Jimmie Johnson on leaving NASCAR
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- Seven-time NASCAR Series Cup champ Jimmie Johnson recalls “the grind” of his final years in the sport and the challenges of a 20+ year career in NASCAR. He talks of the factors that weighed on his decision to stop racing full time.
#NASCAR #Racing #NascarRacing
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It's so refreshing to hear a champion talk as honestly about the negative side of racing like this.
JJ is a gem of a human being.
It is so crazy to hear this interview. Winning or not winning had nothing to do with his retirement. He just wanted to do something else. The pay cut all the drivers took, the grind of 36 races, the constant rule changes. He had nothing else to prove, why do it anymore? He is so much happier now racing in Indy and being with his family more often. I’m so happy for JJ, keep it up!
It is so satisfying to hear someone like Jimmie Johnson talk about shrinking the schedule. There’s no demand to watch because it’s always around. I’ve been watching nascar for 15 years and it’s honestly baffling that the schedule is still as long as it is. Fans, drivers, and owners all have been wanting it to be much shorter
My method to shrink it: If a track has more than one race a year, it must be something different (night, roval, shorter, etc). Then, the track must maintain a certain attendance over a rolling three race period. If you can't, you lose a race. Maybe they replace it, maybe they don't (driving the schedule shorter). This forces attendance to be up... which has an impact on viewer ratings. If people (especially new fans) tune into a race and the stands are empty, why would they be interested? If it is full, there is a mental play that it must be a hot ticket to watch. Impression matters! Make races the HOT ticket. And start creating schedules more than one year out. That would allow for a rotating tracks schedule. I don't get why the schedule is always done like 8 months out. It's silly.
@@JVan8313 100% agree. Well said
Look at SRX. At the end of those 6 you go, "I gotta wait!?"
I been a fan for 30+ year i love the 36 race schedule i don't watch other sports i need something to watch and look forward to
I have to agree with Jimmie on having a 25 race schedule. With 36 races, they're racing all year long. The off-season isn't really an off-season. It's just 2 months off and their back to racing. It's always go go go.
If NASCAR went to less than 30 races a year, they’d lose sooooooo much viewership. It would only accelerate their declining numbers.
@@kben24 That is the bed that they made themselves. Too many gimmicks and trying to manufacture close racing. Teams are either fast or they're slow. Packed racing at every track is boring as hell.
@@kben24 Not necessarily. Most fans are in favor of a smaller schedule that they can't compete with the NFL/NCAA Football to begin with. It honestly probably would help their cause because if they finish end of September they can stay with their crowd rather than be the 3rd/4th most looked at sport most of the fall.
@@folzyfantasy15 I totally disagree with that... The "we’re competing against the NFL" way of thinking is how NASCAR got screwed up in the first place. Modify their schedule/product in-order to compete, and now as you say 'avoid' football season altogether, would only confine them to the lower levels of professional sports.
@@kben24 You are acting as if they are on the upper echelon to begin with. They are at best the fourth most popular sport anyway (Behind obviously Football, Basketball and baseball in terms of ratings) and they are starting to fall into the grasps of hockey and soccer. And that's just the highest league of the Cup Series, you don't want to see where the Xfinity and Trucks series relate in terms of sporting league ratings
Graham really mentioned Danica in the same breath of air as those legends. 🤣🤣
One of the main reasons why the schedule is so long is because of the tracks. For most of them (owned by SMI, ISC, or otherwise), the Cup Series is their main source of revenue and they need 2 Cup races/year MINIMUM to stay afloat. NASCAR bloats the schedule to keep tracks like Darlington financially viable. Low ticket sales doesn't help, either. You can fill in the blanks on why there's low attendance across the board.
F1 tracks seem to stay afloat with one race a year
@@sitnlow4life Well, I should be more clear. F1 tracks get much of their money through the governments of their host country. Here in Canada, the provincial government of Quebec and the City of Montreal pay $100M Canadian to keep Circuit Gilles Villeneuve alive. That's money out of the pockets of our people, money taken from nurses and teachers, and money that we hope will come back through tourism, though it mostly doesn't. Hockenheim has trouble staying afloat every single year. Sochi and Dubai basically get funded by slave labor and criminal enterprise.
NASCAR tracks like Bristol and Nashville are strictly private and local towns don't have the resources to pay for anything more than a tourism sign. State governments will literally laugh in your face if you ask them for money. Don't even expect Congress to even return your email.
@@sitnlow4life In fact, you could say that F1 has the same problem of a bloated schedule with 23 races. Compare that to peak F1 in the 90s/00s. Those tracks aren't owned by the F1/FIA, so if they die, they die.
