In 2006, Johnson finally won the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship, finishing 9th in the season finale at Homestead. He beat Matt Kenseth by 56 Points in the final standings.
An excerpt of Jimmie's speech, after he won at Atlanta, the week after Hendrick Motorsports lost ten of its members in a Plane crash:
Johnson: It doesn't change anything and we don't get back our friends that we lost. But it sure makes all of us feel a little better to be able to do something like this.