From motorcycles at four to the Hendrick No. 48, the five straight NASCAR championships from 2006 to 2010 and a seventh title at Homestead.
Johnson, born in El Cajon in 1975, took seven NASCAR Cup titles, five in a row from 2006 to 2010. He drove for Hendrick Motorsports from 2002 to 2020, won 83 Cup races by 2017, and later raced in IndyCar and part-time in NASCAR.
Jimmie Johnson is an American stock car driver and team owner who won seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, five of them in a row from 2006 to 2010. That total ties him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most in the sport's history. He spent his entire full-time Cup career at Hendrick Motorsports, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers NASCAR has produced.
His rise was unusual. He began in motorcycles and off-road racing, moved to oval tracks through modest teams, and then became the centre of one of the most dominant championship runs in American motorsport.
Who is Jimmie Johnson and where did his racing begin?
Johnson was born on 17 September 1975 in El Cajon, California. He started racing motorcycles in 1980 at the age of four. Three years later he won the 60cc class championship, despite injuring his knee in the process.
After graduating from Granite Hills High School, he moved into off-road racing. He competed in the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, the Short-course Off-road Drivers Association and SCORE International, and he was named rookie of the year in each of those series.
Seven championships, five of them in a row, and a career that began on motorcycles at the age of four.
How did off-road racing shape Johnson's career?
Off-road racing gave Johnson a grounding in competition across very different conditions. He drove trucks and buggies in stadium and desert events, and he went on to win races in SODA's Class 8, a division of two-wheel-drive Trophy Trucks that produce about 800 horsepower.
In 1997 he won both races at Lake Geneva Raceway's first weekend in May. He finished third in the SODA championship that year, behind Scott Taylor and Brendan Gaughan. Across the MTEG, SODA and SCORE series he accumulated more than 25 wins and six championships.
His off-road Trophy Truck was named Butch, and its paint scheme was later used as a throwback for a Cup car in the 2019 Southern 500.
The 1995 Baja 1000 showed both his speed and his limits. After leading for more than 900 miles, he fell asleep behind the wheel and drifted off course, and his Trophy Truck was wrecked.
How did Johnson move into stock car racing?
In 1998 Johnson and his team, Herzog Motorsports, made the switch to stock cars. He competed in late model touring cars with the American Speed Association and won its Pat Schauer Memorial Rookie title that year. A year later he had two wins and finished third in the standings.
Johnson made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at the 1998 Indianapolis Raceway Park event, where he finished 25th. He moved to a full-time Busch schedule in 2000, and that season he finished tenth in the points. A heavy accident at Watkins Glen that year, when his brakes failed, left him unhurt, and he celebrated by raising his fists.
Why did the move to Hendrick Motorsports matter?
Johnson's talent was noticed by Jeff Gordon, a Hendrick driver. The connection came during the 2000 Busch season, when Johnson approached Gordon after Herzog faced shutdown over sponsorship problems, and Gordon helped bring him into the Winston Cup Series. He made his series debut with Hendrick in 2001, driving a four-race schedule, and in 2002 he moved to the team full-time in the No. 48 Lowe's-sponsored Chevrolet.
His first full season was a strong one. He took a Daytona 500 pole, becoming only the third rookie to do so, and he scored his first career win at Auto Club Speedway in his 13th start. He also swept both races at Dover, which made him the first rookie to lead the points and win twice at one track in a season. He finished fifth in the final standings.
| Season | Wins | Final points position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 3 | Fifth | Rookie season with Hendrick; Ryan Newman took rookie honours |
| 2003 | 3 | Second | 90 points behind Matt Kenseth |
| 2004 | 8 | Second | Season marked by the Hendrick family plane crash |
| 2005 | - | Fifth | Coca-Cola 600 win and four straight wins at Lowe's Motor Speedway |
| 2006 | - | Champion | Daytona 500 win and first title |
| 2007 | 10 | Champion | Second consecutive title |
| 2008 | 7 | Champion | Third consecutive title |
| 2009 | 7 | Champion | Fourth consecutive title |
| 2010 | 6 | Champion | Fifth consecutive title |
The 2003 season produced three wins, including the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and both New Hampshire races, and he finished second in the standings, 90 points behind Matt Kenseth. In 2004 he finished second again, with eight wins, and his season was overshadowed by the death of Ricky Hendrick, the son of team owner Rick Hendrick, along with team members in a plane crash en route to a race that October.
