Jimmie Johnson: Chase turned out right with Harvick's win

CHARLOTTE — Kevin Harvick winning the Sprint Cup Series championship "was the right thing," six-time champ Jimmie Johnson said Thursday.

Johnson, at a Charlotte high school to announce educational grants through his Jimmie Johnson Foundation, said Harvick's victory made sense when considering the dominant cars of the season.

But had things turned out one position differently and Ryan Newman won the championship instead, Johnson would have had some concerns.

"Ryan had every right in the world to be the champion — the rules were laid out that way — but if the 31 (Newman's team) wins the championship, I think that would have been tough to swallow for the sport," Johnson said, a reference to Newman's lack of season-long speed. "That's not taking anything away from (team owner Richard) Childress or Ryan — they had an awesome year and collected a ton of points. (But) there's some danger for the sport with this format."

Johnson reiterated he was letting fan opinion and viewership numbers steer his thinking on the issue, because he understands the need to grow the sport.

His suggestion for how to generate more viewers, though, is something entirely different: An overhaul of the way race weekends and races are conducted.

"A format change would make a lot of sense," he said. "Maybe we qualify on Saturday and that's televised, and then we run some heat races and a feature on Sunday. That fits in a four-hour time window. It sticks to our roots, sticks to what we've always had and done, gives some natural pauses for the show for the social element at the track.

"I think there'd be some good momentum with that personally. We'd still get 500 miles between practice, qualifying and all of that. I think that would be a pretty entertaining format."

Johnson's comments came at the annual unveiling of his foundation's grants to schools in the Charlotte area. The Jimmie Johnson Foundation also awards grants to schools in his native San Diego area and Muskogee, Okla. where wife Chandra grew up.

This year's grants totaled more than $550,000. Nearly $3.7 million has been contributed since 2009, including more than $1 million to the Charlotte area, where the Johnson family resides.

Requests for grants come in from many schools for a variety of purposes, and the Johnsons — along with their foundation's board of directors — sat at their dining room table recently to sort through them and find the best ones.

Grants this year included funding for an urban garden, an athletic track, Lego robots and new laptops. Four-year-old daughter Evie skipped a day of pre-school to tag along with her parents for the announcement of the grants.

"We whittle them down and vote on the ones we like best, but there are always ones that stick out," Chandra said. "We're just happy we're able to do this. These kids matter. They're important. And we want to help invest in their future."

Jimmie prefers technology-based projects while Chandra tends to favor funding for projects concerning the arts, the couple said.

"As a boy in school, I tuned out so quick and so easy, especially in English or some of those other classes," he said. "If I had something captivating, like a computer or building a robot, it would have kept me much more tuned in during school."

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PHOTOS: Jimmie Johnson through the years