NASCAR Season starts this Saturday February 6th with the Budweiser Shootout

Jimmie Johnson Blog by Gary Heinlein IMD jjchevy.com

The NASCAR Season starts this Saturday February 6th with the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. The Budweiser Shootout is a pre-season, non-points event that features some of the sport's top drivers and top performers. Eligibility is based on the 12 drivers who competed in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup title, plus past Cup Series champions and previous Budweiser Shootout winners. The reigning Rookie of the Year in Cup is also eligible.

The Budweiser Shootout will be run in two segments, just as it has since 2003. The first part of the race will be 25 laps and the second part will be a 50-lap sprint for the win. That's 187.5 miles on the track's high-banked, 2.5-mile layout. During the break between the first and second segments is a 10-minute "pit stop" which gives crews the opportunity to make adjustments to their cars. The adjustments are those that they would normally do on routine pit stop during a regular Sprint Cup race.

Anheuser-Busch and its Budweiser brand has sponsored the race at Daytona International Speedway since 1979. Called the Busch Clash until 1998, the name was changed to the Bud Shootout and then renamed the Budweiser Shootout for the 2001season. The event just underwent the most significant changes in its format and eligibility since its inception in 1979. Throughout the 31 years of this event, there have been 18 different winners.

The following weekend, February 14th, the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (points season) kicks off with the 52nd running of the Daytona 500. All of us here at Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet in San Diego are all ready to root Jimmie onto a fifth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship.

Jimmie Johnson looking forward to Sunday’s Finale

Jimmie Johnson Blog by Gary Heinlein IMD jjchevy.com

I heard that Jimmie Johnson was at game one of the World Series along with Jeff Gordon. I guess the cameras caught glimpse of Gordon but didn’t see Jimmie in the stands. Someone asked him afterwards if he was disappointed that he wasn’t on television and his comment was; "Man, I was up there eating peanuts and having a beer. I had a blast and didn't want to be on TV. We're on TV enough."

Well this Sunday he won’t be in the stands eating peanuts and having a beer at Homestead-Miami Speedway when he competes for his fourth straight Sprint Cup Championship. He has a 108-point lead going into the final race and all he has to do is finish 25th or better or a finish of 10th or worse by teammate Mark Martin who is in second place. As a matter of fact the only one that can take the Championship away from him is Martin. As soon as Jimmie shows up for the race on Sunday he will have eliminated the only other threat to him and that is his other teammate, Jeff Gordon. So the finale comes down to a two man race between two Hendrick teammates.

Here at Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet in Kearny Mesa of San Diego, we will be watching the race on a large screen TV, eating hotdogs and hamburgers, and rooting Jimmie onto victory. If you would like to join us you can give us a call at 858-560-9008 and put your name on the list (as long as there’s room left).

Otherwise I will be writing about the exciting finish to the 2009 Sprint Cup race season come this Monday. Hopefully, I will be writing about Jimmie Johnson’s fourth championship which joins him with Earnhardt, Gordon and Richard Petty as the only drivers with four or more Cup titles in NASCAR's 61-year history.

San Diego Chargers pull out a close one against the New York Giants

Jimmie Johnson Blog by Gary E. Heinlein IMS jjchevy.com

This last Sunday afternoon was a lazy type of day and I was listening to the Charger game out on my deck while enjoying the beautiful Julian sunshine. I was interested in this Charger game, for the same reason a lot of other people were. Mostly for the match up of the two quarterbacks, who came out of the same draft and both had connection to the San Diego Chargers. In this comparison match up it seems that Philip Rivers came out the winner over Eli Manning. Rivers guided the Chargers down the field, in the last minute of the game and took them into the end zone.

Philip Rivers threw a precisely placed pass to Vincent Jackson who had plenty of room in the corner of the end zone. Jackson ran a great pattern and left the defender several yards behind him. With the extra point the Chargers won the game by one point. Hopefully this season will be like the previous seasons where the Chargers started slow and then picked up momentum. They will need to keep their winning ways going through the rest of this season in order to catch the Denver Broncos and make it into the playoffs.

