Fresh off winning his fifth straight Sprint Cup championship, Jimmie Johnson was voted the winner of this year’s Driver of the Year Award, it was announced Wednesday. The 2010 DOTY is the fourth the Hendrick Motorsports driver has been awarded in his career. He was also the winner of the prestigious award ‘Â which is voted upon by a panel of 20 leading North American broadcasters and motorsports journalists ‘Â in 2006, 2007 and 2009. The only other driver to win four DOTYs is Johnson’s HMS teammate, Jeff Gordon. Johnson got 10 votes from the 18 members of the panel who voted this year. John Force, who won the NHRA Full Thottle Drag Racing Series’ Funny Car championship in 2010, received seven votes. Force, who won his 15th Funny Car championship this year, won the 1996 DOTY. Kyle Busch, the NASCAR driver who notched victories in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Trucks series, received one vote. The Driver of the Year Award is in its 44th season. It is the longest-running award program of its kind. It’s first winner was Mario Andretti. All drivers in major American racing series are eligible to win the DOTY. Andretti and Darrell Waltrip were three-time winners of the award. Johnson, a native of El Cajon, Calif., won six Cup races in 2010 and now has 53 in his 10-year career in the series. He had 17 top-five victories in 2010. Johnson will receive a trophy and a Tissot wristwatch which will be presented at a place and time to be announced later. The DOTY program is overseen by Schmoyer, a businessman and sportsman of Sarasota, Fla.(RacinToday)(12-15-2010)
