My 2009 Sportsman of the Year is #48 Jimmie Johnson
A Sportsman of the Year in my mind has to do something so incredible, so out of the ordinary, that nobody can deny the greatness that individual displayed during that year. A Sportsman of the Year can’t just show up to the ball park or football field, can’t just decide to have a charity or two and can’t just win a championship.
A Sportsman of the Year has to dominate which is why my 2009 Sportsman of the Year is #48 for Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson.
Oh, Johnson has a charity, a very giving one in fact. The Jimmie Johnson Foundation has strong ties to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the American Red Cross, and Habitat For Humanity, but it was Johnson’s performance, the performance of not only him but his entire team, that separates him from the rest of my candidates for Sportsman of the Year.
In a sport where a single change, a loose bolt or worn tire treads on your car, can lead to disaster, Team Johnson dominated. They not only dominated Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Roush Racing, but they dominated mentors Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin two fellow Hendrick Motor Sports drivers that up until the 2009 Chase actually started, appeared to have a shot at the Sprint Cup Championship.
But Johnson won it again. Like he had done in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In fact, Team Johnson’s fourth straight Sprint Cup Championship was unprecedented and showed the rest of NASCAR that no, there wasn’t anybody else that belonged on the racetrack with him. He was the best ever. Without a doubt.
2009 didn’t start out that way for Jimmie. In the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s yearly opening Sprint Cup race, he finished 31st. He bounced back with a 9th place finish in the Auto Club 500, but then followed that up with a 24th place finish in the Shelby 427.
He only won three races during the entire regular season, finishing 1st at Martinsville in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500, at Dover in the Autism Speaks 400 and at Indianapolis in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, but once the Chase started Team Johnson kicked it into gear like they had done in the previous three NASCAR seasons and Johnson once again proved to be the best on the racetrack.
Trailing regular season Sprint Cup Standings leader Tony Stewart by 35 points, Jimmie began his quest for his fourth straight Sprint Cup by finishing 4th in the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He got stronger after that winning the AAA 400 a week after the Sylvania 300, finishing 9th in the Price Chopper 400 and hoisting the trophy in both the Pepsi 500 and NASCAR Banking 500. That gave Team Johnson three victories in the first five Sprint Cup Chase races.
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Johnson’s odds to win the championship plummeted from +250 to -600 and no NASCAR fan in the world believed that the dominance wasn’t going to continue. Johnson finished 2nd in the Tum’s Fast Relief 500 and 6th in the Amp Energy 500. After he finished 38th at Texas Motor Speedway in the Dickie’s 500, the door appeared ajar for teammate Mark Martin to make a serious run at Team Johnson for the championship.
But Team Johnson responded the way they always do by winning the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway just seven days later.
A 5th place finish in the final Chase race of the season, the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway sealed the deal. Team Johnson had won its 4th straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
Yes, Derek Jeter, Sports Illustrated 2009 Sportsman of the Year, was instrumental in the New York Yankees winning the 2009 World Series, but so were pitcher C.C. Sabathia and the amazing Alex Rodriguez. Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees have been incredible under center for the Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints this NFL Season, but Favre has Adrian Peterson, Manning has Reggie Wayne and Brees has an entire team of people supporting him, and, more importantly, they don’t play the best of the best every single week.
Jimmie Johnson races against the best drivers the world has ever seen all of the time. Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart aren’t just Jimmie’s opponents once or twice a week out of the year, the are his opponents each and every week he steps into a racecar.
In 2009, when it counted the most, Jimmie Johnson dominated the best of the best and in doing so became the first person to win four straight NASCAR Championships.
That is why the 2009 Sportsman of the Year is #48 Jimmie Johnson.
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