Early and Personal Life
Johnson was born in El Cajon, California, on September 17, 1975, the son of Catherine Ellen "Cathy" (née Dunnill) and Gary Ernest Johnson. He attended Granite Hills High School, while he raced motorcycles during the weekends. He was a varsity water polo player, diver and swimmer and graduated in 1993. The number 48 is retired from all sports teams uniforms at his school and Johnson was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. He has two younger brothers, Jarit and Jessie. Johnson lives in Charlotte, North Carolina like many other NASCAR drivers. He is married to the former Chandra Janway, the two having known each other since 2002. In January 2010, Johnson signed a mini-series deal with HBO for a NASCAR based reality show 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona. Cameras followed him from January 2010 to the 2010 Daytona 500. On January 4, 2010, the Associated Press reported that the Johnsons were expecting their first child. On July 7, 2010, Chandra gave birth to their daughter, Genevieve Marie.
Read more about this topic: Jimmie Johnson
Famous quotes containing the words early, personal and/or life:
“They circumcised women, little girls, in Jesus’s time. Did he know? Did the subject anger or embarrass him? Did the early church erase the record? Jesus himself was circumcised; perhaps he thought only the cutting done to him was done to women, and therefore, since he survived, it was all right.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
“I would rather have as my patron a host of anonymous citizens digging into their own pockets for the price of a book or a magazine than a small body of enlightened and responsible men administering public funds. I would rather chance my personal vision of truth striking home here and there in the chaos of publication that exists than attempt to filter it through a few sets of official, honorably public-spirited scruples.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“Thou gav’st me life, but mortal; for that one
Favour I’ll make full satisfaction:
For my life mortal, rise from out thy hearse,
And take a life immortal from my verse.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)