This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jimmie Johnson is driving toward his sixth Sprint Cup championship as the NASCAR season concludes Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and a Utahn is responsible for telling his story.
"I don't think people fully appreciate Jimmie Johnson — they will, in time," Brett Jewkes said. "He'll probably go down as the best of all time. … This is like witnessing Babe Ruth or Wilt Chamberlain in their day."
Let's back up here. I ordinarily don't write stories about public relations professionals, and Jewkes' job generally is to stay behind the scenes and promote the sport, not himself. But his story is worth telling, considering his remarkable climb in the business. He's at the forefront of a hugely popular sport that's building to another big finish Sunday — and he's a Utah native.
Pick a starting point, and Jewkes has traveled a long way from it. He grew up in North Logan, graduated from Sky View High School and attended BYU, where he helped in the sports information office. In the late 1990s, he worked in the athletic department of Southern Utah University, nicely progressing in his career at the time.
And barely more than a decade later, he became part of NASCAR's senior management team. Jewkes is the vice president/chief communications officer, overseeing 60 employees in the integrated marketing and communications department. That's a long way of saying he's heavily involved in an industry that has kept him very busy lately.
His summary of the 2013 season: "A big mixture of really cool moments and some challenges."
First, the good stuff. Jewkes and NASCAR President Brian France visited Newtown, Conn., meeting with families and first responders involved in the town's tragedy and unveiling the No. 26 car that Michael Waltrip would drive in the Daytona 500 to honor the 26 shooting victims. "Probably the most touching moment of my career," Jewkes said.
He's also been involved in the landmark broadcast rights contracts with NBC and Fox, securing the future of the sport. Among the difficult issues he's tackled were spectator injuries at Daytona, driver feuds and the controversy that developed in early September when Michael Waltrip Racing was sanctioned for violations "detrimental to stock car racing," having tried to manipulate the final race of the regular season at Richmond International Speedway. The penalties knocked Martin Truex Jr. out of the Chase and brought in Jeff Gordon.
During the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in February, Jewkes was in the race control booth with France and other executives when a final-lap crash sent debris in the stands, injuring spectators. "Scary, horrifying, breathtaking," Jewkes said. "You go into crisis mode. … My role is to help us go and examine what happened and identify what we we could do. It was months in the making; we studied the accident from every angle."
The resulting recommendations were designed to promote safety for everybody. That's an example of how NASCAR is unlike any other sport, with racing teams, drivers and racetracks all working independently, while collaborating.
"Our responsibility is to keep as level a playing field as possible," Jewkes said. "You find yourself in the middle of trying to find the best solutions for the most parties."
And in that setting of fairness, Johnson is trying to further distinguish himself this weekend with a sixth championship. "The level of competition he's running against is incredible," Jewkes said. Johnson's domination "would be crazy, in any sport. You've got to be so good for 36 weeks."
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