He is arguably one of the greatest athletes of our time -- Charlottean Jimmie Johnson.
He may be out of the championship chase this year, but that didn't keep him from victory lane just three weeks ago.
Johnson sat down for an exclusive and candid conversation with NBC Charlotte, where nothing was off limits.
Obviously, we're used to seeing Jimmie Johnson, a six-time Sprint Cup champion, behind the wheel.
But carpool?
"Oh yeah, absolutely."
"What is that like?" -- MB
"It's carpool. You get your stuff prepped and ready, get your placard up. What's even more humorous is that Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears are also in the same carpool line. So here are three NASCAR drivers sitting in carpool, dropping off kids and picking up. So it's an interesting carpool."
"Is there any maneuvering? Racing going on?"
"No, no jockeying. We're all very calm and aware."
Photos: Jimmie Johnson through the years
They save the drama for the track – and this year, with the new rule changes, there seemed to be more than ever before.
Photos: Jimmie Johnson wins 6th NASCAR championship
"But there's a lot of excitement with the pressure that an elimination round causes -- seems to spike it the most."
He says the fans seem to be into it.
"I can say from going to the racetrack through the Chase, especially, we've had some very full grandstands. And at the tracks there's been a great energy and a great buzz and full grandstands."
But he's still not sure he's a fan.
"At the end of the day I want our sport to succeed and grow, so I'm going to let the stats kind of steer my opinion. It's different so I initially don't like it."
Johnson said to the media after his elimination that he saw it coming for weeks, starting at a race at Kansas Speedway.
"That was really when I came to grips with not advancing and not being a championship contender," Johnson said after his elimination."We got to Talladega, you're rolling the dice there anyway with restrictor-plate racing, and it's an all or nothing thing, so it put me in an easy position to relax and enjoy the weekend."
Relaxing came seemingly easy for him.
"You know what, Kerry [Tharp]? I've always heard you were considered a second-rate citizen if you didn't make the Chase," Johnson said, glancing at a group of about a dozen news reporters gathered before practice at Martinsville Speedway. "And I'm kicked out, and you guys are all still here talking to me. You've all been lying all this time. I guess it does matter. I still do matter. It's fantastic!"
The new rules meant he didn't even have a shot at the championship when he landed in victory lane at Texas two weeks ago.
"Once you're eliminated and gone, it's pretty relaxed. It allows you to go out here and just have fun, and I went to Texas and had a lot of fun."
It was a win made even sweeter because of the car he was driving – painted red – to look like a Lowe's vest.
"The red car was a lot of fun, and to take it to victory lane and say thank you to all the -- the main reason was to say thank you to all the men and women in the store. There's around 260,000 people that put on that red vest, so we wore that red vest at the race track. My fire suit kind of resembled the red vest."
He says it was pretty cool to be in victory lane with the Lowe's paint job and hear dozens of the stores' staffers doing the Lowe's chant.
"When we won and we did the photos, one of the employees started the chant, and to have that chant in victory lane, that's when it really hit me how much this meant to all the employees."
This year's elimination doesn't affect the perception of Johnson.
His sixth title last year allowed him to rank among sports' all-time greats.
Local and national leaders recognize his prowess.
Charlotte offered him the "Key to the City" over summer.
And President Obama hailed Johnson as one of the best while honoring him for winning the 2013 Sprint Cup.
"Now, everybody knows I'm a Chicago guy," Obama said, "and usually when we do these sports events I make some crack about how the football (team) is not as good as the '85 Bears or the basketball team is not as good as the Bulls, but today I can't really say anything, because Jimmie Johnson is pretty much the Michael Jordan of NASCAR," President Obama said.
The NASCAR champ doesn't like losing, especially to a late night talk show host he says cheated, even though instant replay shows Johnson taking off before he was supposed to.
