[h=2]RACER: The Champions Issue[/h] RACER Staff
It's one thing to talk of behavior that's becoming of a champion, but what does that actually mean? If recent events are anything to go by, the answer depends on the champion in question.
If a champion is supposed to act with dignity and class, then it's hard to look past Nico Rosberg. The German had been the new Formula 1 World Champion for less than a week when he decided he couldn't muster the intensity and commitment required to defend his title next year, and that someone else could make better use of what will probably once again be the best car on the grid.
No doubt Mercedes would have liked a little more notice of his intentions, but they can't fault his honesty. Edd Straw explores Rosberg's motivation for winning, then walking.
Retiring at the top of the mountain takes a real courage, yet a different kind of courage is required to stick around and defend a championship. Doing that seven times? The only current driver in a position to speak about that with any authority is Jimmie Johnson. If 2016 has broadly been the year of rattling the establishment, then it's entirely appropriate that a Californian carrying none of the traditional Stock Car genes should have chosen this season to join Petty and Earnhardt as NASCAR's greatest. Tom Jensen looks at how Johnson has become such a force.
Organizations can exhibit a champion's mentality as well, but in the case of Team Penske, that mentality has become the blueprint for its day-to-day operations. It paid off again this year in the Verizon IndyCar Series for Simon Pagenaud, so we wanted to find out more on what makes Penske a machine that can't stop winning.
"Champion" isn't a one-size-fits-all honor, and while it's still a little soon for definitive hindsight on the 2016 season, it's already taught us that there's more than one way to wear a crown.
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[h=2]In RACER Magazine: Won and Done[/h] Wednesday, 11 January 2017


Edd Straw

A draining, twisting season, a nerve-shredding finale, and his shock decision to retire made Nico Rosberg's Formula 1 World Championship a memorable one.

"I want to take the opportunity to announce that I have decided to end my Formula 1 career."
With those words, uttered unprompted at the start of what everyone thought would be the usual "I'd like to thank..." Formula 1 World Champion's press conference, Nico Rosberg dropped his bombshell.
The venue was the 2016 FIA Prize Giving in Vienna, just five days after the season-ending, title clinching Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but Rosberg had been thinking about it even before he clinched racing's ultimate prize.
At the age of just 31 and with another two, very lucrative years on the Mercedes contract he'd only signed a few months earlier, he quit on top.
This isn't something first-time world champions normally do, but Rosberg has never been a conventional kind of grand prix driver. And for that reason, he's proved divisive. After he clinched the title with a remarkable drive under intense pressure at the Yas Marina finale, debates raged between those who argue that he lucked in at the expense of teammate Lewis Hamilton, and those who believe him to be a worthy world champion.
Rosberg's subsequent mic-drop moment stoked the fires of that debate. Again, the fans were polarized: had he done the near-impossible and quit on top with his head held high, or walked away because he realized he could never hope to scale those same heights again?
First of all, let's set aside any suspicions about Rosberg's motivations for quitting. He spoke eloquently during the Vienna press conference about his reasons and, when talking about his wife, Vivian, and 15-month-old daughter, Alaia, came close to breaking down. Only the most callous would suggest he wasn't sincere when he talked about the toll the 2016 season had taken on his home life, and of his desire to do what most could only dream of: dedicate himself to his family without any financial concerns, having conquered the world.
The only thing those in the anti-Rosberg camp can legitimately claim is that this is symptomatic of how deep he had to dig to close out the title carrying what he described as "lead weights" from his shoulders in the final races of the year. But that's the nature of elite sport, and Hamilton has apparently sent enough messages to his engineers at unusual times of the day to prove that he dedicates plenty of his spare time to thinking and working on his crafts.
Rosberg also spoke of the other loads – the extra karting to stay sharp; the mental training – that he carried through the year. And he was absolutely frank that, having achieved his ambition, he had no interest in repeating the effort. At worst, that only disqualifies him from the ranks of the greatest of the great, of those capable of scaling the peak time and time again.
In that context, his retirement was dignified, a man quitting while he was ahead in the best possible sense of the word. Having achieved his ultimate goal, Rosberg has other things in his life and now has the time and space for them. Perhaps the sad fate of his old friend and teammate, Michael Schumacher, will have made him realize the importance of that.
Get the complete version of this story in The Champions Issue of RACER magazine, on sale now. Click here to take a video tour of the issue.
To subscribe now at a special discount rate, click here, or to buy The Champions Issue online, click here.
RACER is also available digitally for Apple, Android and Kindle Fire devices. RACER Digital has the complete content of the magazine's print edition formatted for mobile viewing. With RACER Digital, you'll have access to your RACER content all the time, wherever you are.
The RACER app can be found by searching for "RACER Magazine" in the Apple, Android or Amazon App stores. The app is free and includes issue previews and the RACER.com newsfeed. Individual issues can be purchased for $1.99 and an 8-issue annual subscription is $9.99. Back issues are also available.

