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The world of NASCAR takes its show on the road to Las Vegas this weekend after the running of the Daytona 500 recently. That’s good news for Jimmie Johnson, a three time winner at the 1.5 mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway Track. Listen to reigning Spring Cup Champion Johnson on XTRA Sports 910 in Phoenix Wednesday talk about his rise to stardom in recent years and what he expects to do to get in the winner’s circle for the first time in 2009.
On the Daytona 500 being ended early:
“It sucks to just end any race early. Nobody likes it, it’s unfortunate, but I think they made the right call at Daytona.”
On Dale Jr. causing a huge wreck in the latest restrictor plate race:
“It doesn’t matter who you are. If you cause a problem on one of those tracks, people are going to give you a hard time over it. And I know it’s something Junior’s been a little frustrated with it, but he’s being aggressive.”
On what has allowed him to win three straight Cups:
“In my opinion it’s really the people. Our guys work awfully hard to get things right. We’ve had good seasons, gotten a little bit of luck from time to time but truthfully it’s just the time and effort and hard work that goes into it that has really separated us from the others right now.”
On whether or not his dominance is hindering some of the sports more ‘colorful’ racers to ascend to the spotlight:
“Hell no. This is my moment in the sun too. I’m out there doing my job, trying to win races. There are other guys that are the characters and start the fights and say the things and keep it colorful and entertaining. And I certainly enjoy watching those guys do their thing as well but I’m here to do my job and try to win as many championships and races as I can.””
On whether he may be too nice for his own good:
“It’s a great problem to have. I think the world’s changing. The days of flash – I don’t think people are so interested in those stories anymore. So maybe it’s the year of in that respect, and the year of Jimmie in that respect.”
On multiple Hendrick Motorsports cars going down with engine troubles:
“When you see one teammate go out with engine trouble and then the next lap another, you just wondering if you’re sitting on a time bomb yourself. I know we had some valve train issues and unfortunately those two engines broke and ours kept running. Lots of times we find that when we get shipments of these components that come in batches and sometimes different patches have impurities or something’s gone wrong with them. And 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a batch issue.”
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