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HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson has sported a helmet this year that includes the images of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Painted between the Hall of Famers, a florescent green 7 shines from the back.Johnson didnt tell crew chief Chad Knaus about the helmet. He probably knew better. Knaus doesnt exactly endorse the looking-beyond-the-immediate-race strategy.But Johnson needed something to focus on as he attempted to go from a six-time Sprint Cup champion to a record-tying seven-time titlist. Only Petty and Earnhardt have accomplished such a feat.So after two seasons in which he failed to advance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup to the championship round, Johnson started racing with a helmet as a reminder of what he could accomplish.The fact I have the 7 and Dale and Richards faces on my helmet is, one, respect to them and, two, just to put a target on something, Johnson said. Thats the goal. Thats what I want to do. ... Its not that Im trying to get to something so I can stop, that Im getting to the peak of whatever it is and Im good.Its more of a target that I just want to have something to focus on, obsess on.That obsession, which started three years ago after Johnson won his sixth title, has turned into an opportunity Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. If Johnson can finish better than Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano in the Ford 400, Johnson will earn that seventh Sprint Cup title.He wants that [seventh] so badly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on one of his podcasts. Weve had a few conversations about that, and I know how much that would mean to him. ... I believe he does deserve it.After everything he has put into the sport, I think it would be good for him to go ahead and win that championship.When Earnhardts father won his seventh title, the fans at Rockingham Speedway either cheered for their hero or against the driver who would tie their hero. Johnson could expect the same 22 years later.He has legions of fans, and the Earnhardt endorsement certainly wont hurt him. But many NASCAR fans wouldnt want him to tie a record set when the championship was awarded by points throughout the entire season instead of a reset with 10 races remaining.Its one of those deals where I did my thing in my time, Earnhardt done his thing in his time, Petty said. Jimmie is doing his thing in his time. So we never competed with each other.We won ours against who we was playing against. Earnhardt won his and Jimmie is winning against the people that hes running against, so theres no way to compare it. Its just a number.Johnson has the incredible respect of Petty because he won five consecutive Cup titles in a system in which a driver had to run great over that 10-race stretch. He once had to average a fifth-place finish just to capture the crown over four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon.Thats the most underrated record in all of sports, what Jimmie did there, said Richards son, Kyle. But you know what? [My dad] looked at it and said Jimmie may be just pausing at seven. He may go to eight.Heres a guy that has that potential to go on. Were talking seven, but heres a guy thats done it so fast that he can go to eight.The 41-year-old Johnson never dreamed of getting to one. A former motorcycle and off-road racer, Johnson first came to NASCAR just hoping to win a Cup race.Winning seven? It would be insane, Johnson said. I dreamed of winning a race and then to have 79 [wins] and the championships, Ive had to move the bar up over the years because weve just had great fortune and great success.Im not a stat guy and chase that. Im aware of it. Im aware of what it would mean. And, damn, I want to do it.Johnson didnt realize the strain, the pressure of his consecutive championship streak until it got snapped in 2011 and he felt so much more relaxed going into Homestead. He failed to advance to the championship round in the first two years of the elimination format after his 2013 title.That has led his crew, in rah-rah moments, to say that NASCAR tried to Jimmie-proof the Chase with this format, where four drivers get eliminated every three races and its a best-finish-take-all day at Homestead -- a track where Johnson averages a 14th-place finish. Now the crew wants Johnson to prove he can win in any format.Im trying to distinguish if its championship pressure or if its really about seven, Johnson said. The last couple of years when the doors closed for whatever reason, theres a ton of pain and agony that goes with it.I dont think its necessarily about seven. Its about missing the chance of winning one. Especially the last one. I felt like I could have been a player [last year].This year, Johnson didnt look anything like a player over the summer. But his Hendrick Motorsports team has rebounded since August, and he has won two races in the Chase. His win at Martinsville gave him three weeks to focus on Homestead.It also allowed him to relax. He can go on 7-mile runs and think about the Homestead race. He also held an event for his foundation, in