Does Jimmie Johnson annoy the crap out of anyone else?

[Fathead]

I don't know what it is.  He seems a nice guy, he's obviously talented, but for some reason I root against him no matter what.   

[south jersey girl]

he doesn't annoy me as much as he used too...and neither does Gordon

I'm not ready to say I'm an HMS fan yet though...

[James J.]

Funny isn't it how some people just rub you the wrong way.  There's got to be some sort of psychological reason for it.
Some sort of subconscious reason for how we perceive people.  Like this little blurb:

Looking for a trustworthy face
Nature Neuroscience

Observers make both deliberate and unconscious evaluations when deciding whether a stranger has a 'trustworthy' face, suggests a paper in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience, and different brain regions may underlie these two forms of assessment.

Raymond Dolan and his colleagues at University College London showed images of unknown faces to people while their brains were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The researchers found that some brain regions were active only when participants were specifically asked to decide if a face appeared trustworthy, while other regions responded to untrustworthy faces even when the participants were performing an unrelated task (judging age). Judgments about trustworthiness therefore seem to involve both deliberate and automatic emotional reactions in different parts of the brain.

[FS_Amy]

It is funny who you're drawn to or away from, I guess.  I've always liked Jimmie, ever since he jumped on the roof of his car at the Glen because he was happy to be alive.  He's super nice, humble, and funny as hell.  He worked his behind off to get where he is-moreso tham most on the circuit. The only thing I'd fault him for is his sometimes reluctance to take responsibility for a mistake-but even that is temporary, and heck, I've done the same thing competing.  Jimmie has always owned up to things when he's had the time to think them through.  It's not arrogance with him when he does that-it's insecurity and the fear that making mistakes will cost him his job-a legitimate fear in the lower ranks of racing that he never quite shed.  He's about the cleanest driver in the game, too.

I don't buy the "he's Jeff's clone" argument, either.  Truex is Junior's Mini-me-even growing his accent-and nobody complains.  Sorry, but if you're going to complain about one guy, you can't ignore the other one doing the same thing.

So I like Jimmie.  In fact, I like most drivers. The ones who rub me the wrong way are the Busch brothers with their "You give and I'll take attitude" on and sometimes off the track, Matt Kenseth who talks a good game but is not the Mr. Clean he'd liek you to believe, and Carl Edwards, who is a nice guy but who also has an image that I feel like is very carefully cultivated.  Just a matter of preference, I guess.

[Tonyfan14]

The only reasy why I'm not a fan of the 48 team is because of Chad Kanus. That guy annoys the crap out of me. I don't mind Jimmie Johnson at all, it is his crew chief that annoys me. It his crew chief who cheats and it is his crew chief that wants all the other drivers espically Kyle Busch to pull over for JJ. I just have a strong dislike for that guy.

[czechmate25]

If not for Chad, Jimmie would be just another guy driving around looking for top 10's.  Knaus is the best crew chief in the business by far.  Jimmie would probably only have about 5-8 wins without him, if that.  The 48 car can be junk at the start of a race and by the end, he is contending for the win.  That is all Knaus.  As far as the cheating thing, if you are a crew chief in cup and you aren't studying the rulebook trying to find loop holes or grey areas that can be manipulated to make your car go faster, then you aren't trying.  For years, crew chiefs have done what Knaus is doing...the only reason everyone makes a stick out of Knaus is b/c with his intelligence, the equipment, people and drivers HMS has, they win every week.  I can't stand JJ but if I could pick one crew chief sitting on top of my favorite drivers pit box, it would be Knaus without even thinking about it.

[smyler]

Some good discussing going on here. 

It's no secret that I like Jimmie.  He is a clean driver, a good Samaritan and most consider him neither arrogant or a bully.  The issues people have against Knaus don't make sense to me.  ALL crew chiefs do what they can to get their driver into victory lane.  Just cause the others don't get caught don't make em innocent.  That deal with the cars being so far outside of the tolerances on the fenders was a joke.  They went by the rule book, if not by the spirit of the law.

Jimmie is about my fifth favorite.  Everybody knows I'm a Gordon fan, but I would rather see Bobby, K. Petty or Front row Joe win than Jimmie, on any given weekend. 

[Tonyfan14]

If not for Chad, Jimmie would be just another guy driving around looking for top 10's.  Knaus is the best crew chief in the business by far.  Jimmie would probably only have about 5-8 wins without him, if that.  The 48 car can be junk at the start of a race and by the end, he is contending for the win.  That is all Knaus.  As far as the cheating thing, if you are a crew chief in cup and you aren't studying the rulebook trying to find loop holes or grey areas that can be manipulated to make your car go faster, then you aren't trying.  For years, crew chiefs have done what Knaus is doing...the only reason everyone makes a stick out of Knaus is b/c with his intelligence, the equipment, people and drivers HMS has, they win every week.  I can't stand JJ but if I could pick one crew chief sitting on top of my favorite drivers pit box, it would be Knaus without even thinking about it.

I wouldn't say Chad is the best crew chief by far. Is he one of the best nowadays? Sure he is but I'll rank Zippy and Robbie Reiser right there with him. Chad is not the only guy out there who can take a crappy car and make a nice finish out of it. And at least in Zippy's case he doesn't have to cheat and or bend the rules to make the car go faster.  And maybe the reason why people make such a stink about Chad and his cheating\bending of the rules is because it happens more often than any of the other crew cheifs out there.

