Racers are a superstitious bunch. Outside of fake ones like sleeping with a sock on their right foot the night before a race or tracks being extra gripped up during a waxing crescent moon, there are very real superstitions carried by NASCAR drivers.
Jimmie Johnson appeared on Racin’ with the Boys with Will Compton and Delanie Walker on Thursday. He shared his very real superstition that he still follows to this day.
Johnson is big on numbers and digs at Jeff Gordon
“I’ve always been a numbers guy, and where it cemented the most, well, I guess I’ll back up a step,” said Johnson. “Hendrick starting this fourth team, they don’t have a pre-existing number. They give me a list of numbers that are available at NASCAR.
“And at the time, they had 24 and 25 car, and they thought maybe 23, four, five. You know, a little [Michael Jordan] vibe. I get the sequential numbering system, but all of my championships came from the number four or the number eight.”
Johnson wanted 48. He had to lobby Jeff Gordon, who was co-owner of the new team at Hendrick. Jimmie couldn’t resist a little competitive dig at the driver he looked up to.
“And I saw 48, and then I’m like, well, hey, Jeff, you’re 24 … The 48 and I want to be twice as good as you, you know, just like lobbying. He said, ‘Yeah, that works.’
“You know, we’ll do it in the same font, and that plays. So that was one of the elements coming to life with numbers.”
13 isn’t bad after all
Johnson admitted that he pays attention to numbers in the wild. How often they come up and tries to figure out significance. During his rookie season, he thought he was cooked because of the no. 13 showing up everywhere.
“And then prior to my rookie season, the number 13 showed up everywhere. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m doomed.’ Like bad luck’s coming.
Where’s the black cat? You know, just thinking, you know, pessimistic mindset on it all.”
The No. 13 wasn’t bad luck at all. And he didn’t realize it until he took a question from the media following his first win that rookie season.
“I win my first race, I’m sitting in the media center, and the first question from the media was, ‘ How does it feel to win in your 13th start?’
“I was like, son of a bitch, it was a good sign all along.”
Johnson still subscribes to the luck of 48
Some would think that once Johnson retired as a 7-time Cup Series Champion, he would let the superstition go as well. Not happening for Johnson. To this day, he still believes in 48. Even as co-owner of Legacy Motor Club.
“And so numbers, I see numbers at different times. I set my alarm clock for 5:48 instead of six o’clock, and instead of a minute on the microwave, it’ll be 48 seconds.
“So I’ve just had this number thing, it’s still going.”
Ron Hornaday, peanuts, and green cars
Ron Hornaday is a legend. He’s also one of the drivers that Johnson credits for his development in NASCAR. Hornaday had a serious superstition.
No peanuts. Especially no peanuts in the shell.
“One thing I do know with the generation before me is some were really sensitive about peanuts being bad luck,” said Johnson. “And one of my mentors, this guy named Ron Hornaday, and everybody knew not to bring a bag of peanuts around him, especially the one still in the shell.
“And one night in his ascent to the top divisions at a local short track, he went to get in his car, and somebody threw a peanut in there, the shell on it. And he had a terrible accident that night and had to stay a couple of nights in the hospital. So he’s absolutely adamant about peanuts.
“And there are a few of the old school that believe in that. And then the other was green cars. And when Bobby Labonte showed up with the Interstate Battery Green car, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you’re doomed,’ and he won a ton of races and championships.
“And I’m like, ‘Man, we’re all chasing green.’ You know, we want green backs. Like, how is that bad luck? Why is that color bad? So just another one that was there previously.”
