Jimmie Johnson At Preseason Thunder

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series reigning champion Jimmie Johnson has been battling a cold, but says he's ready to get back into race mode during a news conference during Saturday's Preseason Thunder Fan Fest at Daytona International Speedway.

(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)







Jimmie Johnson said the break was odd because he hasn't been in a race car in a while and he's happy to be in the 24 hour race. He really enjoys that event. He is looking forward to trying to get a fourth championship. Notice has been served people!

As far as how much time it will take to get the feel back, he thinks with all the on-track activity, everyone will be pretty much up to speed pretty quickly. That said, he noted this is a restrictor plate race and that once everyone gets to California, that may be another matter all together.

Of course, one of the first questions that really was of importance was his ever-developing beard. Will it be permanent? He doesn't know. He said "I typically grow it out in the winter and just decided to kind of stick with it a little longer."

On his over-the-wall team: It is a team sport, and what those guys contribute on Pit Road is a huge part of their success. He feels lucky to have these guys on his side. Chad has made some little tweaks to things over the years to keep it fresh.

In regards to Mark Martin coming on board, he feels Mark will be a great asset to the team and that he's very intrigued by the man. He's curious about how Martin can drive a car as loose as he likes his cars to be. He thinks he can learn something from Martin. If that's the case, Johnson's gonna probably walk with even more titles!

On the idea of branding, Johnson said that most drivers think about that making themselves a brand, but at first it takes success. The on-track success some of the drivers have is the key ingredient to their potential brand success. He feels that 2009 will bring him the opportunities he's been looking for to expand on his brand.

Jimmie feels that this year, the threats to his success are the No. 99, 24, and 18 cars for sure.

Someone asked him about the adage if it ain't broke, don't fix it as far mucking with the car setups to generate their success and he made an interesting observation. His three championships started with the older car, the 2nd one was the mixed season with the old and new cars and last year was the COT. They did it across these three differentiating season. So there is nothing they can say they've consistently used across the three years.

According to sources, his off-track behavior is much different than his polished look on-track. He's known to be able to cut it up pretty good. He says he doesn't make an effort to seperate the two, but his in-car persona is his focus and once away from that, he is who he is. As he put it, "Off the track I'm usually leading the charge to something that could lead to trouble, in a good way. I love to have fun, golf cart surfing, as long as you don't hurt yourself you're fine. I love having fun, I really do, and I have a great group of friends and have plenty of fun off the track. This winter has been pretty hard on me. My liver is not proud of me right now. It's kind of hating me to be honest with you, but it's what you've got to do when you win three in a row."

With that said, I think I just might look at the man a little differently. He parties pretty hard it seems, married hot, and makes the bucks. Oh a day to be in his shoes.