“Yes, I am an athlete, and so is every other driver in one of these race cars,” said newly crowned NASCAR Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson before ribbing his buddy: “Even Tony Stewart.”
This is news because Friday night former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports 1 talking head Donovan McNabb said: “Do I think he’s an athlete? Absolutely not.”
Jimmie Johnson scored a ninth-place finish in the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway to pick up the sixth series championship of his 13-year career. Johnson, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS for Hendrick Motorsports, started seventh in the 43-car field and avoided a mid-race incident at the 1.5-mile oval en route to scoring his 272nd top-10 finish in 435 career Sprint Cup starts, eighth top-10 in 13 races at Homestead and 24th top-10 of the 2013 season.
“I did have some great support over the last couple of days, which is awesome,” said Johnson, who said six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan had been teasing him about only having five Cup championships.
“I can’t wait to send him a text and say, ‘Hey, buddy, I’ve caught up,'” Johnson said.
I think many understand & know the athleticism involved in our sport, & I’d love to change Donovan’s opinion.” said JJ on Donovan McNabb.
“This is extremely sweet,” Johnson said of the sixth championship. “I feel like those five years were a blur, and things happened so fast. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it or appreciate it or didn’t respect what happened. It just went by so fast, it seems like. I’m really going to slow things down here and enjoy it. This is so, so sweet.”
Why did it take him so long to respond to Donovan McNabb I wonder? And why was he so vanilla and boring when he responded? I think I know the answer to that.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan