It has been less than a week since Jimmie Johnson drove the Hendrick Motor Sports No. 48 car to his fifth straight Sprint Cup Championship. For Johnson, and for the sport of NASCAR in general, there finally seems to respect. Johnson had a few minutes while in New York to reflect on his fifth title and here is what he told me.
Johnson on how the media has been handling his fifth title: From the media side, there’s been a huge push and a lot of people recognizing the fact, amongst sports, what we’ve done, how that ranks, how unique that is in all of sports. That’s been more of the angle than anything and it is very flattering to both me and the entire team.
Johnson on getting to enough NASCAR titles to tie or beat the record (seven) shared by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty: I mean, I would love to get to 10 straight. I don’t know how ridiculous that sounds. But, I mean, in your mind, shoot, I would love to do X, Y, and Z. The realistic side, there’s no telling how long it’s going to last and I think we are all shocked it’s gone on this far. I want to believe, and I do feel in my heart, that we’ll have a shot next year, but I don’t know what those challenges are going to be, how competitive we’ll be, what the competition’s going to look like. If our team can seam together seven in any shape or form to tie those two greats, I would be extremely honored. If I was ever able to surpass them, it would be out of this world.
So just how does Johnson and the Hendrick team match up against other sports powerhouses?
The fifth straight championship makes Hendrick Motorsports one of just four organizations in major American professional sports to have scored five or more titles consecutively. The Boston Celtics posted eight NBA titles in a row starting with the 1958-59 season and ending in 1965-66. They are now tied with the New York Yankees, which earned five World Series rings from 1949-53, and the Montreal Canadiens, which scored five Stanley Cups from 1956-60.
How does their dominance compare to the other major American pro sports leagues?
Hendrick has amassed a total of 10 Sprint Cup Championships, which ties the St. Louis Cardinals’ 10 World Series titles for eighth place among the major American pro sports leagues. The top seven are: New York Yankees (27 World Series titles), Montreal Canadiens (24 Stanley Cups), Boston Celtics (17 NBA titles), Los Angeles Lakers (16 NBA titles), Toronto Maple Leafs (13 Stanley Cups), Green Bay Packers (12 NFL championships) and Detroit Red Wings (11 Stanley Cups).
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
