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Nothing gets in the way of Patricia<br />
Johnson and her NASCAR Sundays.<br />
Our Fans<br />
LEFT: ROY RITCHIE; THIS PAGE: TOD MARTENS<br />
Do Not Disturb<br />
On Sundays, Patricia Johnson is off to the races<br />
You can call Patricia Johnson<br />
an extreme fan. You can call<br />
her a Kasey Kahne fanatic.<br />
Just don’t call her on a Sunday afternoon.<br />
On Sundays from February<br />
to November, when men across<br />
America are strategically<br />
slouched in<br />
front of TVs — hoping<br />
for nothing but<br />
engines that growl —<br />
they’re not alone.<br />
Johnson is right<br />
there with the rest of<br />
NASCAR’s fan base.<br />
“On Sundays, I am<br />
a couch potato,” says<br />
Johnson, a nurse at<br />
Daimler<strong>Chrysler</strong>’s<br />
“When I<br />
heard the<br />
engines<br />
roaring …<br />
I was just<br />
thrilled.”<br />
Indianapolis Foundry for the past 10<br />
years, and office and clerical unit chair<br />
for <strong>UAW</strong> Local 361. “On Sundays, I<br />
don’t shop, I don’t go to the movies, I<br />
don’t even cook — I make Sunday dinner<br />
on Saturday night so I don’t have<br />
to be disturbed the<br />
next day. Everyone,<br />
including my 13-yearold<br />
son, knows not to<br />
bother me.”<br />
Johnson says she<br />
caught the NASCAR<br />
bug naturally. “I grew<br />
up watching and enjoying<br />
a lot of different<br />
sports,” she says.<br />
“I never thought I’d<br />
be into NASCAR, but<br />
that was only because I hadn’t given<br />
it a try.”<br />
Her introduction to the races came<br />
in 2002. “My boyfriend asked me to<br />
go to Charlotte. I didn’t think much<br />
about it, but when I got there and<br />
heard the engines roaring and saw the<br />
speed on the track, I was just thrilled.”<br />
As for the claims that NASCAR<br />
plays to a traditionally white male<br />
fan base, Johnson says, “Sure, I’ve<br />
seen the Confederate flags. That’s<br />
really not an issue for me with<br />
NASCAR. The only flag I care about<br />
is the American flag.”<br />
Over the past three years, Johnson<br />
has returned to Charlotte twice and<br />
put Bristol and Las Vegas on her list<br />
of NASCAR venues visited. Her wish<br />
list includes Talladega and Daytona.<br />
But Johnson’s primary race venue<br />
is the den in her Indianapolis home,<br />
featuring her very own NASCAR<br />
Wall. “I have everything from an<br />
Evernham <strong>Racing</strong> T-shirt — signed<br />
by Ray Evernham, Kasey Kahne and<br />
Jeremy Mayfield — to a Tomorrow<br />
magazine signed by Bill Elliott, to a<br />
USA Today front page story on Kasey<br />
Kahne, signed by Kasey himself,”<br />
says Johnson. By the way, she has<br />
officially transferred her “favorite<br />
driver” designation from semi-retired<br />
Elliott to 2004 Raybestos Rookie of<br />
the Year Kahne.<br />
“I have a great time being a fan,”<br />
muses Johnson. “I get all my work<br />
done; then on Sunday it’s off to the<br />
races — with Kasey Kahne’s sweet<br />
blue eyes smiling over my shoulder.” ■<br />
— S.C. Biemesderfer<br />
TOMORROW SPECIAL RACING <strong>2005</strong> 9
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