What made the 2006 to 2010 championship run so exceptional?
Johnson won his first championship in 2006, when he also won the Daytona 500 and was named Driver of the Year. He was also the only modern era driver with at least three wins in each of his first five seasons. He went from eighth in the points to the title in the Chase, after several difficult early races in the playoff format, and that comeback was a sign of the team's resilience.
The streak that followed was unprecedented. In 2007 he won ten races and his second title, and he added further Driver of the Year honours in 2007 and 2008. In 2008 he became the second driver to win three consecutive Cup championships, after Cale Yarborough. In 2009 he won his fourth straight title, and in 2010 his fifth.
Johnson also became the first racing driver named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, which he received in 2009. Under the guidance of trainer John Sitaras, he reduced his body fat from 20% to 8% in two years, a change that improved his strength and stamina.
How did Johnson win his sixth and seventh titles?
Johnson's form dipped in 2011, when he finished sixth in the points despite winning two races, including the Talladega race that was decided by 0.002 seconds. He finished third in 2012 and then won his sixth championship in 2013. That year he won the second of his two Daytona 500s, ending a run of six years in which he never finished better than 27th in the race.
He led 346 of 500 laps at Martinsville in 2013 and took the points lead during the regular season. He held it for most of the rest of the year before winning the Chase, and the sixth title set up a larger achievement three years later.
In 2016 Johnson won his seventh championship at Homestead, after passing Kyle Larson on the final restart. That title drew him level with the two legends of the sport, Petty and Earnhardt, at seven. The race finish came after a late crash involving Carl Edwards, which left Johnson in position to win.
What happened in Johnson's final full-time seasons?
The 2017 season began with a slow start, but Johnson won the Food City 500 at Bristol and the O'Reilly 500 in Texas. His win at Dover that June was his 83rd career victory, and it proved to be his final Cup Series win.
That same year at Pocono his brakes failed at over 200 mph, and his car hit the outside SAFER barrier. He was uninjured, but the season ended with a tenth-place finish in the standings, his fifteenth top-ten in the points.
In 2018 he was winless for the first time in his career, and he finished 14th in the standings. Lowe's ended its sponsorship of the No. 48 after that season, and Ally Financial took over as primary sponsor in 2019. Johnson and his long-time crew chief Chad Knaus parted ways at the end of 2018, ending a 17-year partnership that was the longest in NASCAR history.
The 2019 season opened with a win in the Advance Auto Parts Clash, his first race with new sponsor Ally Financial. The season was otherwise disappointing, and Johnson finished 18th in the points. He missed the playoffs for the first time in his NASCAR career after a crash at the Brickyard 400 that year. In November 2019 he announced that 2020 would be his last full-time season, although he did not rule out part-time racing afterward.
The 2020 season included a pre-race ceremony at Talladega in support of Bubba Wallace, after a false report of a noose in Wallace's garage. It also included a 100th race in a row without a win at Darlington, and a positive coronavirus test that forced him to miss the Brickyard 400 in July. He was cleared to return later that month, and he finished the season with ten top-ten finishes, the lowest total of his career.
What are the key numbers of Johnson's career?
As of 2017 Johnson had recorded 83 career race wins, 222 top-five finishes, 341 top-ten finishes and 35 pole positions in the Cup Series. He had also won seven championships, five of them consecutive, and two Daytona 500s, in 2006 and 2013.
He also won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race a record four times, and in 2010 he won Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream, his first win on a dirt oval.
What did Johnson do after his full-time career?
From 2021 to 2022 Johnson competed in the IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing, and he has continued to race occasionally in sports car events. His part-time Cup schedule now includes a Toyota Camry numbered 84 for Legacy Motor Club.
He also competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 1 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage. These appearances keep him involved in racing while leaving more room for other interests.
How is Johnson remembered in NASCAR?
Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, and his seven titles put him in a small group of champions. He was named Driver of the Year several times, and in 2008 he won an ESPY as the best driver.
His consistency across the 2006 to 2010 run is central to that reputation. He recorded three or more wins in each of his first seven seasons, and he qualified for the Chase every year from its inception in 2004 until the end of the period.
