Jimmie Johnson, the three-peat NASCAR Cup champ, takes time away from prepping for Sunday’s Daytona 500 to discuss the race, his new Monty Python-inspired commercial  (The Quest for G), and how he hopes to get out of a speeding ticket.

The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s Super Bowl. Why is this race considered the granddaddy of all races?
This is the first race of the year. In most sporting events, it’s the last one. It’s just the tradition of it. It’s the first big superspeedway race to exist. The race actually started on the beach of Daytona; half was on the sand and the rest was on A1A, running down like a five-mile course they had. I would love to have raced back then. It started 60 years ago this way, and we come out of the gate with our biggest race.


I have to set my fantasy NASCAR team this week for the 500. Can you help me out with that?
(Laughs) When we get to California it’s easier to predict. But for the 500, look to your normal suspects for (restrictor) plate racing: Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, myself; and Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray are going to be a factor. That 18 car seems awfully fast and Kyle (Busch) will certainly be on the highlight reels doing something.

Do you do anything to get yourself psyched up for a race?
I do more to calm myself down than anything. The races are three to five hours in length, depending on the track. The times I’ve been excited before a race, I found myself crashed in a short amount of time.

So you pop in an Enya CD?
(Laughs) Jack Johnson is a good one for me. But for qualifying, you want the exact opposite, because you want to go as fast as you can for one lap.

You’re on pace to be the first guy to win four championships in a row. Does that add any extra pressure to this season?
At this point, not really. There’s so much racing between now and when the season starts. It’s been my mindset all along that you have to make the Chase to start with. I like to set my goals easy and right there in front of me. It helps me keep the pressure off my shoulders and focus on the right things.

Do you actually play the NASCAR video games?
It’s been a long time, but I did. You know, being on a video game is awfully cool so I’ve played a few times.

And do you always drive as yourself?
Absolutely.

Considering you’re the three-time Cup champion, if you get pulled over for speeding, do they let you go?
You know, I have not had a speeding ticket. But if I do get pulled over I’ll do everything I can to help them notice who I am.

Where did you shoot The Quest for G, and how long did it take? (CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BELOW)
We were in Boston for two days. With the group of athletes that came together they needed to do it in an area where Kevin (Garnett) could still play. I think on both days he had games. It was a lot of fun.



What was scarier, Kareem Abdul in the crazy ram-horns hat, or the fire-breathing poodle?
(Laughs) Doing it all in front of a green screen it was tough to see what was going to happen... The sets they built were pretty elaborate. Then we had the green screen and it was my first experience with green screen stuff. To worry about the fire-breathing poodle, throwing stuff overboard on the boat, the pony that falls down from the castle. There were a lot of scenes that were a lot of fun.

You’re wearing a suit of armor. Does the chain mail chafe?
That stuff’s heavy, really heavy. And it makes you dirty. We all had black all over our faces from that. It was snowy and cold and that stuff is steel, so it’s cold. But it was well worth it.

Did it take long to mime like you’re riding a horse?
The best part about that is that the director wanted the uncomfortable goofiness of us learning it. So he wouldn’t let us practice. We wanted to be kind of clumsy and funny and a spoof of the movie.

I enjoyed the dance-off scene. Are you going be on Dancing with the Stars next season?
Negative.

You mean that was a stunt dancer?
Yes, it was.

Did you even consider trying to dance?
No, they actually spent a lot of time in Spain shooting different scenes. … They had all those scenes with the stunt doubles done and it was easy for us to figure out where we need to end in poses and the feel of each scene because they had all that stuff in the can from Spain.

Were you a fan of Monty Python & The Holy Grail before you did the commercial? Were you familiar with the concept behind the commercial?
Not all that much. My wife took me to Spamalot one time in Vegas. It was my first exposure to it. I thought, “What in the world is this?” Before filming the commercial they sent the movie off to us to watch. I watched it then and had a much better understanding of it going into the shoot.

Anything else you want to add?
If you go to the MissionG.com landing page, $1 will be donated to either the NBA charity or to my charity (The Jimmie Johnson Foundation), up to $25,000, which is cool.