 

[h=2]In RACER Magazine: The Magnificent Seven[/h] Tom Jensen

For Jimmie Johnson, the most dominant driver of NASCAR's current era, a seventh championship wasn't an "if," it was a "when." It duly came in the 2016 finale.

Kyle Busch, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, stood on pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his visage a mixture of shock and disbelief. Busch had come into last November's season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 as one of four drivers with a shot at winning the '16 title, something he wanted very, very badly.
At various points in the race, Busch, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards and Team Penske ace Joey Logano each looked as if they would take home NASCAR's biggest prize. Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson, the fourth contender, started dead last and ran behind all three of the others for the vast majority of the race.
But when the final green waved with three laps to go, Johnson made a perfect restart to take the lead for the first time all race long. He thrust the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead and held on to win his seventh Cup championship, tying him with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt as the holders of NASCAR's most sacrosanct record.
All Busch could do was shake his head. "Johnson was nowhere all night long – couldn't keep up with us, really," said Busch. "We were the third-best car, I felt, and I never even saw him in my mirror. He just came out of nowhere at the end and did what he needed to do; he was Superman and won the championship."
Three-time series champ and NASCAR Hall of Fame member Darrell Waltrip was equally amazed, though considerably less distraught. "Johnson's the coolest driver out there," says Waltrip. "He's the guy who sits on a hot stove and pees ice water."
That much the NASCAR community agrees on, even if the language isn't always quite so colorful...
Johnson's seventh championship naturally raises questions about how he, Earnhardt and Petty match up. But comparing the relative merits of drivers from three different eras of racing can be a total fool's errand, especially since two of the three never raced in a playoff format like Johnson has. There's simply no way of knowing who's best.
But among his contemporaries, Johnson's numbers are simply astonishing. There's no other way to state it.
Kyle Busch, the 2015 champ, has won 8.92 percent of his Cup starts. Kevin Harvick, the '14 title holder, has a 6.10 percent win rate. Johnson's career winning percentage is 14.73.
Johnson leads active drivers with 80 race victories; Busch is second with 38.
The recently retired Tony Stewart, regarded as one of the best drivers of this or any other generation, won 49 Cup races in 619 starts. The bottom line? Stewart made 76 more starts than Johnson is currently at, but won 31 fewer races.
Or take Johnson's former teammate, Jeff Gordon, who won 93 races, third all-time behind only Petty and David Pearson. From 1993-2001, Gordon won four Cup titles and 58 races (19.8 percent). From 2002, when Johnson joined Hendrick, until his retirement, Gordon won no titles and just 35 races (6.84 percent).
Last, but not least, in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which began in 2004, Johnson has won 29 races. His closest competitors, Harvick and Kurt Busch, have each won 11.
So how has Johnson managed to put a stranglehold on the competition? Starting with the obvious, Johnson drives for the best team in NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, and he's been teamed from the start with crew chief Chad Knaus, unquestionably the best of his generation.
But there's a lot more to it than that, starting with Johnson's personality. There are really two Jimmie Johnsons...
Get the complete version of this story in The Champions Issue of RACER magazine, on sale now. Click here to take a video tour of the issue.
To subscribe now at a special discount rate, click here, or to buy The Champions Issue online, click here.
RACER is also available digitally for Apple, Android and Kindle Fire devices. RACER Digital has the complete content of the magazine's print edition formatted for mobile viewing. With RACER Digital, you'll have access to your RACER content all the time, wherever you are.
The RACER app can be found by searching for "RACER Magazine" in the Apple, Android or Amazon App stores. The app is free and includes issue previews and the RACER.com newsfeed. Individual issues can be purchased for $1.99 and an 8-issue annual subscription is $9.99. Back issues are also available.

 

 

 

 

[h=2]In RACER Magazine: Built to Win[/h] Tuesday, 31 January 2017


Mark Glendenning / Images by Sam Cobb, LAT

Team Penske is IndyCar's high watermark for resources, organization and success. But what does that look like for those at the sharp end?

"The guy who puts in the most work gets the most results. The guy who is sitting back will get passed while he's waiting."
The roots of "The Penske Way" run deep: Roger Penske was still a hotshot sports car driver and Alcoa aluminum salesman when he defined his philosophy in Gilbert Rogin's masterful Sports Illustrated profile in 1964.


Many of the tenets that Penske laid out in that magazine piece more than a half century ago will sound familiar to anyone who's traced his exploits in racing since – the attention to detail, the meticulous preparation, the emphasis on image and presentation. (The story notes with some wonder that the 26-year-old Penske owns "25 suits and sports jackets.") Tying them all together is a blend of unyielding perfectionism and a fixation on winning.
In the decades since, Team Penske's won a lot. In the world of Indy car racing, it's long-established as the standard to which all other teams aspire, and the first obstacle that they must overcome to achieve success of their own. It's the kind of team that gets irritated about its 10-win 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season because its drivers finished 1-2-3-8, instead of 1-2-3-4. And in all likelihood, it will be just as strong in 2017.
"This team does such a good job in every respect now," says its 2014 IndyCar champ, Will Power. "I think it'll be really tough for any team to beat Penske next year."


