Don't worry, Jimmie - they're just jealous

Poor Jimmie Johnson. He gets no respect.

He and his team work their respective tails off and all they seem to get for it is criticism from fans and complaints from the media that his dominance of the championship race the past three seasons is "boring" or "bad for the sport."

Let me tell you what the fans' problem is with Johnson winning so much: Their favorite driver isn't. It's that simple and it's never going to change. Johnson will just have take heart in his overflowing trophy case.

The motorsports media's apparent distaste for Johnson's success is much more perplexing.

In all forms of sports - baseball, football, basketball, soccer - you name it - streaks of success are followed and trumpeted as moments to remember. Statistics like wins in a row, consecutive hits, number of Super Bowl or World Series titles - all are looked upon as great accomplishments.

Not in racing.

Here if you win too much it's not because you earned it, it's because you somehow cheated the system. And the sanctioning body is asked immediately how they will fix the problem. For some reason, nobody is ever allowed to celebrate accomplishments until well after their participation in the sport is over.

Today everyone revels in Richard Petty's 200 wins or in the seven championships won by Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt. I pity the driver who ever gets close to 200 wins. It's my bet he'd be run off long before he even came close.

And seven championships? That's sacred ground right there. Johnson is on the verge of earning his fourth. If he starts getting close to seven, the backlash would be so great some columnists likely would beg Johnson to just quit after six and save the sport from itself.

Jeff Burton had a good analogy about why drivers are not recognized for their accomplishments when they happen. Basically, Burton said, it's because it means that driver is beating up on all his competition and their fans. And they don't take to that kindly.

But bad for the sport? No way.

It's harder to win NASCAR races than ever before and there are a larger number of competitive teams able to reach Victory Lane on a weekly basis.

Johnson might get fans' boos because he beats up on their favorite driver and the media might tire of writing "Johnson wins his XX straight title" stories, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have the chance to earn their respect.

He certainly has mine.

Notes

Several drivers to debut at Memphis

Three drivers hope to make their Nationwide Series debut this Saturday at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park.

Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Matt DiBenedetto will drive the No.20 Toyota and has at least three more starts planned in 2010 - at Milwaukee, St. Louis and Iowa.

DiBenedetto, 18, earned two wins this season in the Camping World East Series. He had four top-five and five top-10 finishes and three poles in seven starts.

Richard Boswell II will attempt to make his debut in JR Motorsports' No.5 Chevrolet. Boswell is a JR Motorsports late model driver who has been with the team for three seasons. He has three victories in 58 starts.

Nick Joanides is scheduled to debut in the No.31 Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing. He has championships in the NASCAR Super Late Model and Late Model classes at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Calif., and finished third in the 2009 Whelen All-American series standings.

Crew chief changes at RCR

Continuing its efforts to improve its performance, Richard Childress Racing on Wednesday announced several changes to its crew chief lineup.

Beginning with next weekend's race at Talladega, Ala., Todd Berrier will take over as crew chief for driver Burton and his No.31 Cup team. Doug Randolph will take over for Berrier, who has been crew chief for driver Casey Mears and the No.07 Cup team.

In addition, Dan Deeringhoff will take over for Randolph as the crew chief for RCR's No.29 team in the Nationwide Series. Burton's current Cup crew chief, Scott Miller, is moving to a role as director of competition.

Fan Fests set for Daytona

NASCAR's top drivers will participate in the annual NASCAR 'Preseason Thunder' Fan Fests on Jan.15-16 at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

There will be numerous activities involving drivers from the Cup, Nationwide and Trucks series.

TV ratings down for Banking 500

ABC's coverage of Saturday's Cup race at Lowe's Motor Speedway earned a final 3.5 national rating, down 8percent from last year's 3.8 rating. ESPN2's coverage of the Nationwide race at LMS earned a 1.4 rating, up from 1.1 last year's rain-delayed race received.

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