[czechmate25]

Sounds like a Stewart fan is upset that Johnson now has more wins and as many championships as Stewart does in 3 less years. 

I think Zippy and Reiser are great crew chiefs, don't get me wrong, but IMO not in the same league as Knaus.  With Kenseth's talent, if he was in the 48 car with Knaus on top of the box, people wouldn't be talking about when that car won, they wouldl be talking when it didn't.  Kenseth would probably win every race if he drove for that team.

[James J.]

If not for Chad, Jimmie would be just another guy driving around looking for top 10's.  Knaus is the best crew chief in the business by far.  Jimmie would probably only have about 5-8 wins without him, if that.  The 48 car can be junk at the start of a race and by the end, he is contending for the win.  That is all Knaus.  As far as the cheating thing, if you are a crew chief in cup and you aren't studying the rulebook trying to find loop holes or grey areas that can be manipulated to make your car go faster, then you aren't trying.  For years, crew chiefs have done what Knaus is doing...the only reason everyone makes a stick out of Knaus is b/c with his intelligence, the equipment, people and drivers HMS has, they win every week.  I can't stand JJ but if I could pick one crew chief sitting on top of my favorite drivers pit box, it would be Knaus without even thinking about it.

Excellent post that pretty much says how I feel about it.  We've seen it many times this year where both Gordon and Johnson have had pit box calls result in wins.  This year at least, it seems Gordon's have been more based on luck whereas Johnson's pit box calls that resulted in wins were based more on Chad's quick evaluation of what the competition is doing and then his decisive and calm call to the crew that results in the #48 being in a position to win.  Chad would be my pick of crew chiefs, all day, any day.

Only thing I would add is that there's a difference between cheating and working in the gray areas or loop holes, IMO.
Cheating is the #55 NAPA Toyota at Daytona.
Working the gray areas is the #48 at Infineon.
Two very different scenarios.

This is nothing new folks.  Teams have always been working the gray areas.  If your crew chief isn't looking for a competitive advantage, then you need a new crew chief.  Call it cheating if you want, but as Chris pointed out in this post,

"They intentionally do NOT cover "THE RULES"  It is no where in the rule book they give to competitors.
I am looking at the rule book as I type this and it is 80 pages long (may have expanded a little since I helped) but it covers items such as: Membership, Sanctioned Events, Entries, Flag, Timing & SCoring, Protest, Appeals, Prize Money, and most of the rest is specification on motor, and technical stuff on how to build the race vehical and construction guidelines.
The is ONE place that says "NASCAR RULES"
This is what they have: Effective date (when thay start); Amendments (just says they can be changed or amended); Interpritation (says Nascar officials have final say in'interpretating' what the rules is "intended" to say); Finality of Interpretation (basically says all of nascar decisions are final and "non-litigable")
Thats basically ALL you get as far as "Rules,.. it consist of a grand total of ONE whopping page."

IMO, it's hard to cheat the rules... when there are none.  And in this day and age of business and lawyers, I find it hard to believe that some very good "rules" couldn't be written.... if that's what NASCAR wanted to do, and if that's what fans really demanded (not that demanding would get them anywhere).

[Tonyfan14]

Nope, I'm happy for Jimmie Johnson. I have nothing against the guy and think he is a great talent. And IF he wins the Championhip this year I'll be happy for him. His record vs Tony's has nothing to with my opinion on his crew chief.

[czechmate25]

Just messing with ya.

[Tonyfan14]

If not for Chad, Jimmie would be just another guy driving around looking for top 10's

And I also have to disagree with that. JJ has had to drive his butt of these past 2 weeks to get those wins. He was completly sideways a few times last week while running alongside Matt. His crew chief may be great but you still need a driver who can wheel the car to get 33 wins and a Championhip.

[James J.]

BTW, Chad and the entire #48 crew's ability to take a mid-pack running car, or a car that's been caught up in someone else's problems, and turn things around during the race to bring home a top 10 I would say is one of the key defining characteristics of that team.  To me, when I watch a race, anytime the #48 car is down and looks to be out, I still sit there and think "they'll be back."  They always seem to get it done when most cars/teams would indeed be down for the rest of the race or not able to rebound as well.  The TEAM just doesn't seem to give up, and that focus, determination, and spirit comes from the top of that pit box AND from the radio communication back from the driver to the crew.  Think about some of the other great drivers and their reactions and the way they come across the radio.  Is it just me, or does Jimmie come across in a better tone to the crew during bad situations than other drivers do (like Rusty, Kurt, Kyle, Tony)?

[czechmate25]

And what did Johnson do in the Busch series without Knaus as his crew cheif again?  If you said zero wins, you'd be right.  As far as the battle with Matt at Texas is concerned.  IMO Kenseth out drove him in that race.  Matt is clearly driving a car that isn't equal to that of the 48 and he made a great race out of it, by his talent alone.  Again, if you put Matt in the 48, he probably wouldn't lose a race.  If you take Jimmie out of the 48, he would be lucky to win again.  Jimmie is a robot in the car.  If you ever have listened to his radio chatter during a race, you'd here him telling Knaus everything the car was doing on entry, on exit, in the center off.....next thing you know, Knaus makes some changes and the 48 is leading.  To get 33 wins in this day in age is a great accomplishment and deserves recognition...he is a decent, maybe a good, driver.  He is not, one of the best.  He wins b/c of his car and crew chief.  Period.