On November 8, Reed Sorenson announced via twitter that he and wife Laura welcomed a new addition to their family.
Eli joins his sister Ella as part of the Sorenson family.
Both son and mother are healthy.
Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Jimmie Johnson reflects on some of the best stories of his career
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for SiriusXM
With seven championships and 83 victories in Cup, it’s pretty clear Jimmie Johnson loves to win.
But there’s something else Johnson loves to do: Tell stories and reflect on his racing career, particularly before he became one of NASCAR’s most legendary drivers.
Before leaving Thursday for Sunday’s Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson spent time reminiscing and telling stories about his racing development on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Happy Hours with Kevin Harvick and Matt Yocum. He also talked about competing in next month’s Boston Marathon.
Here are some excerpts of Johnson’s tales, related from the pool house/radio studio at Harvick’s house in Charlotte:
Home Sweet Hornaday
Early in the careers of Johnson and Harvick, both were short on cash. As a result, they crashed on the couch of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. as they were working their way up the racing ladder.
“I never saw Kevin,” Johnson said of Harvick. “I saw his luggage. We seemed to be passing and racing in different places all the time.”
Added Harvick, “I think back to Hornaday’s house and that time, and (Johnson) had some unique gatherings at your house, as well. Hornaday always had a spot that everybody showed up to, but Jimmie’s house was always entertaining, as well.”
It almost was IndyCar and not NASCAR for Johnson
Long before NASCAR and stock car racing were even a possibility, Johnson began his racing career on two wheels, racing dirt bikes. His grandparents owned a motorcycle shop near San Diego.
“Really, my whole world, all my heroes, everybody I looked up to were on two wheels,” Johnson said. “We just loved racing. I’d go to many races, a lot of sprint car races, went to Riverside (now-defunct Riverside International Raceway) a couple times and hung on the fences in the esses and watched Richard Petty make a straight line out of it and throw a lot of dirt around the place.
“Then, in the early 1990s, I got a chance to race a buggy in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series. Through that and my dad’s relationship with B.F. Goodrich Tires, it got me a chance to race other types of off-road buggies in the desert and stadiums. That’s kind of the world I was in. Then Herb Fishel (GM motorsports manager) spotted me in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1991 or 1992 (at the age of 15 or 16) and they were looking to bring a second truck along, so I took a Polaroid (picture) with him.
“He went back to Detroit, threw it on the conference room table and said, ‘Let’s put this guy under contract, he’s going to develop our second stadium truck. That was my introduction into Chevrolet. And I thought IndyCar was going to be my route, but (Chevy) pulled out of IndyCar and said if I wanted a future in motorsports, NASCAR is where it’s at. And then, Hornaday’s couch, here I come.
“I was just trying to figure it all out. I’m still trying to figure it out, I guess. My whole view and world was just dirt-related. I didn’t think much of the asphalt side, especially stock-car racing. (IndyCar) seemed interesting, also the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix was right there in the area, so IndyCar was a bit of an idea, but I didn’t think it was going to work out.”
How stalking Jeff Gordon paid off
Johnson was racing in the Busch Series with Stan and Randy Herzog in 2000. Johnson had previously raced two seasons in off-road competition and then ASA Racing for the Herzogs, and Fishel had hoped they could groom him as well as build a Cup team themselves.
Unfortunately, the Herzogs said they couldn’t afford to go Cup racing and told Johnson he could seek out other deals.
“The Herzogs said if they couldn’t find a sponsor, they didn’t want to hold me back, and that maybe I should put word out that I’m available,” Johnson said. “Opportunities came along, but they all meant leaving Chevrolet. I was struggling with that and couldn’t do it.
“I needed to get some advice, so I totally stalked Jeff Gordon at the August 2000 Michigan race. He gave me some advice and said, ‘Man, you’re not going to believe this, but (Hendrick Motorsports) is looking to start a fourth team and the only name that has come up is yours. So we might be able to fix your problem altogether.’
“A month later, I had a signed contract with (Hendrick) to start in 2002 (he would race one more season in Busch for the Herzogs in 2001, with significant help from the Hendrick camp).”
How Johnson won his first championship – with a broken leg
At 8 years old, Johnson was seeking his first dirt bike championship. The season was growing late, and he took a jump but landed the wrong way.
“I went down, got tangled up with the bike, I destroyed my left knee, broke my tibia and fibula and in the end, was in a cast for nine months when it was all said and done,” Johnson recalled. “I was tied for (the lead in) points, and we rigged something up and welded something to the front of the bike, brought my leg up, and I rode the next two events, got the starting points and was able to win the championship.
“For me, I go back to school, I had to try so hard to accomplish what I needed to. I learned things differently and was a little slow in picking things up. But when I’ve been focused about accomplishing something or I’m passionate about it, I just go all-in. And that all-in is what’s helped me through my whole life.”
Oh, dear – uh, make that deer
Johnson recalled how he was in a group riding bikes in some off-time during one of the Pocono race weekends when a deer decided to crash the party – and almost crashed into Johnson and some of his fellow riders, as well.
“We’ve had a couple run-ins with deer, for sure,” Johnson said. “We had this mini-tornado come through and about crashed us all out. We had to hang on to trees.
“Then I did a big charity ride a few years back and we had some deer running next to us in the field, they made a turn and tried to come across the road and just about wiped us all out. It was like Talladega all over again.”
I’m holding out for a hero
Harvick explained how four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears was his hero growing up in Bakersfield, California.
Which led to Johnson talking about his own hero growing up: legendary off-road racer Ivan “The Iron Man” Stewart – and how he became the focus of an equally legendary book report for Johnson on his favorite driver.
