Art Weinstein: NASCAR has its very own Terminator
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson celebrates his seventh win of the season Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
Related stories: Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson dominates at Phoenix; takes commanding lead into final race
COMMENTARY
Very early in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix, a fellow race fan summed up the thoughts, or maybe dreams, of many other race fans.
“I heard someone found a rattlesnake near the track and threw it in Jimmie Johnson’s car before the race,” the fan said. “That should tighten up the Chase a little bit.”
I strongly disagreed. If that had truly happened, the next day’s headlines would have read: “Jimmie Johnson shakes off rattlesnake bites, rallies for third-place finish.”
Johnson and his team are that good. Just when a freak accident the week before at Texas Motor Speedway injected a tiny bit of drama into the rout masquerading as the Chase For The Sprint Cup, Johnson went out and shredded the field at Phoenix, leading 238 of 312 laps on his way to victory No. 7 of 2009.
Watching Johnson lead lap after lap, his machine-like performance reminded me not of Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt in their prime, nor Cale Yarborough or Jeff Gordon in their heyday. Instead, the image that came to mind was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, that Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his career-making role in the classic sci-fi movie, the “Terminator.” The muscle-bound Austrian played a robot, or Terminator, with a human-looking exterior. The Terminator was absolutely relentless and unstoppable, with a computer-driven focus on its mission. You could shoot it, run over it with a car, blow it up in a gasoline tanker, whatever, and it would continue on its mission.
That sounds pretty much like Johnson at Phoenix (and just about everywhere else he’s raced the past few years).
The Terminator was from the future, sent back in time to alter history. Johnson will alter history next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, when he captures his record fourth consecutive NASCAR Cup championship.
Is that statement a bit premature? Maybe. As we saw at Texas, anything can happen. You’ll hear that phrase quite a bit in the next few days, and there is some truth to it. But really, Johnson only needs a 25th-place finish to clinch that record fourth title. For the record, he’s had 11 finishes of 25th or worse since the 2008 season began, so he stumbles once every seven races or so. But remember, Mark Martin has to win and lead the most laps to make that 25th-place scenario relevant. Chances are, Johnson will end up with his customary top-five and make all the talk of 25th-place a moot point.
Many fans who love to hate Johnson will probably continue to hate Johnson. Some fans just hate seeing the same driver win races and
championships again and again. But the 34-year-old driver believes some fans who might have been lukewarm or even negative toward him in the past are beginning to appreciate his accomplishments.
“In the last year I’ve seen my fan base, the perception change so, so much,” Johnson said after his Phoenix win. “If we are able to win a fourth, I think it would help it even more. When I was a kid growing up, Earnhardt was winning a lot of races and championships, but nobody liked him. When I first started driving for Hendrick, Jeff [Gordon] won his fourth championship, won a lot of races [and] nobody really liked him. So I’m not the only one going through this. … Earnhardt and Gordon have gone through the same stuff I’ve gone through.”
Maybe some of the “Anyone But Johnson” fans will one day come to embrace the driver. Remember, Schwarzenegger was widely ridiculed for his performance in a string of very bad movies (“Conan The Barbarian,” anyone?) before earning public adoration and acclaim as the “Terminator.”
