So I've noticed there's a lot of talk about Jimmie Johnson, both good and bad, for being the pretty boy of NASCAR. He's well-dressed, well-mannered and reserved, with a gorgeous wife by his side - very much living the life of a Ken doll.

Negatively, he gets put to task for being too perfect and it seems that he draws a lot of ire because of his looks and persona.

If the defending Sprint Cup champion represents the extreme right of metro-sexualism, always polished, primped and pretty, newcomer Dario Franchitti is bringing some yang to Johnson's yin.

Franchitti is raw and rugged in both looks and persona, seemingly the opposite of Johnson in that light, but similar to him in other respects.

A champion in his own right (IndyCar, 2007), Franchitti has a reputation of being one of IndyCar's most intense personalities. En route to the championship last year, he was involved in not one, but two spectacular crashes, which occurred consecutively during the summer, and which both saw him get airborne and walk away unscathed.

The licensed helicopter pilot, who's Scottish by birth, is also married to a coveted woman, movie star Ashley Judd.

Recently, he showed NASCAR his true colors as he shared a story about how he stopped a man from trespassing on he and his wife's property.

"I was just sitting in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal in my boxer shorts," Franchitti said. "I looked up and some guy is standing in front of me. He just walked in the house.

"I really don't think I was the one he was looking for, but the guy quickly turned around and ran out of the house. He got in his car and sped off. So what did I do? I got in my car and chased him.

"The police caught up [to] the guy before I did. And apparently some people in the Nashville media also heard on the [police scanner] about it, so they were there, too. They came up to talk to me about the time I realized I was still in my boxer shorts. I had to stay in the car the whole time."

I don't think much would be shocking if it involved the wild boy Franchitti, while even the simplest things outside the ordinary are shocking for Johnson.

Like when he broke his arm in the off-season, Dec. 2006. Johnson was horsing around on a golf cart when he fell off and broke it. The official report that first came out tried to play it off as an unfortunate accident that happened when Johnson fell out of the cart on a sharp turn.

The truth came out a day later that he was in fact goofing off when it happened. Ack, Jimmie Johnson goofing off?!?! Is it possible? His PR machine didn't want it to seem that way.

Maybe he can take a cue from Franchitti and realize that it's ok to be colorful and a little bit wild. Let his hair down, wear a shirt that has a wrinkle, stop trimming and waxing his eyebrows, bring some personality.