It's a self destructive loop too, a bloated season has no shortage of races, so if you miss one race date, you can go on the next one. For years with the cookie cutter race tracks, tv viewers weren't really missing much either, they can just watch next week's race
@@deejay9730 Both F1 and NASCAR suffer from this vicious cycle. Only IndyCar has managed to grow (albeit very slowly) and maintain their viewership numbers from race to race.
Great interview; I appreciate the truth Mr. Johnson.
Nascar's greed took over many years ago.
Jimmy is only saying this because Nascar can't shut him up.
The insurance issue affects a lot of IndyCar drivers, too. Alex Lloyd stopped after the infamous Las Vegas race because he was barely getting paid, had no insurance against catastrophic injuries, and was seeking out minimal-cost hotel rooms and food (on top of being a husband and father of 3). Sad to see that becoming prevalent in NASCAR. Long gone are the days when highly popular consumer brands (Kodak, K-Mart, McDonald's, Sirius, Tide, Turner Broadcasting) were tripping over themselves to sponsor a Winston Cup car, even at 35th or 40th in owner points, for $3 million+.
And those sponsors you mentioned sponsored a car for the whole season. I miss the Tide ride; I always thought that was a pretty car.
26 race schedule would be perfect. You stick to going to a racetrack only once besides that of Bristol Dirt and the Charlotte Roval. Spread the season out, give breaks in the season so teams can promote. Do meet and greets on the weekends. It would allow more testing throughout the season without killing the drivers. Here is a mock schedule I made it.
The Clash @ Bowman Gray Stadium
1.) Daytona
2.) Homestead
3.) Phoenix
4.) Auto Club
5.) Sonoma
-Break-
6.) Bristol Dirt
7.) Kansas
8.) Richmond
9.) COTA
10.) Road America
11.) Indianapolis Oval
12.) Charlotte
-Break-
13.)Nashville
14.) Pocono
15.) Michigan
16.) Watkins Glen
17.) Worldwide Technology
-End of Regular Season-
All-Star Race @ Milwaukee Mile
Playoffs:
Round of 16:
18.) New Hampshire
19.) Chicago Street
20.) Darlington
21.) Dover
Round of 8:
22.) Talladega
23.) Roval
24.) Las Vegas
25.) Bristol
Final Four:
26.) Martinsville
Cool.
I agree with Dale Jr that NASCAR needs to definitely not race on Easter weekend. They used to never race on Easter weekend and Mother's Day weekend. He said the NASCAR fan would rather spend Easter weekend with their families since most families get together on Easter Sunday.
Hello. I am a long time fan of NASCAR. I am for the most an out of country Fan. I come from the Very Bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. However I now Live In Lao/ Lao's. I have had the Great Fortune to have had an association with Hendrick Motorsport since 1989. I watched Jimmy Johnson win in Charlotte. However week on week racing is a hard call. I tend to agree with Jimmy Johnson that a reduction of race weekend's may assist in a numbers turnaround. History shows that since Internet, social media, TH-cam and in general 20 people watching an event, any event, a minimum of 13 Smart Phones will be the main attraction for those at the event.
DAMN HE TURNED INTO A GRANDPA QUICK......
I was always a JIMMY JOHNSON FAN, But it was obvious the last couple of years he was still racing that he just was tired of the grind and was wanting to do something else.
You're his fan and yet you don't know how his name is spelled? Lol.
25 races, a couple more exhibition races, continue to change up the schedule, dont oversaturate the schedule with too many road courses, bring back more short tracks and possibly those could be heat style races.
That clean shave brings back memories of 2005-2007. Anyway, they race 70% of the year, most sports race 60% max. These drivers are probably worked to exhaustion with so many races
Many long-time NASCAR drivers reached the point of "enough of this crazy crap" level. Some learn that quicker than others.
Interesting about the length of schedule I’ve always said as fan f1 was more appealing to me with the shorter races and schedule made session feel like a special event not just a another episode.. every track should just have one date imo
My mom was a Gordon fan I was a Dale jr fan I told my mom when Jimmie came into the sport that Gordon wouldn't win another championship and he didn't, Jimmie would of won a 8th championship but Nascar didn't want him too they kept changing the points system around so much no one could keep track of what going on they didn't want him to pass the 3 and 43 in championship but I believe Jimmie is the King of Nascar 48 Forever
Jimmie is great but not the greatest, he is in the top 10, of all time, but way behind the top 3 best of all time.
