NASCAR Cup Series

Johnson still holds desire to win more

Published Dec. 31, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Jimmie Johnson continues to etch his name in the NASCAR history books, having won his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship this past season.

Not only did Johnson continue to showcase his driving talent, but the Hendrick Motorsports competitor managed to do yet another thing that has never been done — rallying from behind in the final pair of Chase for the Sprint Cup races to win the championship. That had never been accomplished since the format began in 2004.

Along the way, Johnson has posted numbers that challenge the drivers who have been atop the record books throughout NASCAR history. He's two titles short of matching the records of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. His 53 Cup wins ranks 10th all-time. After winning three or more races a season in each of his nine full-time seasons, Johnson looks to be on track to reach Rusty Wallace, who is currently eighth with 55 victories, in 2011.

But what else has Johnson accomplished to date?

And then there's his Chase performance.

Johnson and his Chad Knaus-led team step up when the pressure is on. In his 70 career Chase races, Johnson has 19 wins. The closest to that among his competitors is Carl Edwards with eight. He has 40 top-five Chase finishes, leading teammate Gordon, who has 27 in the postseason, and has led 3,423 Chase laps.

And he's hungering for more.

Throughout the 2010 Chase, Johnson refused to look ahead. He focused on each race as it came and didn't discuss anything further. He didn't want to lose sight of the big picture, but he also didn't want to count on anything too soon.

That's the kind of attitude that champions carry.

Johnson knows that. After all, he grew up watching others excel in the sport.

"I looked around, and I saw different drivers, the certain style about them, the way they raced on the track, how they carried themselves," Johnson said. "Once I moved back to North Carolina, I was really drawn to Bobby Labonte. There's just something there that I liked, paid close attention to.

"Growing up, Jeff Gordon was a great inspiration for me because he was really the first guy with the non-stock car background to get a shot and made the most of it. He inspired me. Obviously, I was able to get to know him, (able) to feed off of his ideas, what he's accomplished, being a teammate like I am. I kind of pinpoint those two in the people that I really focused on."

Whether or not he tried to follow in their footsteps, Johnson has surpassed them all.

At 35, he seems to just be getting stronger. And in 2010 he showed a new kind of mettle. Johnson didn't dominate as he has in the past, though he did win six races. He showed a determination and spirit, though, in the final run that kept him in contention and eventually landed him his fifth title.

Does he have more in his future?

"I mean, I would love to get to 10 straight (titles)," Johnson said. "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. Being a realist, I don't know if it's going to last. I'm amazed that we've been able to do this for five years straight.

"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. It's really hard to look that far ahead. I feel like I have my best chances at Hendrick Motorsports, with Chad Knaus as my crew chief. If I 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."

For now, he's just enjoying his current accomplishments. So is his team.

Knaus is clearly impressed with what Johnson can accomplish behind the wheel.

"I just think — and no disrespect to any of our elders or whatever you want to call them, the guys that raced back in the day, the Earnhardts, the Waltrips, the Pearsons, the guys like that — you hear a lot of what they say about the tenacity of those drivers and how aggressive they were and how they could do things with the race car that nobody else could do," Knaus said. "I think if you really sat back and looked at what this guy can do with a race car, you would be pretty impressed. He's been in some pretty precarious situations and driven through them."

As for Johnson, he's not focused on those accomplishments necessarily.

He says that he has never set specific goals for himself in terms of a number of championships or wins. Instead, he is drawn to the sport through his passion for racing, the feeling he gets when he is competing.

And that is a feeling that he still gets when he races, one that has led to a stunning level of success.

Now the question is, just how far will that go?

Right now, Johnson has no intention of slowing down soon. That could land him another spate of titles and allow him to continue his already stunning streak.

"I've always been a guy that when I focused on something and I commit to doing it, I'm going to give a hundred percent," he said. "As long as I'm in that car, I'm going to apply myself and do everything I can for the team and hopefully be competitive enough to win races and compete for championships.

"... But I don't have any major goals. If it all ended today, I would be extremely satisfied and proud of what I accomplished, but I still have that desire to work, do my job and compete."