According to Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson Does Not Get the Respect He Deserves

Jimmie Johnson has certainly attained a legendary status within the realm of NASCAR. Winning seven championships isn’t something that happens to everyone or every other decade. But even with all of this success, Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott feels that Johnson does not get the respect that he deserves.

While speaking in an interview a couple of years back, Elliott mentioned, ” The guy has done an awful lot for the sport, has had a tonne of success really if you think about it really short period of time. He’s only been doing this for about 20 years and to have seven championships in those 2o years is pretty remarkable if you ask me.”

He added, “I don’t know if anybody’s done what he’s done in that amount of time that he’s done it in and with the competition that he’s had over the years to race against.”

Elliott explains why people do not recognize Jimmie Johnson’s contributions to the sport
Further into the interview, Elliott was asked about his thoughts on what people don’t recognize Johnson has done for the sport over the years. The 2020 Cup Series champion said, “I think the writing is about as clear as it could possibly be on the wall for him and his case of being the best.”

Speaking further Elliott explained how he has had the luck of seeing Johnson up front going through the competition that he had during his time and all of the hurdles that he had to overcome. So his viewpoint would differ from the average fan of the sport.

He mentioned, “I have the viewpoint that if you are dominating now, your average player now is certainly not any worse than he was 15, 20, 30 years ago. People don’t get worse as the years goes along. So I just feel like if a guy is dominant now and I think he’s elevated above the dominance in the past.”

Johnson’s return to the Cup series as an owner and part-time driver may not have been the greatest comeback in history. There were quite a few who criticized the seven-time champion for ruining his winning reputation. But just because he isn’t able to compete like he used to in his prime does not mean that doing so would tarnish his legacy. He still is one of the greatest that ever raced in this sport and his contributions will be remembered for eons to come