Jimmie Johnson is a laughing stock. What did he do without Chad? Nothing! Look at what Chad has accomplished without Jimmie, a shit ton. And they won championships in 5 different formats with 3 different cars. Jimmie just realised it was all Chad, his skills diminished, he made up excuses, and quit. Good riddens, go ride your bike ✌🏻
@@cliff4695 hey maybe you need to learn to read the facts Jimmie won races without Chad at the track it takes more than 1 to win 7 championships takes a team and what did Chad do without Jimmie he did nothing with Byron and he still doing nothing read up on it the reason they broke up was Chad was second guessing everything he was doing don't blame the driver Jimmie tells him what the car doing Chad tries and makes it better he wasn't doing his job so Jimmie wanted some one new Jimmie won 83 races if you put bubba Wallace with Chad you think he could of won 7 and 83 races no way in hell for someone to call Jimmie a laughing stock you truly are dumb about Nascar everyone said the same thing about Gordon that Ray was the mastermind what 24 do when he left won a championship 😉 😜
@@stratmaniac8436 , Facts.
@@davepearson6945 not facts. This dude really complained about Johnson not winning an 8th championship because of changes to the points system when it's those very changes for why Johnson ended up with 7 while Gordon got screwed out of THREE. Can't sit there and blame him not winning an 8th championship while ignoring the fact he benefited from the previous system that ended up screwing Gordon.
Awesome video keep up the awesome videos
I agree with Jimmy. There was to much NASCAR in the past. Got so bad you couldn't walk into a store without NASCAR crap in your face. Coupled with overpriced merch, tickets, concessions at the track and making you buy everything at the track that your were not allowed to carry in. Cookie cutter tracks, well that's another topic altogether. The greed with NASCAR got to be too much.
There was never any nascar in stores where i live it was finding needle in a haystack for my waltrip wheaties box
But back then NASCAR was the hot thing. We had NASCAR-themed restaurants and NASCAR stores. It might have been greedy but they "NASCAR" and the drivers wanted to take advantage while the sport was hot. As I like to say, Bill Elliott didn't force me to buy his t-shirt, cap & several diecast cars. That's what I wanted at the time, and I still have them all these years later.
Great info.
I agree with JImmie that the schedule needs to be shorter. 25 is too short though. Anywhere between 28-32 races would help out a lot. 36 is just way too many.
32 or 36 not a very big difference.
@@kg0173 4 races a year is a lot. especially if you have a 20 year career that's 80 races 2.5 seasons if you divide by 32. That's a lot less traveling, practicing,qualifying. 4 races isnt a lot to you, cause you just tune in on sundays. for a driver, it's a lot
@@jesuschristislord6790 can't be too much for a guys named Kyle.....
@@kg0173 Thats his individual choice. He likes to do it and there should be no issue with it. Mark martin has about 250 starts in the lower two series and no one cared. But thats not even the point. Johnson is saying it would be better for the sport in whole. Drivers, fans, ect. Nascar grew its schedule when the popularity really spiked. Nascar never raced more than 31 races from 1973-1996. Now they race 36. If they knocked 5 races off I think that would really help. It might not seem like much. But if a driver races 20 years, thats over three full seasons worth of racing. A shorter schedule lets you get rid of the bottom five least popular races, it gives the drivers a bit of a break from the long grind of traveling, its less money you need to get through the year letting smaller teams have more of a chance and it just brings more excitement to the sport.
If the season is cut "short", who looses a race? That will be a lot of tracks that would lose a race. Maybe a track near you 😉
Grandstands are packed. 💪
Not like the early mid 2000s though. Remember when every track sold out before removing sections of grandstands?
NASCAR is ruining the sport with all the gimmicks!
Amen
25 races
33 drivers
Annual schedule rotation
Jimmy said Tune In numbers = more Soon see dollars.
Well today Nascar is basicly behind a pay wall.
Nascar needs to make sure fans can watch practice, qualifying , and the races for FREE.
Plus the post race stuff.
I am a life long 41 year old Nascar fan and I WILL NOT PAY to watch any Nascar races .
MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN TUNE IN FOR FREE.
This is why numbers are down.
I hope Nascar gets it very soon.
When you don't get that high of winning races it could really turn into a grind for sure.
After Chad Knaus left, Jimmie Johnson stopped winning.
Jimmie Johnson
The Greatest of All Time
Hahaha 🤣 not even close Dale earnhardt is Nascars greatest ever
@@nascarandrc8296 more race wins, and the same amount of championships. Jimmy is better
@Kaleb DeGroot nope Jimmie had better equipment and a cheater crew chief and still only won the same as Dale not to mention the easier format Jimmie had Dale would have won 10 cups if they bunched everyone's points back up after race 26 Jimmie was overrated he benefited from weaker competition a flawed gimmick chase system and still won the same titles Dale had to actually work his way up from the bottom wasn't handed everything immediately in career
Dale was far better get over it
@Kaleb DeGroot oh and Dale didn't get to finish his career also Jimmie couldn't even win in his Last 3 years Dale never stopped winning keep crying child Dale was far better
@Kaleb DeGroot don't make me laugh kid Dale was far better Dale was Nascar during his career Jimmie was never even the biggest star in the sport for his career Dale jr was
I agree with Johnson about the number of races in a season. Crew guys are getting burned out.
