Racing News Digest

Jimmie Johnson has become the first race car driver to receive the AP’s “Athlete Of The Year” (male) award in the 78 years of it’s existence.

Johnson became the first driver in NASCAR history to win 4 consecutive Championships. On his way to the championship this year Johnson won seven races, including four during NASCAR’s “playoffs” — the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“We’d been wondering the last few years, ‘When is this going to hit?’” Johnson told the Associated Press. “It seems like the answer is now. The wave is finally peaking and we don’t know where it’s going to take us. The fourth-straight title takes it out of our sport and makes it a point of discussion like, ‘Wow, a race car driver won this thing.’”

As far as being an athlete goes, Johnson firmly believes that he is as much an athlete as anyone in any other sport.

“I’ve looked at other sports, particularly baseball, and I’ve seen plenty of out-of-shape, fat players,” said Johnson, who counts among his close friends former NFL player Jason Sehorn, and MLB players Brian and Marcus Giles.

“So to anyone who wants to go head-to-head with me in athletic ability, let’s go. I talked a lot with Jason Sehorn about this, and I don’t know how exactly you measure athletic ability, but I know my 5-mile run time will destroy most NFL players.”

It appears that Johnson also broke yet another record. He received 42 votes for this years award while Tennis star Roger Federer (30 votes) and Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt (29) were the only other athletes with totals in the double-digits.

Other recipients of this award include – Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Carl Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Byron Nelson, Joe DiMaggio, Jesse Owens, and Joe Louis.