Goblets, Sheep and Drives

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Driving will be on Jimmie Johnson’s mind as he spends the week in his home state of California. The five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will host the sixth annual Jimmie Johnson Foundation Golf Tournament and Dinner Auction in the San Diego, Calif., area where he grew up prior to the weekend’s race activities at the 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma, Calif. While Johnson hopes to hit them straight earlier in the week, he hopes to navigate the turns of a track that nearly 3,000 sheep call home and where victory lane is known for its “Champion’s Goblet” filled with the area’s favorite libation.

Johnson has sipped from the goblet before. In 2010, he finally achieved a career goal by winning on a road course. The celebration that ensued had the goblet on a mini trophy tour (see quote below). And Johnson’s success at Sonoma was hard-fought. He has only three top-five finishes at the track where completing all 110 laps means completing 1,100 turns. It is apparent that Johnson has been getting better at all 1,100 turns. He has five top-15 finishes in the last six races. His lone DNF (did not finish) came in his very first Sprint Cup race at the track in 2002.

Johnson’s record at raising funds with his golf tournament has been more consistent. The sixth annual tournament has raised more than $500,000 every year and is on track to do so again. Lowe’s returns as the title sponsor, with help from many of Johnson’s other major partners, sponsors and friends. Funds raised enable the Jimmie Johnson Foundation/ Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Champions Grants, to award educational grants in Muskogee, Okla., and the San Diego, Calif., area where Chandra and Jimmie Johnson grew up, respectively, as well as Charlotte, N.C., where the couple currently resides.

So while good drives will be on everyone’s minds all week, Johnson knows that a fitting ending to the week could culminate with a raised goblet around the sheep-grazed farmland of the 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma.

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