The Questions With Jimmie Johnson

What was your welcome-to- NASCAR moment?
My first race--at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2001--I left pit road, and I had Mark Martin in front of me and Dale Jarrett behind me. I thought, Holy cow, I can't believe I'm between these guys.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
That same race, maybe 50 miles later, I spun out. As I was crashing, I almost took out my teammate, Jeff Gordon, who was running for a championship. That would have been horrible.

If I were commissioner for a day, I'd ...
give us some more weekends off. We only have three in a 10-month season.

What hurts most the day after a race?
My whole right leg. There's so much fine touch required to work the gas pedal. It strains the control muscles in your glute, calf and hamstring.

LAST WEEK

Johnson, moved up to eighth place in the Chase for the Nextel Cup with a 13th-place finish at Dover.

THIS WEEK

The Chase moves to Kansas Speedway, where Johnson has had three top 10 finishes in four career races.