But putting aside vague abstractions about resources and team culture, what does that "good job in every respect" actually look like for those on the ground? In a team with a large population of "lifers," former Andretti Autosport team manager Kyle Moyer became one of the relatively few to move from the outside into a senior role when he took on the role of Penske's competition director in 2015.


"The goal is the same – you're trying to win races – but it is a different culture in how you're able to go about it," he says. "Penske is on the cutting edge because it's had those [development programs] established for so long that it's able to stay a year or two ahead.
“Everybody has down years, but you look over the long-term and think, ‘How do they stay on top all of the time?’ And I think the answer is that from the top, starting with Roger, they’re always looking for the next thing to make them faster.”

Get the complete version of this story in The Champions Issue of RACER magazine, on sale now. Click here to take a video tour of the issue.
To subscribe now at a special discount rate, click here, or to buy The Champions Issue online, click here.
RACER is also available digitally for Apple, Android and Kindle Fire devices. RACER Digital has the complete content of the magazine's print edition formatted for mobile viewing. With RACER Digital, you'll have access to your RACER content all the time, wherever you are.


The RACER app can be found by searching for "RACER Magazine" in the Apple, Android or Amazon App stores. The app is free and includes issue previews and the RACER.com newsfeed. Individual issues can be purchased for $1.99 and an 8-issue annual subscription is $9.99. Back issues are also available.

 

[h=2]In RACER Magazine: A Thousand to One Shot[/h] Wednesday, 08 February 2017



Eric Johnson / Images by Larry Chen (Monster Energy), LAT

Two-time winner BJ Baldwin loves the Baja 1000. But the toughest, most unforgiving off-road race of them all doesn’t always love him back...

As BJ Baldwin gets his race face on for the 49th SCORE Baja 1000, he pauses for a few moments in front of the sun bleached Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, a well-worn landmark in hustling, bustling Ensenada, Mexico.
Sitting quietly in his 6,100lb Toyota Trophy Truck (a $750,000 beast that sits benignly enough now, but you just know is psychotically looking forward to trying to rip itself apart in just a short time), Baldwin grabs his cell phone and types up a Facebook post for 370,000-plus friends out there in cyberspace.
The mayhem starts in 112 minutes. We’ve done everything we can to prepare for this #Baja1000 mentally, physically, and mechanically. My team and I have been looking forward to this day since last December. I feel great, Rampage is running great and my team is on point. We are excited for our opportunity to win our third Baja 1000. To my fellow competitors, I wish you a safe race, especially our motorcycle competitors. Alright, time to get ready. This is the part where you wish us good luck.
Las Vegas, Nevada’s “Ballistic” BJ Baldwin has been racing Trophy Trucks on the Baja California peninsula since 2003. He won the 1000 back-to-back in 2012-’13 – both times driving the whole course himself, “Ironman”-style – and he wants nothing more than to win it again. And so it’s race day, Friday, Nov. 18, south of the border, and Baldwin mulls the daunting task that lies ahead.
“I’m the only driver to Ironman and win it two years in a row in the Trophy Truck, and I want another win more than anything,” he says. “That’s not any exaggeration – I do want it more than anything.”
Planning for the 2016 race is something Baldwin and his tight-knit team have been working on since driving back over the border into California and home to Las Vegas after last year’s 1000.
Not all Baja 1000s are 1000 miles, and the 2016 race is an 850-mile, Ensenada to Ensenada loop, but the logistics of keeping a race truck fueled, serviced and watched over in the barren, beautiful Baja wilderness is as complex as ever. Swelling the numbers on the ground, Baldwin’s support runs to 30 team members, eight chase and refueling trucks, a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft.
“Mentally, this race is a perpetual thing,” says Baldwin. “I don’t really ever stop thinking about it, and none of my crew guys do either. It’s so important that we do well here that we’re constantly thinking about how we can improve the plan.”
Making the truck faster, more bullet-proof; preparing for the expected, and trying to second-guess the unexpected. Learning from your mistakes. Nobody ever goes to the Baja 1000 completely confident they’ve got everything covered – that would be foolish – but putting the work in, covering off the details, having a Plan B, C and D, all help to move the needle from impossible to, just maybe, possible.

Get the complete version of this story in The Champions Issue of RACER magazine, on sale now. Click here to take a video tour of the issue.
To subscribe now at a special discount rate, click here, or to buy The Champions Issue online, click here.
RACER is also available digitally for Apple, Android and Kindle Fire devices. RACER Digital has the complete content of the magazine's print edition formatted for mobile viewing. With RACER Digital, you'll have access to your RACER content all the time, wherever you are.
The RACER app can be found by searching for "RACER Magazine" in the Apple, Android or Amazon App stores. The app is free and includes issue previews and the RACER.com newsfeed. Individual issues can be purchased for $1.99 and an 8-issue annual subscription is $9.99. Back issues are also available.

 

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