which he awarded grants to schools and the kids made toy race cars.Johnson has an obvious tie to wanting to help public schools -- his mother drove a school bus for a living. His father operated a backhoe. Ironically, the driver whose grass roots most closely resemble Dale Earnhardt Sr.s has fought a perception of a slick Californian who had money to get his ride. While Earnhardt used an intimidating persona to earn his stripes, Johnson opted for a professional, squeaky-clean image to make sure that sponsors wanted to support a driver with limited stock-car experience.I fought that my whole career. ... People just thought I had the silver spoon lifestyle, Johnson said. That would have made things a heck of a lot easier if that was the case.But it wasnt. People thought Junior Johnson was my father [for] the longest time.Laugh all you want, but the funny thing is that among the four finalists, Johnson might be the easiest to go have a drink with or celebrate a title. His championship celebration stories are ones that would make any college kid proud and he once proclaimed his liver hated him during one of his championship media tours.While he might not have the due respect of fans across the board, he does have it in the garage -- every garage he has competed in throughout his career. Not only does team owner Rick Hendrick bid at items during the Jimmie Johnson Foundation annual dinner and golf tournament, his former Xfinity Series owner, Stan Herzog, does too. As do his former racing buddies Jeremy McGrath, jet ski racer Victor Sheldon and off-road Hall of Famer Walker Evans.Hes a class guy, rival team owner Roger Penske said. He represents the industry, the garage area, the driver area in such a great way. To me, if he gets it, he sure deserves it.If he gets it, he can retire the helmet. And then torment his crew chief a little by having a helmet designed for a run at the eighth title.I saw it, and I was like, Oh boy, Knaus said about his first spotting the helmet on top of the car. Look, everybody gets motivated differently. Everybody has different things in their mind that gets them going in the morning or continues to motivate them throughout the course of the day.Jimmie, I think its not only a motivation for him to have that stuff on his helmet. I also think its a show of respect to the people that he is chasing. I think its a pretty cool thing.In addition to the tributes to the seven-time champions, what makes the helmet cool is the 7, painted in a way in tribute to the memory of Ricky Hendrick, Ricks son who was among 10 killed in a Hendrick Motorpsorts plane crash in 2004. Ricky used to write his 7 in that style.Johnson didnt design the helmet. He told artist Jason Beam what he wanted -- images of Petty and Earnhardt as well as some way to pay tribute to Ricky -- and Beam did the rest. He found some old-school photos of Earnhardt and Petty both in cowboy hats that he felt gave it a sweet old-school feel and would work best on the helmet. He added Chasing to the 7 after getting a text from Johnson talking about chasing the seventh title.Beam designs helmets for several drivers -- including two of the four finalists, with Busch and Johnson. He did one for Brendan Gaughan that had the family logo and a championship trophy prior to the 2003 truck championship race, which Gaughan ended up not winning.Im really superstitious, Beam said. I was like, [Gaughan] youre jinxing yourself. ... Ive watched this past couple of weeks this whole helmet hype, this whole seven hype and Im thinking I hope its not going to jinx him out of winning.For Beam, he had no problem trying to make an iconic helmet for Johnson.Ive done Jimmies helmets for 16 years, Beam said. Im really comfortable with what I do. Jimmie has always been very supportive. Jimmie doesnt have a lot of input.He has really trusted my judgment. I nailed what his style is years ago.Maybe thats why Johnson has had such a successful run. He doesnt wig out about the small details, putting his faith in the people with talent. All that Knaus asks is that the helmet remains lightweight.Beam has more Johnson helmets to paint. While winning a seventh would be cool, Johnson has no thoughts of winning the title Sunday and then calling it a career. He would go for eight. Or nine. Or possibly even more, although many dont see him racing much past 45.Youll still have to deal with me -- theres no mic drop, Johnson said. My wife might like that, but Im not there yet. She doesnt want to deal with me -- I still have too much racing in my system to get out.Even Petty would think of it as cool if Johnson ties his record. But Petty has been around racing long enough to know that racing is unpredictable at best.So hell watch the race Sunday and see if he welcomes another driver into the seven-title club.Being that I dont have a dog in the hunt, I dont care [if he does it], Petty said. And if he does, Im going to say, Congratulations.If he dont, Try again next year. Cheap Jerseys . Hargreaves began his career in 2008 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has played with the Edmonton Eskimos and last season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Wholesale Basketball Jerseys . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. http://www.nbajerseyschinawholesale.com/ . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Wholesale NBA Jerseys . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. The moment will be unmistakably Brazilian should Marta find herself in Rio de Janeiros Maracana Stadium for the Olympic womens soccer final. The iconic stadium, familiar yellow and green jerseys atop blue shorts, and the swells of the national anthem will make the 11 women on the field the representatives of 200 million people.But none of those trappings were present when Christen Press first played alongside Marta in Swedens top professional league. It was Stockholm, not Rio. The jerseys bore the names of sponsors, not a national crest.Still, the American player saw something that told its own story of identity.She really does embody how I view Brazilian soccer, Press said. She takes the emotion and she brings it to the next level. Ive seen her cry on the field. Ive seen her scream on the field. Ive seen her so jubilant on the field. And just swing from the range of emotions that a player can have -- and that we all feel, but that I think a lot of us, especially in [the United States], try to bury them under a stone-cold assassin-type of mindset. She did the opposite.She just embraced how much she loved the game and how much it could hurt her. And she used that.How much she loved it and how much it could hurt her. Two sides of a coin for womens soccer in Brazil.Just as Marta is the product of a culture that both breathes soccer but also shunned and even outlawed women playing it for nearly four decades. A culture that still struggles to reconcile that contradiction.Just as a gold medal would be the capstone on one of the most culturally influential careers in modern sports but also its own reminder of the limits of any one individuals ability to effect change.Five times officially honored as FIFAs player of the year, Marta is perennially in the discussion as the worlds best female player. For others, the case is made why that label is merited. For Marta, the case must instead be made why it isnt. Best in the world has been her default setting for at least a decade.Missing from the résumé is a major tournament title, Brazil settling for silver medals in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and the runner-up medal in the 2007 World Cup. These Olympics might not be her last chance to win. She will be 33 years old when the next World Cup takes place in France, essentially the same age as the most recent winners of that events Golden Ball: Carli Lloyd in 2015 and Japans Homare Sawa in 2011.Unless Marta chooses to make it so, this need not be a farewell.But there will never be an opportunity for a statement as powerful one made on home soil.Well-trod as it is by now, some of the history bears repeating. For much of the 20th century there was a law in Brazil, Decree Law 3199 passed under the presidency of Getulio Vargas in 1941, that prohibited females from playing soccer.When Pele played his first childhood game, it was illegal for girls to do the same. When he scored two goals against host Sweden to win the World Cup in 1958, the same was true. As it still was when he played his final game in 1977 in front of a full house at Giants Stadium.Not until 1979, just seven years before Marta was born, was the law officially repealed.The prohibition was no more complete than any prohibition on human behavior. There were still girls who played, of course. But the chilling effect was unmistakable, two distinct Brazilian experiences created.Like so many Brazilian boys, Pedro Rita grew up with the sport, anything even vaguely round enough to serve as a ball sufficient. He played professionally in Brazil and moved to the United States, where he is now the director of soccer development for a training facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and soccer director for the Michigan Tigers FC youth program. He isnt Pele or Neymar, but he is one version of the Brazilian soccer dream. He even wrote a childrens book inspired by his own life, about a boy who finds purpose through soccer.For so long in Brazil, it could only be a boys story.I never saw a girl playing soccer when I was a kid or even after I was a pro player, Rita said. It was just a sport girls wouldnt usually play.That, at least, is changing. It has changed even from Martas childhood two decades ago.I think that today we may not have the same amount of girls playing soccer than you see playing in the United States, for example, Marta said through translation when she played two games in the United States last fall. But it is a somewhat greater amount in Brazil than back when I started to play. And also, the sense of prejudice, discrimination was much greater back then, and although today we havent gotten rid of it 100 percent, a larger percentage of the Brazilian population accepts womens soccer in a more positive way.What she does not say is that she isnt just the beneficiary of that change but its catalyst.American Caitlin Fisher first went to Brazil in 2004 to play for Santos F.C., one of the legendary teams in Brazilian