"Well, I was just trying to play on an even playing field and now that I have a chance to share all the info. They shut my cooler off before the race so Jimmy would get a head start. So at that point I thought, 'You tried to get me once so I'm going to leave a little early.' As I leave early and I get a head start, I realize they've disconnected my breaks so I slam into the wall, barely make the U-turn. And we come down this hallway and you've got to stop and turn right to go back into the studio, and without breaks there was no stopping. They set me up to fail. I guess they felt I could handle all the challenges, being that I'm a racecar driver but brakes are kind of important especially with U-turns and 90 degree turns," he laughs.
The Tonight Show might not be his favorite after this loss, but Johnson fits in time for other entertainment.
He tells USA Today his favorite shows are Game of Thrones and Homeland, a Charlotte favorite. Although, the last movie he watched... was Frozen.
Brakes don't matter as much in his newest sport. The 39-year-old is training for his first half Ironman. He often swims at The Mecklenburg Aquatic Center where Ryan Lochte and several other Olympians train.
"They look like dolphins in the water," Johnson says.
Johnson had a minor health scare earlier this fall when he spent 90 minutes in the care center at Richmond International Raceway for dehydration. All was well, though. The problem was traced to a malfunctioning cooling system in his helmet.
USA Today Sports called Johnson "a fitness nut," as he is a regular competitor in triathlons and long distances runs, and said he checked in with his regular doctor immediately. No other problems to report.
He spends time most Saturdays cycling through the towns he races and has managed to get a host of others involved too. But here's something he knows shocks a lot of people: he never listens to music when he's training. Not when he's running, not when he's swimming or cycling.
"My head is full of so much all the time with all that's going on, personal and professional life, that on swim, bike or run -- no music. Just quiet. It's nice just to have no phone, no outside noise, might even hear some birds or something."
He's planning to ramp up training for the January Ironman once the race season ends. He's not quite sure to expect.
"I've never been out there for five hours doing anything like this so I don't know. It's going to be a fun process to learn, see how I respond to suffering five hours out there on the road."
He doesn't care about winning – winning, he says, will be just finishing.
"Hopefully I get to the finish line and feel well and get my little girls to run across the finish line with me."
Johnson makes his love for his family no secret.
Even after the tragic loss of his brother-in-law in a skydiving accident, Johnson spoke out about the incident and how it affected him.
His kids clearly mean everything to him. The father to two little girls says he's actually glad he doesn't have a son. "I'm kind of relieved I don't have a boy because I know the racing thing and following in dad's footsteps would be pretty…" his voice trails off.
He says he and his wife are done having kids.
Photos: Jimmie Johnson's family
"You hate to think that's the last time you're going to have those little feet and hear that little voice that the parents are the only ones that know what they're saying… but it's been wheels off for 14 months. Now it's finally calming down."
"What's the coolest thing hanging out with them? Just the connection. My youngest is now 14 months and trying to talk. She can get out 'mama' and 'dada' and a few other little words, but when you walk in the door and she makes eye contact and knows that it's you and her little run that she has right now, that 10 seconds, there isn't anything better than that."
It's the 4-year-old though who gets this elite athlete singing Taylor Swift in the carpool line.
"Our car probably has the music a little loud. One of the things that Genevieve and I do is play the music really loud because mom won't let us play it loud anywhere else. So our car rides to and from school are blasting music."
"What are you playing?"
"Well I really have little control and she is a huge Taylor Swift fan. I guess the good and the bad of it is I know a lot of Taylor Swift songs."
He is equally as passionate about giving back to other kids. He and wife Chandra started the Jimmie Johnson Foundation that focuses on helping kids, specifically through education.
"We've supported a variety of different causes but education is where it all starts. To hear that arts classes and physical fitness classes are being scaled back on all levels, it just hit my wife and I, if we could help, at least in these three areas, we'd love to help more nationally start there and make a difference. It would help a lot of kids."
He says they have big plans for three major events in 2015.
If you'd like more information, you can check out their website, www.Jimmiejohnsonfoundation.org.