I think 30 is the perfect amount
My goal is to become Jimmie Johnson, I’m an African American in Nevada I need money and it’s been a struggle trying to become that.
Graham and Jimmie look like brothers?
It will never happen gotta keep the sponsors happy
This year was the best season I can remember.
Realize the fix is in ,, what year was that.? One,two
Totally agree with reducing the number of events. So many positives to do so- more time off for teams, more time for car prep, building more fan excitement etc. Negative is all about money and TV time...The recent change up of the schedule has been great as well. No qualifying or practice has been good for many reasons also.
I love how he still refers to Nascar as "our sport."
I always hated Johnson but that was because he won so much lol. He never seemed like a dick and he was always cool and calm. Definitely smart. Miss him. Being a Kurt Busch fan it sucks its just him and Harvick left from Winston Cup era.
Did they call each other up that morning to ask which color pants the other was going to wear?
The Tom Hanks of motorsports lol
Once cable was required to watch races nascart started to die.
25-28 races that cycle between venues every year seems like the way NASCAR would need to go in order to keep the sport sustainable in the long-term. The recent sale of Dover Motorsports to SMI at a 50% premium from its actual value is proof that the only element keeping the venues in business is the TV money. Without that guaranteed revenue, NASCAR and SMI will hold the lion's share of the venue liability when the TV deal comes up for renewal, and it's not going to be a multi-billion dollar deal that will be able to sustain 36 races. Venues will be lost with the much smaller TV deal and it won't look pretty.
Did this man mention Danica next to all those others? Oof
He was listing drivers with star power and a considerable fan base. Danica has a lot of haters, but a lot of fans as well.
Danica brought money and new fans to the sport.
Guess we gotta keep the feminists and liberals happy. It's a sad period in time for our country.
@@graywolf4696 ,🤡
@@graywolf4696 ,Free market nerd. Learn. Nobody wants this trash racing. They need to go winston cup days. Imo
I dont agree with less races or shorter ones. Winning a Championship in Nascar is supposed to be hard on crews, equipment, drivers, and all involved. IMHO It shouldn't be about conveniencing the drivers and race teams. Id say they should have to work harder than anything else in their lives to accomplish the goal of a Championship.
The 7 time invisible champion who laid down .
I was hoping he was going to call out that awful package NASCAR insists on at the big tracks
Too bad he lost his bestie named Blaise Alexander.
too much racing is no good for teams and the sport. And this chase/playoff/stage era makes it even less special. 25 races is enough
The NASCAR schedule is for young drivers. It gets tough when you’re Jimmys age. I think he also recognized his skills were diminishing
Why he’s doing this interview
The botox freeze
If there are not as many viewers, then money isn't made, maybe NASCAR will go back to grassroots type racing.
If he wants fewer races he should go to Formula One
No money in F1 racing.
NASCAR might need to go back to the number of races they had in the 1980s and 1990s like 29 races a year. Go back to the original scoring system in place to where whoever had the most points won the championship and not the chase format. And also think about going back to Rockingham or North Wilkesboro. But NASCAR probably won't go along with the fans request.
Well that kinda sucked because most of those years you were already crowning the champion with 10 races left in the season. Where's the excitement in that?
@@graywolf4696 Then the excitement is who will get second.
@@shrimpshrubbery7664 oh boy, how exciting. :/
@@graywolf4696 Noone ever won it with 10 left
@@nascarandrc8296 Maybe not 10 left, I was being a little facetious there, but it had been decided with NUMEROUS races left in the season and to me that was pretty boring. At least with the current system it keeps the excitement for the Championship going all the way to the last race, and earning your position to get to that last race is no small task.
NASCAR AND LIBERAL TACTICS RUINED NASCAR…..TOOK WHAT SOUTHERN BOYS BUILT AND TOTALLY DERAILED IT🏁👍🏻
It takes a special individual to have a viewpoint like that wow.
Jimmie needs to go back to NASCAR so he won't finish laps down last again. He will never win in IndyCar
Dudes salty
36 is fine and not too much. Its too much to me when I start to watch every Truck or Xfinity race.
NASCAR sucks anyway so good for Jimmy.
You're retired go home we've heard enough about you!