News Director 
Column By: REID SPENCER / NASCAR – DOVER, DE – How concerned is Jimmie Johnson about the major changes coming to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule in 2018?
The short answer: not at all – yet.
Johnson has won all of his record-tying seven series championships under a 10-race playoff format. During his phenomenal run from 2006 through 2016, there have been only nominal and incremental changes where the venues for the final 10 events are concerned.
In 2018, however, the differences will be dramatic. Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which has never been part of the playoff, will open the postseason next year. Richmond, the host site for the traditional regular-season cutoff race, moves into the playoff in the second spot.
The third event, the elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, will move from the oval to the oval/road course combination at track, the first time the “roval” will have been used for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
Dover International Speedway, in recent years the elimination race in the first round of the playoff, becomes the first race in the second round.
Other than the change at Charlotte, however, Johnson hasn’t thought much about the 2018 schedule and the changes to a 10-race playoff that, historically, has been right in his wheelhouse.
“Were there big changes besides the roval?” Johnson asked during his Friday media availability prior to Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover (1 p.m. ET on FS1). “You can tell I’ve been paying attention. I don’t care where they are or what we do. I’m ready to race, and I think this team can win regardless of where those events are held.
“I think the roval stands out the most. That’s the biggest change, in my opinion. We’ll take it as it comes. And I guess I’ve just been focused on this year and what we have going on.”
From an unselfish standpoint, Johnson is all for injecting variety into the makeup of the playoffs.
“I know that our sport is going through a lot of change,” he said. “So I’m not surprised. I feel like there’s a lot of excitement with other forms of sports due to the fact that playoff events change and move around and locations change.
So, in driver council meetings that I’ve been a part of and conversations that have taken place, I’ve kind of sensed that change was coming and I’ve been for it. I’ve been for it mainly because of the excitement it can bring to the fans in our sport and much less about how it pertains to the No. 48 car.
From a selfish standpoint, Johnson has a completely different point of view.
“If I could have a voice I would say the 10 playoff races were all right here (Dover), and that would benefit the No. 48 the most,” he quipped.
Small wonder. In Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism, Johnson will be trying to win his 11th Cup race at the Monster Mile.
A CHANCE MEETING BETWEEN TWO CHAMPIONS
Race fans worldwide watched Austin Dillon win Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway roughly eight hours after Japanese driver Takuma Sato took the checkered flag in the Indianapolis 500.
So what were the chances of the two races winners meeting each other by happenstance during the days that followed the races?
Purely by coincidence, the drivers were at Teterboro Airport in New York on Tuesday during the media obligations that followed their respective victories. Dillon had just finished an impromptu dinner with his grandfather and team owner, Richard Childress, before coming to Teterboro.
“Yeah, that was totally fate,” Dillon told the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday at Dover International Speedway. “We had that dinner – it wasn’t a scheduled dinner, my grandfather was just like, ‘Hey we’re in New York, let’s have a dinner.’ We got done, and we were headed to the airport. Everybody was pretty tired, and we walked through the airport and one of the guys said ‘Hey, I think that’s Takuma Sato.’
“He was walking actually out to the plane and we were like ‘Man, we’ve got to get a picture with him.’ His business manager turned around and saw us and he was like ‘Well, this is a great coincidence.’ And he pulled him back in, and we got a couple of pictures, showed off our rings to each other. That was cool. He was a really nice guy and you could tell he was just jacked about the win at Indy.”
No doubt the feeling was mutual.
HULU SPONSORSHIP A MAJOR DEAL FOR JEFFREY EARNHARDT
Fourth-generation Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Jeffrey Earnhardt and Circle Sport/TMG team co-owner Joe Falk paid a visit to the Dover media center on Friday to announce a 19-race sponsorship from premium streaming service Hulu on the No. 33 Chevrolet.
“Being a small team, it’s huge for us,” Earnhardt said. “Every dollar goes a long way, and there have been races where we haven’t had sponsorship, and that’s tough on anyone, but it’s even tougher on a small team like us.
“To be able to have good companies like Hulu come on board is huge and not just being able to have more funding going to the track, but to get us more exposure and branding is a huge plus, too.”
Particularly with his uncle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., retiring from Cup racing at the end of the season, Jeffrey feels a certain degree of pressure to keep the family name in the public eye.
“With Junior leaving, that’s a big shock to this sport,” Jeffrey said. “He has quite the fan base, but I feel like there is always pressure to perform. Probably a little bit more now, but one of the main goals that I want to achieve in my career is to continue the legacy that my grandfather (seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt) built.
“You know that means a lot to me. I know how much that man meant to the sport and the fans and stuff. If I can continue that legacy at some level… I mean I would like to say that I’m going to go deliver it at its best, but those were big shoes that he made and I don’t think I could ever get close to even considering filling those. But if I could just do a big portion of keeping that Earnhardt legacy alive, I would be pretty happy.”
