Jimmie Johnson needed Secret Service to find golf ball

Six-time titlist riffs on meeting presidents, fellow driver dads, building perfect track

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who enters the Chase for the Sprint Cup seeking his record-tying seventh title. Q: When you're on a long green-flag run and not racing around anyone, what do you think about?

A: Really just how to make the car better. A little bit about line choice depending on the track we're at -- some tracks have a lot of options, some tracks don't have many options.

Then you just manage emotions. If you're leading, it's a little bit more about trying to protect and making sure you don't miss a detail in your setup. Or if the track is changing, you're so concerned about messing up the lead you have. And if you're behind, obviously you're thinking about how to get to the front.

Q: Fans often come up to you and want to discuss a moment or race from your career. Which one comes up the most?

A: I think the Watkins Glen crash is probably the one that's brought up the most. (Smiles)

Now it's kid-related things, if it's a (social media) post somewhere or a picture. I also hear a lot of stuff related to my family at pre-race, like with kids in the race car. (Daughter) Evie seems to want to climb in the race car a lot now, and they of course get that footage.

Q: If someone paid you $5 million to design a new racetrack and gave you an unlimited budget, what kind of track would you build?

A: It would definitely be a short track. My first reaction is Dover, but I think that's a bit selfish because it's probably my best track. (Laughs) But it would be a short track with a lot of focus on multiple lanes of racing. I don't know how exactly to do that. Richmond comes to mind and Iowa that Rusty (Wallace) built, although I still think we could create something a little bit racier.

12 QUESTIONS: Q: If you had a day off to do anything in the world you wanted - but you were not allowed to race - what would you do? Read more from the series with Jeff Gluck Q: You get to have a lot of cool experiences away from racing through your job as a NASCAR driver. What's one that sticks out?

A: I guess I'd flip between on the beach with my feet up to some deep powder in the snow somewhere. I'd be torn between those two.

A: We certainly meet a lot of interesting people - actors, musicians, other athletes - but the top for me is meeting presidents. I've had the chance to meet President Carter and actually build with him on Habitat for Humanity. I've played golf with Bill Clinton and have been able to see him quite a few times at different functions and events. A golfing friend of mine, his best friend from school is on Clinton's staff and that's how that whole thing pieces together, so that's a very special opportunity. Obviously meeting Barack Obama and George (W.) Bush, that's four presidents I've had the chance to meet, so that's pretty cool.

Wow, no kidding.

Jimmie Johnson says one of the highlights of his career has been meeting four presidents -- including Barack Obama, shown here in June.(Photo: Geoff Burke, USA TODAY Sports)

That sounds like a time when you had to be extra careful hitting into the group ahead of you.

One time, I played in a golf outing with President Clinton, Arnold Palmer, Donald Trump and a friend of theirs - they were the group in front of us and then we were behind them. It was just a cool setup and afterwards we had the chance to sit around and shoot the breeze a little bit. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, we were very cautious hitting up. We actually left a pretty good gap get between us. (Laughs)

Q: When you go home after a bad day at the track, do you vent to someone about it or just keep it to yourself?

The other interesting thing was having Secret Service around. I spray it all over the golf course - no joke - and I'd be off trying to find my ball somewhere. I'd walk up and there are a couple guys in black on a golf cart with guns on their sides and they're like, 'Yeah, it's over here, man.' I'm like, 'OK, thank you. That's awesome.' (Laughs)

A: (Wife) Chani certainly gets to hear most of the frustration. Having children now, if it's a day race and the kids are awake when I get back to the bus, I kind of swallow it more than anything.

Q: If you could point to another driver as a good example for your children in the garage, who would it be? By the way, 90% of the other drivers have answered you for this question.

But (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) and I have always had a routine of hopping on the phone that evening whether we're happy or not and having a conversation. So it's a little of everything. If it's bad enough, it can linger and last a couple days. But we've always had a motto: By midnight Sunday night, we've got to let it go and start over on Monday. I think we've done a respectable job at that.

A: Well, it would not be Clint Bowyer. (Laughs) I say that with tons of respect for my friend.

It's neat to see the other side of all the parents. We all have personas in the car, and we get out and we're all gathered around at some playground at one of these racetracks, and I see a lot of great dads out there.

Matt Kenseth is holding down the household with three girls somehow - I don't know how he and Katie are doing it - but he puts his Super Dad cape on and gets rolling. I've seen (Jamie) McMurray often, (Jeff) Gordon, it's amazing to see that other side of these guys.

Q: When you stand around with other drivers and tell old racing stories, what's one of your favorites to tell either about something that happened to yourself or someone else?

I don't know if I could pick just one, but I can say I've been impressed by all of the dads as we're hanging out in the motorhome lots.

A: It usually ends up being something embarrassing, like when something went wrong. That's always a better laugh.

For whatever reason, one just popped up in my mind. We were at last year's Chase event in Chicago. We had this great dinner and everybody met in the bar for drinks afterward. We were shooting the breeze and there were four or five of us standing there and somehow we started talking about getting crashed.

So I started telling everyone about Matt Kenseth dumping me four or five times in the Nationwide Series, and apparently that was an old wound. As I'm going into the story and start ribbing him, Matt was unaware of it or had forgotten about all of it - it was a long time ago - so I had a good time harassing him about the crashes he instigated with me.

Q: What's a TV show you're really into right now?

I got Matt really good on that one. When you're able to put someone on the spot like that and make them uncomfortable, those are the best bench racing stories.

A: Honestly, our television is never on. But we're still trying to catch up with Game of Thrones. If we still have any energy after the two kids are put to bed, we'll fire up an episode or two of Game of Thrones. And we're only at the start of Season 3. I don't know how many seasons there are, but we're way behind in trying to catch up.

Q: What's the last movie you saw - either at home or in the theater -- and was it any good?

One series we've followed and been able to stay current with is Homeland, so we're eagerly awaiting the next season there.

STATISTICS: Q: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self - something you know now that you didn't know then - what would it be? Johnson by the numbers

A: Well, my daughter is on repeat with Rio. It just plays on the airplane. All the time. Over and over. (Laughs) The last movie I went to in person was last December, and it was the release of Frozen. I took my daughter to see Frozen. So things have shifted dramatically toward animated movies with a 4-year-old.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Jeff Gordon and he wanted to know: 'If you had to choose between one of these, which would you choose and why? You can either race competitively for the next 15 years and win enough races to surpass Richard Petty's 200 mark or you can race for five more years and win championships No. 7 and 8, but you wouldn't have any wins.'

A: I'm a very patient person, but my patience still went out at times. I remember mentors, sponsors, advisors, all these people telling me when I was younger: 'Just be patient. Be patient.' And it was so hard to absorb that.

But that really has paid off. The more patience you have, the clearer your mindset is and you make better decisions. The real opportunities, friendships, relationships - all that rises up easier if you're patient along the way.

A: I'd go championships without a doubt. I'm not sure I've got 15 years left in me. (Laughs) So the five years and championships No. 7 and 8 sound much more in my wheelhouse than 15 more years.

Q: And do you have a question for the next person?

Race wins are phenomenal, and I don't think what Richard has done will ever be touched. I also don't think the mark Gordon is setting right now in the current era (91 wins) will ever be touched.

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But championships have always meant more to me and I'm more focused on eight championships than catching Gordon in wins. No one will ever catch Petty in wins. So championships it is.

A: (Johnson said he'd like to wait and see who the next interview is with before asking his question.)