Now I'm in that position and it's just going to be a huge honour and a lot of fun and I'm going to make the most of it, have a great time and represent our sport to the best of my ability. It would be a huge honour because this is the biggest form of motorsports in our country and the biggest sport here. So it's a huge honour and we have to do a great job representing our sport.
Q:
You said something pretty unbelievable, this is as good of a combination as I've had in racing when you look at Mr. Evernham and Jeff Gordon's success. Now when you look at them, as you say that, what do you expect of them, what do you think they are capable of, and in this day and age, can you really not expect what happened before?
RH:
I think Ray and Jeff were a great combination. But the sport is tougher right now. It's more competitive. With the Chase format, you know, putting the ten guys back together and reshuffling the deck, it's going to be harder to win championships. I'm not saying it was easy back when Jeff and Terry won and Ray and Jeff had that run. But to be as competitive as these guys are week?in and week?out with the garage area as tough as it is today and the points system like it is, I think they are as good as I've ever seen.
Q:,/B>
You came back from the pre-Daytona stuff to win the Daytona 500, you came back from Kansas to win; you remember back in Daytona when you said this 'I dedicate this win to the 48 team haters'? If you haven't turned them into lovers, do you think you've at least earned their respect?
JJ:
That's all that you can hope for and that's all I can hope for. I look forward to next year just in the garage area, just the respect the champion gets. I know as I've looked at the #20 and the other guys, and just the way the garage interacts, that they have a lot of respect for the champion, and I can't wait to experience that.
![Jimmie Johnson's 2006 championship winning team. [Pic Credit image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/281326.jpg)
