How NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson ‘went from boy to man’ driving for St. Joe’s Herzogs
NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson’s first memories of Kansas City have little to do with Kansas Speedway. But Arrowhead Stadium? That’s a moment frozen in time. Literally.
Johnson was an impressionable teenager when he first visited the area as an off-road racer and fledgling stock car driver for St. Joseph-based Herzog Motorsports in the mid-to-late 1990s.
His offseason visits included Chiefs games. And the young Californian wasn’t prepared for Arrowhead in December.
“I spent a lot of time in St. Joseph over the years; mainly in the winters, and I couldn’t believe how hard the wind would blow and how cold it could be,” Johnson recalled with a laugh. “I went to Chiefs games with them. It was freezing.
“So every time I go to Kansas Speedway, I just recall being a teenage kid, landing at KCI and freezing my tail off and trying to find my way to St. Joe to have meetings or visit with them. I definitely have that sense that the Kansas area equals Herzog for me. Even racing out at the track, I’ve always had that sense of being nearby and being a part of all that.”
On Sunday, Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion who is retiring from fulltime Cup competition at the end of his season, will make his final start at Kansas Speedway, which sits about 50 miles from where Johnson launched his NASCAR career with Herzog Motorsports.
“If it wasn’t for them, I would not be where I am today,” Johnson said. “I just fill up when I think about that area and what it’s meant to my personal life, my professional life, all of it. I was transitioning from being a boy to a man. I’m a late teen, early 20-year old, traveling and working for the Herzog family.
“Their interest in me was like a son to them. You had the father Bill, and (sons) Stan and Randy, and I became part of their family. It was more than a driver-owner relationship. I became part of the family.”
In fact, the Herzogs, who operated Herzog Contracting Corporation, one of the largest contractors for railroad and transit construction in the nation, considered Johnson their adopted son.
“We did everything we could do without legal papers,” said Randy Herzog, whose father and brother are now deceased. “Emotionally and every other way, we became family, and we still are.”
Johnson made 64 Busch Series (now Xfinity) starts in the No. 92 Chevrolet for Herzog Motorsports in 2000 and 2001, winning the inaugural NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway in 2001 and posting 15 top-10 finishes. He finished 10th in the standings in 2000 despite failing to qualify for the season-opening race at Daytona and was eighth in 2001, including a sixth-place at Kansas’ first Busch Series event.
But Excedrin did not renew its sponsorship after 2001, and Herzog, unable to secure the necessary funding to run a fulltime Cup car, gave Johnson its blessing to leave for powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Cup car in 2002.
“We supported him all the way once he had the opportunity,” Herzog said. “It was the quality of the opportunity that was going to determine whether we supported it or opposed it.”
Little did anyone realize Johnson would go on to becoming one of the sport’s all-time greats. He’s won 83 Cup races, tying Cale Yarborough for sixth all-time, and joined Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt as the sport’s only seven-time Cup champions.
“I couldn’t envision anything like this,” Herzog said. “I saw a young man that had a lot of character, a lot of drive, was dedicated and had a lot of talent. We liked him personally. Otherwise I don’t think we would have been so invested in Jimmie and tried to make him successful and felt as strongly about trying to see he had all the opportunities we could give him.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia. I’m awful proud of him, and happy for him. I’m saddened he didn’t have the kind of year he deserved, but he’s had quite a career.”
Indeed, 2020 has been a struggle for Johnson, who has not won a race since 2017, a span of 126 starts. Johnson failed to qualify for the playoffs because he missed a race due to testing positive for COVID 19, and a failed post-race inspection disqualified a second-place finish at Charlotte.
Johnson has signed with Chip Ganassi Racing to return to his open-wheel roots and run at least 13 road and street course races in the Indy Car series in 2021 and 2022.
Though he is not part of the NASCAR Cup playoffs, Johnson would love nothing better than to win one of the remaining four Cup events, starting with Kansas Speedway, where he won in 2008, 2011 and 2015.
Another victory would give Johnson 84 career wins, tying Hall of Famers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for fifth on the all-time list.
“It would mean a ton,” Johnson said. “Winning is so special, and I’m so thankful we did it regularly for a lot of years. I would love to win just to remind everybody what I’m capable of. I would love to have that experience with my children, now that they’re older, and can have a chance to remember what it’s like. And, then, my final year, at the end, there isn’t a better way to celebrate and enjoy the emotion.”
For his part, Randy Herzog is so conflicted about Johnson’s career and retirement, he’s not sure whether to attend Sunday’s race. Because Herzog admits, he’s always wondered what might have been had Herzog Motorsports secured the funding to race in the Cup series with Johnson in the cockpit.
“I don’t think there’s a doubt in our minds we could have gone on and been highly successful and won Cup races had we had the major sponsorship,” Herzog said. “We won races and championships at every level we competed.
“I have mixed feelings (about attending on Sunday). A lot of emotion is involved.”
Kansas Speedway TV schedule
Friday: ARCA Menards Series Kansas 150, 7:30 p.m. CT, FS1/FS2
Saturday: NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Clean Harbors 200, 3 p.m. CT, FOX
Saturday: NASCAR Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 300, 6 p.m. CT, NBCSN
Sunday: NASCAR Cup Hollywood Casino 400, 1:30 p.m. CT, NBC
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 2:23 PM.