Johnson shows up to honor Herzog Racing

“The Herzogs were everything for me in my professional career,” Johnson said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “It truly was a family environment, one that I really grew into through my late teens and 20s. So when I think of my relationship with Stan and Randy (Herzog), they were definitely father figures to me.

“I moved out of Southern California and away from my father and the influence of my parents and the Herzogs brought me into their families and guided me through many lessons in business and just being a man.”

The Herzog display in the museum is just the beginning, according to museum curator Tim Matthews.

“This opens up a tremendous opportunity for us to add some wonderful collections like the Herzog Motorsports collection,” he said “We kind of call this Herzog Phase One. It’s really spectacular now, but it will be even better in the coming years. We will create a Pikes Peak display that really goes vertical. To have an off-road display and Pikes Peak is something we just couldn’t have done without the Herzog’s help.

The parallels between the Herzog family and the Smith family, which started Speedway Motors and the American Museum of Speed, are significant. Bill Herzog started a contracting company, along with sons Stanley and Randy, which branched out into racing. “Speedy” Bill and Joyce Smith were joined in the business by sons Carson, Clay, Craig and Jason.

The celebration of the addition to the museum was tempered by the announcement of Jason Smith’s death from cancer on Saturday. Again, both families are reeling from loss, as Randy passed away six weeks ago.

“Randy’s excitement for this and his commitment to it were incredible,” said Johnson. “I know Randy’s looking down and smiling on us, but we all have a heavy heart and wish he was here to experience this.”

The common ties between the Smith and Herzog families made the project an easy one, according to Brad Lager, chairman and CEO of Herzog Co.

“I think we’re both wired in a way that while we have grown to a larger magnitude, we are really small companies at heart and talk a lot about family and culture,” Lager said. “They believe like we believe and it is one of the reasons that we had the connection with Clay and the Smith family. Those fundamental beliefs and behaviors and the outcomes that we all drive to have exceptionally elite results, that’s a shared principle, a shared vision, a shared outcome.”

Lager said the display includes memorabilia that has been accumulated over decades.

“We have a storage building we built in St. Joe and we actually call it The Toy Box. It’s where all our neat toys are and now many are here,” he said. “Our partnership with the Smith family is about us memorializing that part of our journey.”

Johnson said Chevrolet and the Herzogs were the two-pronged start of his career. After learning the ropes through various phases of racing with the Herzogs, Johnson won seven NASCAR Cup titles, five of them consecutive, driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He now competes on a part-time schedule for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar series and for Ally Cadillac Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“I was fortunate to have two very important pieces along the way. The first one was Chevrolet. They spotted me when I was 15 years old, racing in a little buggy in a stadium race,” Johnson said. “They brought me into the family and groomed me to race their off-road trucks and after a few years of racing, their stadium and off-road trucks. That’s when I was able to introduce Chevrolet to the Herzogs. It was beyond me that the Herzogs didn’t have manufacturers support, so I helped put those two together.”

Lorrie Smiley, executive administrative assistant at Herzog, said some of the cars in the exhibit at the museum are on loan from Johnson, who had them in his museum in North Carolina.

“I’ve been with Herzog for 43 years, 44 next month, so I grew up at Herzog, kind of like Jimmie did,” Smiley said. “When Jimmie first came with us, I was doing travel reservations and he was too young to rent a car, so we had to get special waivers for him to rent a car.”

Johnson said the demands were great diving for the Herzogs and later on the NASCAR circuit.

“At the height of my Cup career with 38 races and testing, there were a lot of demands. In addition to those raced weekends, I had 130 appearances that I needed to make across the country,” he said. “Family is everything and the support that I have from my wife and children allowed me to chase my dream and it’s really kind of the core of why I’ve been doing to for so many years.”