"I was called vanilla for the longest time": Jimmie Johnson addresses his perception and image among NASCAR fans

During a recent interview, Jimmie Johnson opened up on how he was perceived at one point by NASCAR fans. Johnson, who drove all his Cup career as a full-timer for Hendrick Motorsports, tasted success early in his career. And after four full-time seasons under his belt, he won his first Cup title in 2006.

From that point on, Johnson won four more championships, for a total of five Cup titles in a row between 2006 and 2010.

All of this success and dominance, coupled with his personality and demeanor as a person, led many fans to call him 'a robot.' While speaking on the High Performance podcast, Jimmie Johnson described his initial perception by the fans.

"The journey of being that successful, it's funny how people view you and look at you and my idea or my process of reinventing myself and becoming more and more serious turned off the American fans. They thought I was a robot. They didn't think that I had a personality. I was called vanilla for the longest time and it was wild because I would read these chat rooms or hear comments from fans. 'You're too boring, all you do is win and you say the right things when you get out of your car and your wife is beautiful and she kisses you,' and they're going through this list and I'm like, 'God, it sucks to be me,'" Johnson said. [31:42 onwards]

But following this realization, Jimmie Johnson learned that in sports, one can't make everyone happy. In his case, this translated into accepting that his fans would root for him.

Also apart from him, 39 other drivers have their own fanbases, and that's something which he had to come to terms with.

Jimmie Johnson found fans bad-mouthing his family an 'odd' thing

Clint Bowyer and his family take a picture with Jimmie Johnson (R) and his family - Source: Imagn

Further continuing on this subject, the High Performance podcast co-host asked Jimmie Johnson about the 'toughest thing' he read in the fan chat rooms and the impact it had on him.

The former #48 driver said it was when fans began to make comments on his family. He described:

"It's like and I put myself in that car all day long. Just because you see my parents in the background or my brothers, like trying to come at family in a different way was just odd to me." [33:20 onwards]

Having said that, Johnson claimed he didn't need approval from anyone, which resulted in him not reacting drastically to all the criticism he was getting. The former HMS driver remarked that social media has a big impact on the young generation.

But in his case, Jimmie Johnson said he was 'either too dumb' or didn't care enough about what fans were saying in the chat box. He added that he finds it interesting how such things shape the minds of young people, which it didn't in his case.