AT RICHMOND: 3rd |
COMMEMORATING 9/11
The No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet will feature a special Power of Pride paint scheme at Richmond International Raceway commemorating the 10th anniversary of the events of 9/11. The Power of Pride paint scheme originally was driven by Johnson in his Sprint Cup Series debut in October 2001 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Since then, the No. 48 machine has featured the special scheme at Charlotte in 2003, where Johnson won both the All-Star and 600-mile races in the colors, and during the 2007 Memorial Day weekend race. The scheme was intended as a tribute to the country and the men and women who serve in our armed forces.
HELMET OF HOPE
Johnson will be wearing the 2011 Jimmie Johnson Foundation Helmet of Hope in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series event. In its fourth year, the Helmet of Hope program gives fans and media members across the country the opportunity to nominate their charity of choice to be featured on Johnson’s helmet for a select race. Each charity also receives a grant of $10,000. To date, the program has contributed over $300,000 to 49 different charities.
The charities featured on this year’s Helmet of Hope include: A Child’s Place, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Victory Junction, Make-A-Wish Central and Western, N.C. Chapter, the Family Crisis Resource Center of Cumberland, Md. , Conquer Chiari, 24 Hours of Booty, the Flagler County Education Foundation, Lollipop Theater Network, the Tennessee Chapter of the ALS Association, the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte and Els for Autism. The American Red Cross, which was placed on the helmet to kick off the event in response to tragedies across the nation, and Lowe’s Toolbox for Education, which the Jimmie Johnson Foundation partners with to fund Champions Grants, which are awarded to K-12 public schools in the hometowns where the Johnsons grew up and currently live, will also be featured.
JOHNSON TO ATTEND GRAND REOPENING OF LOWE’S STORE
Lowe’s of Sanford, N.C., which was devastated by a tornado on April 16, will reopen to continue serving the Sanford community on Thursday. Jimmie Johnson will join local officials and community representatives, gospel music singer and radio host Yolanda Adams and music legends Chairmen of the Board at the event. The store will return 160 jobs to the Sanford area.
JOHNSON VISITS WHITE HOUSE
Jimmie Johnson travels to Washington D.C. Wednesday, Sept. 7, where he will be honored by President Barack Obama at The White House. The event also will include NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France, plus several drivers from the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field. Prior to the White House visit, Johnson is scheduled to visit the Pentagon where he will lay a wreath in commemoration of 9/11.
Richmond International Raceway
| • | Johnson has made 19 Sprint Cup Series starts at Richmond International Raceway, where he has three wins, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes. |
| • | Johnson has completed 93.9% (7136 of 7603) of competition laps at the .75-mile track and has led 376. |
| • | He has an average start and finish of 12.1 and 16.5. |
Chassis
| • | Johnson will pilot chassis No. 590 in Saturday’s event. He last drove that car to a fifth-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. |
| • | Johnson finished fifth in backup chassis No. 540 at Phoenix International Raceway in November 2010. |
Primary Car History – Chassis No. 590
| Date | Event | Start | Finish |
| 03/29/2010 | Martinsville | 3 | 9 |
| 09/11/2010 | Richmond | 11 | 3 |
| 02/27/2011 | Phoenix | 28 | 3 |
| 04/30/2011 | Richmond | 30 | 8 |
| 07/17/2011 | Loudon | 28 | 5 |
Backup Car History – Chassis No. 540
| Date | Event | Start | Finish |
| 04/18/2009 | Phoenix | 10 | 4 |
| 06/28/2009 | Loudon | 3 | 9 |
| 09/20/2009 | Loudon | 16 | 4 |
| 10/25/2009 | Martinsville | 15 | 2 |
| 11/15/2009 | Phoenix | 3 | 1 |
| 04/10/2010 | Phoenix | 16 | 3 |
| 05/01/2010 | Richmond | 3 | 10 |
| 06/27/2010 | Loudon | 10 | 1 |
| 09/19/2010 | Loudon | 25 | 25 |
| 10/24/2010 | Martinsville | 19 | 5 |
| 11/14/2010 | Phoenix | 21 | 5 |
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE CHASE IS IT AS SIMPLE AS A FORMULA, AS CONSISTENCY IN THE FIRST 26, TURN IT ON FOR THE LAST 10 AND THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT TRULY MATTER?
“It can be and over the last five years people have used that formula if you will to put with our championships and that we’ve have kind of had that approach. I’ve always sat up here and said we’re giving 100 percent every week and its more coincidence and it really is. We all sit back and look at an average finish over the Chase races and say you need to be better than that and do that to win. We all know that but doing it is a totally different deal and it’s very difficult to pull off. So we do look at those markers and I think any good team sets goals and expectations and you rally your team around it and put that yard stick out in front of the team and say we need to do this to be in contention and you build around that. So we are all doing it but who can really pull it off is really where the magic is.”
Career Wins
| • | Johnson has 54 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career, his most recent coming at Talladega Superspeedway on April 17, 2011. |
| • | The El Cajon, Calif.-native is currently tied with Lee Petty for ninth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, one victory behind Rusty Wallace. |
| • | He is second in total wins among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (85). |
| • | Johnson needed only 296 starts to hit the 50 mark. Only three drivers have reached 50 victories quicker – Gordon (232), Darrell Waltrip (278) and David Pearson (293). |
| • | Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first eight full-time seasons. |
| • | Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but five (Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead, Kentucky) of the 23 tracks on which the series competes. |
| • | Johnson’s 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998. |
| • | The four-consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ties a modern-era NASCAR record. |
Career Poles
| • | Johnson has collected 25 poles in his Sprint Cup career. |
| • | The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002. |
| • | He had a career-high six poles in 2008. |
| • | Johnson’s most recent pole position was at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 24, 2010. |
Career Starts
| • | Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002. |
| • | Johnson is the only driver to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup every year since the format was adopted in 2004. |
| • | In 352 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 145 top-five and 220 top-10 finishes. |
| • | He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit. |
| • | Johnson has led a total of 11,614 laps (of 101,277) in his Sprint Cup career, covering over 131,129 miles. |
| • | He has finished on the lead lap 275 times. |
Career Recognition
| • | Johnson was named by Forbes as the Most Influential Athlete in 2011. |
| • | In 2009, Johnson became the first race car driver to be named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in its 78-year history. |
| • | Voted Driver of the Year four times in his career (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010), Johnson joins Jeff Gordon as four-time winners of the prestigious award. |
| • | Johnson has won an ESPY for Best Driver four times, in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. |
