Advertisement

As he searches for first win since June, Jimmie Johnson changes his social media tone

Jimmie Johnson is sick of negativity, dangit. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
Jimmie Johnson is sick of negativity, dangit. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

Yes, Jimmie Johnson’s positive turn on social media is a purposeful one.

Johnson has previously had fun on Twitter poking people who feel his success is part of a NASCAR conspiracy or have unrealistically high expectations for the seven-time champion. After the past two races, Johnson has tweeted quotes attributed to Babe Ruth.

Those tweets are part of a plan, Johnson said.

“I’ve had a fun approach in the past of finding trolls and singling them out and having fun with that,” Johnson said. “But I’m like man, there is enough damn negativity in the world. I’m going to take a little shift on it. I thought it would be best to find some inspirational quotes to kind of reflect kind of where I’m at and what’s going on. So, I think that’s been a more mature approach in a sense. I’ve seen a couple recently that I drafted and worked on and saved, where I was going to go back to my old ways. And I’m not saying that I won’t. If I have enough drinks on the flight home, I might. But, I’ve just been trying to project positive vibes instead of falling into that trap of negativity.”

Johnson’s most recent win came at Dover in June. While that was 10 months ago in calendar terms, it’s 30 races ago in Cup Series terms. It’s the longest winless streak of Johnson’s career.

He won a year ago at Bristol, the site of Sunday’s Cup Series race. He also won a year ago at Texas, the site of last week’s race, and that defending champion karma didn’t work out too well for him. Johnson was caught up in a crash.

Before he explained his new social media strategy of sorts, Johnson admitted that he sees the attention paid to his winless streak by others.

“We have high expectations for ourselves, first and foremost; and we think that we should be in a position to win races every year and compete for race wins each weekend. So, I think within that there’s a lot of fair questions being asked.

“But, I think there is overreaction by fans and media on that last upper percentile of it, especially all the kind and wonderful people on social media and the things that they have to say. But, that’s just kind of why I’ve also mentioned people underestimate how tough this garage area is. And many of the people that are so kind on social media aren’t a pro at anything and don’t understand what it takes to exist at that pro level, and it’s tough.”


– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

More from Yahoo Sports:
After scrapping Kaepernick visit, Seahawks sign a QB
Report: Girl targeted for beaning by youth baseball coaches
Barack, Michelle Obama’s niece picked in WNBA draft
OKC broadcaster under fire for ‘offensive’ remark