Mr. Hard-to-Figure

No label is easily attached to enigmatic star Johnson

HOMESTEAD, FLA. -- It's hard to put an enigma on a T-shirt.

Dale Earnhardt was "The Intimidator." David Pearson was "The Silver Fox." Richard Petty was "The King." Darrell Waltrip was "Jaws."

Jimmie Johnson?

Well, some of the guys he knew growing up in California will tell you that the driver who could clinch a third straight Sprint Cup championship today at Homestead-Miami Speedway is the same "[guy] from El Cajon" he's always been.

But Johnson doesn't make it a habit of acting out around his race car.

Racing is his job. And he means business.

"I don't know what it is about going to my work space and maybe not letting my personality come through," Johnson said. "I'm just focused on what I've got to do."

What he's got to do today is finish 36th or better -- 37th if he leads a lap -- to lock out Carl Edwards in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup. Johnson will start 30th after a poor qualifying run Friday while Edwards will start fourth.

If Johnson wins it, he would join 1976-78 champion Cale Yarborough as the only drivers with three straight titles.

Since moving to the Cup series in 2002, Johnson has won 40 races. Jeff Gordon has won 23 in those seven seasons and Tony Stewart 21.

"I don't understand why Jimmie hasn't gotten more credit than he has gotten for being one of the best who has ever been in a car," car owner Rick Hendrick said.

Perhaps the problem is that nobody has found some Johnson characteristic that can be exaggerated into a caricature or converted into a convenient slogan or icon.

"I've been myself," Johnson said. "If it's hard to figure out, I guess I'm hard to figure out. It's not that I'm trying to be anything. I'm just being myself."

Johnson said he's also not the guy to ask to compare himself to Yarborough, the hard-charging South Carolinian, or other top stars in NASCAR's history.

"I don't think I have, or any driver has, the right to proclaim his spot in history," Johnson said.

Yarborough sees similarities between himself and Johnson and their respective eras.

"Back in the '70s, there was tremendous competition," Yarborough said. "All of those guys, they were all great race-car drivers. Jimmie is going up against some good drivers today. We were all dedicated drivers. Jimmie is a dedicated driver. ... That's what it takes to run races and win championships, is to have that dedication and determination to get it done. It's just hard to do."

In the three seasons that Yarborough drove Junior Johnson-owned cars to his championships, only seven drivers competed in all 90 races held in those seasons. By comparison, 20 drivers have run all 107 races held since 2006. Eleven different drivers won races from 1976-78, while 20 drivers have won since 2006.

"In the '70s, there weren't but four or five teams with a realistic chance of winning the championship," said three-time champion Darrell Waltrip, now an analyst for Fox Sports. "Winning three championships back then was a great accomplishment, but it's a greater accomplishment, in my mind, today."

The most dramatic change, though, is money. Yarborough won $1,638,551 in his three championship seasons combined. Johnson has won $1,950,299 in the nine races held so far in this year's Chase. True or not, the perception among veteran drivers is that that has a lot to do with why Johnson and Edwards, who comes into today trailing by 141 points, sound more like cousins than rivals.

Waltrip, for one, wishes the contenders would show at least a little more animosity.

"I liked rivalries," Waltrip said. "I liked Bobby [Allison] and me not getting along, or me and Rusty [Wallace] or me and Dale [Earnhardt]. It made it fun. ... Jimmie is scared to death to be Jimmie Johnson. He has to be the Jimmie Johnson, who's politically correct and doesn't say anything wrong and make anybody mad."

But Johnson doesn't see a problem.

"What's wrong with good competition and people that respect each other and teams that respect each other?" he said. "I don't know why we have to be a circus act to make it a good show."