The Associated Press announced on Monday that Jimmie Johnson was its Athlete of the Year.
"We'd been wondering the last few years, 'When is this going to hit?'" Johnson said. "It seems like th answer is now. Thye wave is finally peaking, and we don't know where it's going to take us."
Johnson received the honor following a 2009 season that saw him make seven trips to victory lane, finish in the top-five 16 times, and post 24 top-10s on his way to his fourth-consecutive Sprint Cup.
The fourth-straight title takes it out of our sport and makes it a point of discussion, like, 'Wow, a race car driver won this thing," Johnson said.
He becomes the first race car driver to ever be the AP's Athlete of the Year in the 78-year history of the award.
Johnson received 42 votes from a panel consisting of AP-member newspapers. The second-most vote getter was tennis ace Roger Federer with 30 votes. Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt came in third with 29 votes.
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