Most of us here (I don’t know if I can say all of us) at Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet in Kearny Mesas of San Diego are rooting for the Chargers. Even Jimmie Johnson says he still has a place in his heart for his old hometown team, the San Diego Chargers. I’m sure a number of the San Diego Chargers are rooting for Jimmie in his effort to capture his fourth straight Sprint Cup Chase Championship. After the crash he experienced this last Sunday the Chase for the Cup is definitely tightened up between his other two teammates, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

Will Jimmie Johnson lose bid for fourth straight Sprint Cup Championship?

Jimmie Johnson Blog by Gary E. Heinlein IMS jjchevy.com

Now that I have your attention, all of the blogs and news articles make it sound like Jimmie Johnson has it all wrapped up for his fourth straight Sprint Cup Championship. If you were to ask Jimmie he would tell you that there is a lot of racing left. As he always says that anything can happen.

Some people are saying that maybe Jimmie Johnson will get complacent and let down his guard, but knowing Jimmie that won’t happen. The man has gotten where he is today (one of the best drivers in NASCAR history) by staying focused and paying attention to every little detail on and off the track. The Jimmie Johnson that I know is a very humble man but is very confident in his ability as a driver. So race fans don’t get bored with Jimmie’s success in winning championships, just watch and admire the work of a champion that is focused and determined to get to his next (historic) goal.

Whether you like Jimmie Johnson or not most people say that they have to respect him for his driving abilities. If he wins the championship this year you will have witnessed history in the making, something you can tell your grandkids that you saw it happen.

All of us here at Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet in Kearny Mesa of San Diego are very proud of Jimmie Johnson and the accomplishments that he has done up to this point. Even if he were not to win this years Sprint Cup Championship for a fourth straight year we know that there will be many more championships in the future for this very confident yet humble man.

Now don’t get me wrong, we all think that Jimmie is going to take this years Cup title and we are all rooting him on to victory in the five remaining races. But we also realize that all the other Chase drivers, including two of his Hendrick teammates, are not going to sit back and just let him cruise to an easy victory. They are still out there giving it everything they have and that’s what makes it all exciting.

Great day of racing for Jimmie Johnson and the Hendrick Team at the Auto Club Speedway

Jimmie Johnson Blog by Gary E. Heinlein IMS jjchevy.com

Jimmie Johnson set a new record at the Auto Club Speedway by winning his third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pepsi 500 and this gives him the most wins (4) by any Cup driver here at Auto Club Speedway. This win was Jimmie’s 45th of his career and places him in first place in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Jimmie Johnson is shooting for his fourth straight championship which is a feat that has never been done before.

“What an awesome car,” Johnson said. “What an awesome day. The caution at the end really had me nervous. I didn’t know what to do on the restarts. The 24 was getting me on some of them, the 42 was racing. I knew once we had three or four laps, I was in good shape, but there at the end, I didn’t really have many laps, so I’m glad I got a good start and got going.”

The rest of the Hendrick Team had a great day also. Jeff Gordon finished second, and Teammate Mark Martin finished fourth. Three out of the first four top finishers were Hendrick cars. Makes you want to go out and buy a chevrolet from a Hendrick Dealership which Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet here in Kearny Mesa of San Diego is just that. You can check out our inventory at jjchevy.com.

Anyway back to the race day results. Dale Earnhart Jr. had a great day also as he ran in the top ten most of the day right up to the very end when a multi-car accident took him out. It just shows that Jr. will be ready to really compete for next year as he continues to fine tune his team in the final races of this year.

Jeff Gordon had this to say about the race. “We were just trying to make it interesting because nobody else seemed to be able to do that for the 48, and we certainly couldn’t on that last run,” Gordon said. “It was a great day for the DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet. We really fought hard all day and all weekend to get ourselves in that position.”

Over all it was a fun and exciting race at the Auto Club Speedway. I got to see my boss (Jimmie Johnson) win in style. I got to see some of my own family members and friends there at the race and I had fun taking pictures. I have posted just a few of the photos I took and the rest should be posted in a few days onto our website at Jimmie Johnson Pictures.