By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

With the exception of a few years in the mid to late 2000’s where I was a casual watcher, I’ve never really been a fan of NASCAR.

It’s not that I had anything against it, watching racing just wasn’t my thing.

However, as Jimmie Johnson’s full-time career comes to an end- and I say full time because race car drivers are like WWE wrestlers, they never seem to completely retire- I can’t help but think back on how he was perceived during that time.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not talking about his legacy- I’m not nearly knowledgeable enough to make those kinds of assessments. I’m referring to how he was viewed among most NASCAR fans, and why.

Johnson entered NASCAR as Jeff Gordon 2.0. He was a good looking, well dressed, articulate speaking (no accent) individual, which meant the ladies loved him and the men, not so much.

The fact he drove for the same owner as Gordon, Richard Hendrick, led to me hearing them referred to as the “Backstreet Boys of racing” on more than one occasion.

It would be easy to put the lion’s share of Johnson’s struggle to win over the diehard fan on him being an outsider, but it goes a little deeper than that.

NASCAR is a tight knit community where names like Petty, Wallace, and Allison mean something; and no name carries more weight in that sport than Earnhardt.

I honestly think had Earnhardt been around the Hatfield and McCoy’s feud would’ve ended with “…and they all gathered around the table in their Earnhardt shirts, thanking the good lord for placing the Intimidator on this earth.”

Fan loyalty runs deeper in NASCAR than any other sport, so to have a racer like Jimmie Johnson winning five straight Cup Series Championships over Dale Earnhardt Jr. was blasphemy at its highest level.

It would’ve been bad enough to have a racer like Tony Stewart or Kevin Harvick defeating Earnhardt Jr. when it was supposed to be his time, but for those defeats to come at the hands of a pretty boy from California was unacceptable.

If Johnson was your average racer, winning a race or two here and there, I still think fans would’ve had the same opinion of him, it just wouldn’t have been nearly as deep seeded.

(I feel like I need to mention I don’t ever remember Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson having any issues with each other, outside of the normal confrontations all drivers seem to have with each other some point. Like most things related to sports, it had nothing to with the drivers themselves, but rather the fans.)

I also believe Johnson’s popularity with the casual NASCAR fan outside of the south was a major reason the sport reached its peak around that time- something I think the diehard fan had difficulty coming to grips with.

If I had to guess it’s been ten years since I, not only watched a NASCAR race, but actually followed what was taking place. I have no idea if Johnson’s popularity within the sport has increased over that time or if it’s stayed the same; I imagine it’s gotten better, but probably not by much.

I have no idea where Johnson ranks among the pantheon of great race car drivers, but for a few years he was one of the more polarizing drivers in the sport, and NASCAR was all the better for it.