“(Stewart) lived in our neighborhood and the one that really stalked Ivan to help me with my book report was my mom,” Johnson said. “Her school bus route went right by his house. I had started my book report about (Stewart). My mom knew she probably could help and popped in to see Linda, his wife, because we all knew each other from the off-road (racing) community.
“She came home with a life-size cutout of Ivan and all these pictures and stats and stuff. It was probably one of the only A’s I ever got in school.”
Watch NASCAR America live today from 5-6 p.m. ET on NBCSN
NBCSN
In the second edition of The Motorsports Hour, NASCAR America will welcome the defending champion of the Indianapolis 500, Will Power of Team Penske.
Host Krista Voda will be joined by analysts Parker Kligerman and A.J. Allmendinger from 5-6 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
The Motorsports Hour will highlight the upcoming weekend’s NASCAR races and also shine a light on the latest news in motorsports including IndyCar, IMSA, American Flat Track, Supercross, Motocross, Mecum collector car auctions and more.
In coming weeks, other analysts will join the show including former IndyCar drivers Paul Tracy and Townsend Bell, former IMSA GT driver Calvin Fish and Motocross and Supercross legend Ricky Carmichael.
If you can’t catch today’s show on TV, watch it online at http:/nascarstream.nbcsports.com. If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.
Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.
Click here at 5 p.m. ET to watch live via the stream.
Toyota exec explains how Gibbs-Hendrick deal at Daytona took trust
The alliance between Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2019 Daytona 500 was essentially a handshake deal, but the details were much more complex.
“The thing is with this strategy is it’s not just saying, ‘Do you want to work together? OK, great,’ ” Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson said Thursday on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. “You have to sit down with crew chiefs in one room looking each other in the eye, plotting a definitive strategy of what you’re doing with pit stops because it’s about coming in and leaving together.
“It’s more than just shaking hands and saying, ‘OK, we’ll work together.’ The credit goes to crew chiefs, spotters and the level of trust and unselfishness it takes from the drivers. These guys aren’t programmed in this manner.”
During an interview with co-hosts Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds, Wilson shed some more light on the unusual partnership between the Chevrolet and Toyota teams, which came to light through in-race scanner chatter and winner Denny Hamlin’s postrace comments to NBCSports.com’s Dustin Long.
The strategy was most evident during the second stage when a fleet of six cars – three Hendrick Camaros and three Gibbs Camrys – got off sequence and ran much faster that the field (putting some good cars a lap down).
“When you saw that pack about to lap the entire field, how do five to six cars go three 10ths (of a second) faster? It was because they weren’t racing each other at the time,” Wilson said.
“To be clear, we also agreed that with 10 (laps) to go, it’s every man for himself. In the end each driver was working toward winning that race, not pushing one of their competitors to the win. But awful proud of the innovation and creativity deployed that particular Sunday.”
The impetus for the Gibbs-Hendrick deal was Ford sweeping the top three spots in both qualifying races last Thursday.
“I have to admit that it wasn’t something we’ve been plotting for weeks,” Wilson said. “It really came together a couple of days before the race. Looking at how we fared in the Clash and Duels, we knew we had fast cars, drivers happy with power, but we knew when it came down to it, we needed numbers.
“We could do it with our five Toyotas. The problem is if one or two drop out, you don’t have enough. It was in that moment after the Duels where we looked at what else can we do. We approached one of our competitors.”
Drivers’ patience could be tested with new aero package at Atlanta
If fans thought Cup drivers’ patience was tested at Daytona, just wait until this weekend’s Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Sunday’s race will be the first with the new aero package (with some minor variations) that fans and racers will see going forward for each of the 35 remaining races on the Cup schedule this season.
With brake ducts in place at certain tracks such as Atlanta, and aero ducts in place at others (such as next week at Las Vegas Motor Spedway, the racing could be significantly different. Drivers also will be adjusting to lower horsepower (in the 550 range) and speeds, which could impact the action.
“In general, they’re still loose and tight so we haven’t messed up the balance of the race car,” NASCAR Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development John Probst said Thursday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s On Track with Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds. “They’re still learning how to complete the pass. The side draft, racers didn’t just learn about it. It took a period of time for them to perfect it, and I think you’ll see the same thing with this package.”
But drivers who struggle with the new package could cause issues for others who adapt more quickly.
“There are going to be times when drivers are going to get a little less patient with the folks in front of them and they’re going to go two- and three-wide, and that will force the drivers behind them to make decisions on who to go with,” Probst said. “I think you’re going to see that ebb and flow. You’ll see drivers that run good at particular tracks in years past will probably still run good, so you’ll probably still see that competitive element.
“I think they’re going to learn as they go, but the cream of the crop is still going to be at the top We’re not trying to change any of that. Time will tell for the rest of them in how they pick up the new package.”
Probst said NASCAR will monitor whether tracks that have cars using brake ducts to tighten the racing this year may switch to aero ducts next year and vice-versa. He also hopes teams don’t push the limits of the new package too much in inspection (which has happened in previous Atlanta races) but conceded it’s possible.
“We don’t want pack racing per se at intermediate tracks,” Probst said. “We don’t think this package will do that. We do feel we will have more side-by-side racing, closer racing, more cars on the lead lap, probably a bigger penalty for a mistake, like if a driver gets loose on entry or something. It’s very possible that will cost them positions now and they’ll have to recover that.
“I think the nature of this package will lend itself to some pretty cool racing depending upon what track we’re at. It will look a bit different at Atlanta vs. Vegas vs. Fontana. Each week will be a little different with the same package. I expect Atlanta will be a very exciting race. And when we go off to Vegas, it’ll likely lend itself even more to side-by-side just because of the fall-off and how smooth that track is there.
“It’s going to look different at each track, but we’re very confident it will provide our goal of having more entertaining races for our fans.”
