HELMET OF HOPE UPDATE

Jimmie Johnson has added two more charities to his race helmet for Auto Club Speedway in August as part of the Jimmie Johnson Foundation Helmet of Hope initiative. The most recent winners are Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and The Nationwide Foundation.

Jimmie and Chandra Johnson announced in New Hampshire that in conjunction with the Jimmie Johnson Foundation’s second-annual Golf Tournament in San Diego, Calif., race fans and members of the NASCAR family would have the opportunity to participate in the Helmet of Hope initiative, allowing them the chance to nominate charities which they feel should be featured on the helmet.

Fans can nominate their charity by visiting www.jimmiejohnsonfoundation.org and explaining why their organization should be chosen.

Merryn Buck, of Somers Point, N.J., nominated Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for her 5-year-old granddaughter Fiona. She and her 3-year-old brother Ethan hold Alex’s Lemonade Stands in honor of their cousin Shannon, who lost her battle with a rare form of brain cancer at the age of 6. Buck writes that Fiona says, “she wants to help kids with brain cancer like Shannon.” Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a unique foundation that has evolved from a young cancer patient's front yard lemonade stand to a nationwide fundraising movement for childhood cancer. It is committed to raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer causes, primarily research into new cures and treatments, and encouraging and educating others, especially children, to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for childhood cancer. For more information on this charity, visit www.alexslemonade.org.

Nationwide’s John Aman selected The Nationwide Foundation, an independent corporation funded by Nationwide Companies to help positively impact the quality of life in communities where associates, agents and their families live and work. Aman also noted that the foundation helps associates, agents and retirees maximize the impact of their personal gift by matching contributions to the organization’s annual giving campaign to benefit United Way and accredited higher education institutions dollar for dollar.

Johnson will draw two charities each race weekend through the Michigan event in August, collecting a total of 12 winning organizations. Winning charities to date include: Monarch (Albemarle, N.C.), Breakthrough Manchester (Manchester, N.H.), STEP, Inc. (Rocky Mount, Va.), The American Diabetes Society (Alexandria, Va.), The Children’s Fund for Glycogen Storage Disease (Cheshire, Conn.), and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Charlotte, N.C.).

Watkins Glen International

Sprint Cup Preview

Team Lowe’s Racing driver Jimmie Johnson is looking for Victory Lane in this weekend’s road-course race at Watkins Glen International.

The championship driver has turned in three top-three finishes in as many weeks, including a third-place result at Pocono Raceway last weekend. He has started from the pole in the last two events – Pocono and Indy.

Watkins Glen International is one of seven Sprint Cup Series tracks in which Johnson hasn’t visited Victory Lane. He has three top-five finishes in six starts.

JOHNSON QUOTES:

HOW MUCH HARDER, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY AND CONCENTRATION-WISE IS A ROAD COURSE COMPARED TO AN OVAL? “I would definitely say that (it’s harder). With every corner there’s a different rhythm to it, even on an oval, but it’s repetitive. Indy might be one of the hardest ovals because each corner is so different. I’d put Pocono maybe second most intense, mentally. But when you get to a road course, you’ve got to turn left, turn right, hard-braking zones and intermediate braking zones, down-shifts, and up-shifts. There is a lot of stuff going on over the course of a lap on a road course.”

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO RECOVER FROM A LITTLE MISTAKE ON A ROAD COURSE AS OPPOSED TO AN OVAL? “If you’re under pressure and somebody gets by you, you’re in trouble at that point. But in my own mind, I typically chase the lap times that are fed to me over the radio. So if it’s Bristol and a 15-second lap, I only have 15 seconds to worry about it and then I try again. At Watkins Glen, it’s a minute and something before I get another shot at it. So that’s what you really focus on.”

RACE NOTES – SPRINT CUP

Watkins Glen International

Johnson has made six Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen International, collecting three top five finishes and starting from the pole once. Watkins Glen International is one of only seven tracks in which the back-to-back Sprint Cup champion hasn’t won. Johnson has completed 87.6% (475 of 542) of competition laps at the 2.45-mile road course. Johnson has an average start and finish of 7.8 and 14.2.

Chassis

Johnson will pilot chassis number 442 in Sunday’s 90-lap race. The Lowe’s driver drove that chassis to a 15th-place finish at Infineon Raceway in June. The backup chassis, No. 419, was last driven at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

CAREER NOTES- SPRINT CUP

Career Wins

Johnson has 35 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career. Johnson’s most recent victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27, 2008) moved the reigning champion into a tie with Mark Martin for both 17th-place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list and the third-highest win total among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (81) and Bill Elliott (44). Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first six full-time seasons. Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but seven (Bristol, Michigan, Infineon, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Kansas, Homestead) of the 22 tracks in which the series competes. Johnson’s 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998. The four-consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the Championship ties a modern-era NASCAR record.

Career Poles

Johnson has one pole at Watkins Glen International – Aug. 15, 2004. Johnson has collected 16 poles in his Sprint Cup career. The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002. He had a career-high four in both 2002 and 2007. Johnson’s most recent pole position was in the Aug. 3 event at Pocono Raceway.

Career Starts

Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002. In 240 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 93 top five and 145 top-10 finishes. He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit. Johnson has led a total of 6,208 laps (of 68,857) in his Sprint Cup career, covering over 92,592 miles. He has finished on the lead lap 183 times.