soccer. What she found was a second-class experience. Womens players walked miles to practice, washed their own uniforms and couldnt eat in the main dining room. She also saw passion that allowed teammmates to put up with those conditions.dddddddddddd After returning again to Santos in 2010, she and teammates formed the Guerreiras Project, which states as its mission to use futebol as a tool to promote gender justice and create possibilities for more equitable and sustainable ways of being.It is a grassroots effort to do workshops with children but also parents, train ambassadors within the sport, raise visibility and confront stereotypes. Just how grassroots is evident when Fisher notes that even Aline Pellegrino, a co-director of the project and a former longtime captain of the womens national team, can walk unrecognized in many cities. That stands in stark contrast to Alines former national team teammate, recognizable anywhere.While Marta had to go overseas to find a professional environment commensurate with her skills, a generation of Brazilian girls found it easier to play at home because of her.Marta has had a huge role in this as a role model for young girls and boys as this star icon in womens football, Fisher said. But being the best female player in the world five times over, that she in many ways has transcended gender, has represented Brazil, has been this phenomenal star, that it doesnt matter if shes a man or woman. ... Everyone knows her. Its incredible.I think that has opened a lot of doors for parents and families and others, letting young girls play and encouraging them to do so.But if it is easier for girls to want to be like Marta, it is hardly any easier to actually be her.Where it is easy to track the progression of programs of counties like France or Japan, once international afterthoughts but now powers, Brazil is a puzzle. Its successes, the deep Olympic and World Cup runs, seemingly meandered into dead ends. The team that fizzled in the World Cup a year ago looked more like one trying to hang on to past credibility more than improve on it. Brazil in many ways remains what it was when it beat the United States for the first time in 1997, a group with the talent to do just that but without the infrastructure to do it consistently.Only the prospect of the Olympics brought about at least short-term commitment to change that, Brazilian players training for the upcoming tournament in rare full-time residency settings.We had great moments with the national team, yet we didnt have enough support to go to competitions and get to the point where we could fight for titles, Marta said. Despite those difficulties, we made it. Now we have a better situation on the national team, yet I hope its not too late, because in a certain way we missed out on some of the best moments in the sport, like the [Olympic gold-medal] game in 2004, then 2007, 2008.But I believe theres still time for us to change that, even though we may not have all the recognition we should have.Between the thirst for gold medals familiar to an Olympic host and Brazils specific passion for soccer success in the wake of recent disappointments from the mens team, the Olympics offer an opportunity to claim recognition. As long as the women win, of course.As Marta put it: To demand results is an inherent part of Brazilians.But would results demand permanent change? Or would the same fate befall the womens program that befalls so many former Olympic venues, left to melt away once the world leaves?I do not believe anything will change for the womens side in Brazil, Rita said of a potential gold medal. Brazil soccer is very corrupted, and its being controlled by two or three people that are on top. No matter what happens with Brazil womens team, it will not give them more money to work. Brazil offers nothing for our players. Look at where the Brazilian players are playing and why. The system is dirty and sick, and I do not believe it will change soon.Change from the grassroots perspective might be more inevitable but its pace remains halting.Fishers time involved with womens football in Brazil parallels Martas international career (the latter made her major tournament debut at 17 years old in the 2003 World Cup). Even as she has seen opportunity and access grow, other forms of resistance remain. Gender stereotypes remain entrenched, for example, the womens game in mainstream settings carefully packaged to conform to traditional ideas of femininity (though that is hardly exclusive to Brazil).Theres been encouraging waves and moments and discouraging waves and moments, Fisher said. And its hard to say what is two steps forward and one step back, what is one step sideways. I think there is a lot of that. Its hard to figure out what is progress.All of which makes it hard to figure out exactly what it would mean even if the most visible ambassador of the womens game in Brazil achieved her greatest moment in the Maracana.It is not as easy as imagining a Brazilian version of the 1999 World Cup in the Rose Bowl.I prefer not to think of [the pressure to win] and make things happen, Marta said. And if we get a good result, itll be great for everyone. ' ' '