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Posnanski: Once More, with Feeling

2016 Nascar Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson Visits The Empire State Building

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 22: 2016 Nascar Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson visits The Empire State Building on November 22, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) Newly-crowned 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson captured a record-tying seventh championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. With the historic title win, Johnson tied the record held by NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.

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What does it feel like for Jimmie Johnson after winning a seventh Sprint Cup championship?

That’s the question NBC Sports’ Joe Posnanski tries to answer in his latest feature for Sports World.

Here’s an excerpt from the story.

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There’s an irony about NASCAR: It is the ultimate thrill ride — 200 mph on sheet metal and horsepower and all that’s left of your tires — but you don’t get to NASCAR and you don’t win championships through daredevil feats. You get to NASCAR through great racing, yes, but also by building relationships, by impressing sponsors, by pitching the Lowe’s-Budweiser-M&M’s-FedEx-Napa Parts-Chevrolet-Toyota-Ford car and by working within a team. You win championships by driving like the devil when your car is loose and seems to be on a sheet of black ice, yes, but also by understanding what you don’t know and trusting your crew to handle things. You win championships by controlling your car, but also by relinquishing control. It’s the shakiest of balances.

And balance is what Johnson does better than anyone in the sport.

So when everyone asks Johnson how he feels after the seventh championship, well, he tries his best, he uses the balanced words that come closest, but really, in a private moment, he will tell you: He doesn’t really know HOW he feels. It’s all too much to take in.

“All my life,” he says, “I just wanted to race cars. It was never about the numbers. I didn’t want to win seven championships. I didn’t really want to win one championship. I mean, yeah, I wanted to win, but what I really wanted was to drive a race car.”

Before this race, he said the thing he wanted was to feel like he did when he was a kid, to strip away all the money and all the fame and all the past glory and just feel that thing he used to stay up all night dreaming about, that thing that pushed him to go down El Cajon Mountain just a little bit faster than felt right.

Did he?

“When people ask me how I feel,” he says, “I tell them best I can. I want people to share in this feeling I have. … But I don’t tell them everything.”

Click here to read the full story at Sports World.