Domination: Jimmie Johnson wins AP Male Athlete of 2009

Jimmie Johnson has already outrun everyone that NASCAR can throw at him, and now he's working his way through the rest of the sports section. Johnson outran Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and Albert Pujols to win the 2009 AP Male Athlete of the Year. 

This one's huge, both for Johnson and for NASCAR as a whole. The AP has never recognized a driver for this award; Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon didn't win it, nor did Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt or anybody else before Johnson. (And before anybody trots out the hack "drivers aren't athletes" award, the AP actually has an open mind about sports, having honored jockeys, gymnasts and figure skaters in the past.) The recognition that motorsports require skill, coordination, mental acuity and willpower equal to any athlete is long overdue.

A month back in this space, we put forth the idea that Johnson was the top athlete working in his sport right now -- farther ahead of the field than Bryant, Brady and the rest. Seems the AP agrees; the point isn't whether Johnson could beat Kobe in one-on-one (he couldn't) or whether Tom Brady could qualify for the Daytona 500 (he could, but then Brady can do anything). The idea, then as now, is that within the rules of the sport as they exist now, Johnson is more dominant, on a more consistent basis, than almost anybody. (Tiger Woods might have an argument for that, as would Valentino Rossi, but that's for another discussion.)

And, to dip farther into our archives, we ran a post two months back about how people should just stop whining about Johnson's domination and appreciate the history that's unfolding here. Still applies to NASCAR, and now it applies to everybody else, too.

So, congratulations to Johnson on yet another honor from his recordbreaking season. Going to be very tough to top 2009 for the #48 car, but if anybody could do it ...