Chris Johaanes

Christian Matthew Johaanes (born June 27, 1981), better known as Chris Johaanes, is an American race car driver currently competing in the TM Master Cup Series and ARLA Elite Series. He is known for his indifference to any controversy surrounding him and for his skills on short ovals.

Johaanes, the son of 2-time ARLA Elite Series champion Chuck Johaanes, has 2 championships himself in that series. He currently runs a partial ARLA schedule in addition to a full TM Master Cup Series schedule.

ARLA
He holds two championships in the ARLA Elite Series, both of which were done carrying number 64.

2008-2009
Johaanes's TM Master Cup career started with McCallister Motorsports in 2008, where he became synonymous for causing collisions and failing to qualify for a number of races in McCallister's famous #12 entry. Despite rumors that he would be dropped at the end of 2008, the team opted to keep him despite the bad press, believing that he could be champion someday. Johaanes was transferred to the #22 car for the 2009 season, carrying the yellow and red Lay's Potato Chips livery. He seemed to get faster in 2009, but he was still involved in numerous crashes. His reputation was not very good by the end of 2009, where he was jokingly called Crash Johaanes for most of the 2009 season.

2010
After two largely fruitless seasons at Garth McCallister's floundering effort, Johaanes switched to Camelot Racing, where he immediately ended his reputation as a crasher and began to show his ARLA promise. Johaanes scored his first win at Carbondale, and looked to be a serious championship contender for most of the season, but fell short as the season wore on. Regardless, he was seen as the most improved driver of the year, and earned a lot of respect from his detractors.

2011
Johaanes's 2011 campaign was even more spectacular, finishing in the top 10 in 11 of his 19 starts, including a controversial win in Japan, but his season was blighted with an embarrassing DNPQ at the Karjala Grand Prix. Despite this, Johaanes rallied to score 462 points in the 2011 season -- but missed the championship by a single point in the final race of the season to Adrien Devereux. Johaanes and Devereux had an intense rivalry on-track, but neither driver seemed to hold disdain for the other and seemed indifferent to each other off the track.

2012
Johaanes stayed with Tremwell for the 2012 season, but moved with them to the Mitchell & Sons Racing team to once again drive car #64. Johaanes seemed to struggle with the handling of the Tremwell early in the year, and caused quite a few collisions early in the season. The biggest blight in Johaanes's season was a clash with Devereux at Brands Hatch that left the Frenchman fuming. While many onlookers expected punches to be thrown, the drivers refused to stoop to that level. Devereux only said that they had been "talking with loud voices", whereas Johaanes did not comment much on the contact.

After the Devereux collision, Johaanes's season has been inconsistent, with reports that the management of Mitchell & Sons were looking for more big results from Johaanes. Johaanes is considered one of the top free agents for 2013, and it isn't known if he will stay at Mitchell & Sons or go to another team. If he doesn't pick up a drive in the TM Master Cup Series, he intends to return to the ARLA Elite Series.

Trivia

 * With the exception of 2012, Johaanes's TM Master Cup series number has changed after every season he has participated in.


 * He is one of two drivers to have carried two of the three sponsors that make up the 73 Rule as primary sponsors, having carried Kleffer Media and The Shafer Group. Scott Steudler is the other. Mike Whitmore carried all three at once when he drove the Name 73 car, but none of those were primary sponsors, so he isn't really counted.


 * He is the J in M&J Racing.