We are finally approaching the last week of 2020, which means many things. Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States in less than a month, the NFL is reaching the end of the regular season and everyone in the Midwest is expecting the first big snowfall at any given moment.
This also means that the Jimmie Johnson era of NASCAR is officially coming to an end. Before the NASCAR world hands him to the world of IndyCar, we need to take these waning days to reflect on what all he did in that 48 Chevrolet. Johnson and Chad Knaus are the Brady-Belichick duo of motorsports, and Rick Hendrick is their Robert Kraft. Their success is something that we may never see again. So let’s take a look back, and rank every one of their championships.
7. Walk Off (2016)
cc:sbnation.com
Johnson’s 2016 championship was not very Johnson-like. He started out strong, with two wins in the first five races, but from then onto the end of the regular season, he did not show championship speed or consistency. He had four DNF’s in a nine-week span, five finishes of 30th or worse and strangest of all, he only led 95 laps in that 21 race span. Those are numbers more indicative of his last three seasons, so what changed?
One of the most impressive aspects of the Johnson-Knaus era was how they were able to find another gear in the Chase. 2016 is a fine example of that. It started with a statement run at Chicagoland. 118 laps led only to lose it after he sped on the last pit stop. Solid runs at Loudon and Dover led to him cruising to the next round, starting at Charlotte. The Johnson of old came out this race, and he led 155 laps and punched his ticket to the round of eight. He did the same thing to start the next round, winning Martinsville in a performance indicative of the COT days, and punched his only ticket to the Championship four. At Homestead, a track they’ve never won at, Johnson rallied from the rear of the field to the top five late. After Carl Edwards and Joey Logano took each other out of contention, Johnson got the restart of his life, driving away from Kyle Larson to walk off the race and championship number seven, creating one of the most iconic moments of the 2010s.
6. One for the Thumb (2010)
cc: workingonmyredneck.com
Johnson’s 2010 title started remarkably similar to number seven, as he won three of the first five races. His summer wasn’t as strong, but he was far more consistent to make up for his off weeks, grabbing back-to-back wins at Sonoma and Loudon. After starting the Chase as the second seed behind Denny Hamlin, Johnson had his only hiccup at Loudon, before winning next week at Dover. From then on, Johnson was the model of consistency, grabbing six top fives in the last eight races, running no worse than ninth. He didn’t win again, but he didn’t need to. While Hamlin won two races late, he was too inconsistent for his own good; and a disastrous run at Homestead gift-wrapped Johnson his fifth straight Cup, an unbreakable feat.
5. Trifecta (2008)
cc: pinterest.com
People who complained about the 2018 Big Three clearly don’t remember 2008. Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch won 24 of the 36 races. Busch and Edwards carried the load in the first 24 races, while Johnson ran, frankly, like crap for their standards. To be fair, they were still pretty stout, leading a lot of laps and sitting fourth after the Bristol night race; but their only wins were a fuel-mileage race at Phoenix and the farce that was the Brickyard 400. Then they got to California, and after Johnson led 228 laps of a 250 lap event, everyone knew he was the guy to beat. A win next week at Richmond further proved this point.
While Busch had everything go wrong in the Chase, Edwards continued his incredible season. The key difference between the two is that in Edwards two hiccups at Talladega and Charlotte, Johnson scored top tens, and had no hiccups to allow Edwards to gain the points back. Even though Edwards won three of the last five races, it didn’t matter. Johnson won the other two, and locked up his third straight championship, tying Cale Yarborough’s 30 year mark.
4. Number Six in Gen-Six (2013)
cc: sbsun.com
Johnson welcomed the Gen-Six in style, winning the Daytona 500. From then on, there was no question who had the best grip of the new car. Johnson won six races in total, and besides his Daytona 500 triumph, he led over half the laps in each of his wins. Speaking of laps led, Johnson led 1985, tops in the series. The other driver that had the Gen Six figured out was Matt Kenseth. In his first year at Joe Gibbs, Kenseth was stout from the start. A win in the third race at Vegas set the trend, and he won seven times and led 1783 laps of his own. Much like 2008, Johnson was able to capitalize on Kenseth’s poor run, as running third compared to Kenseth’s 23rd place finish was the death blow, and Johnson ran ninth at Homestead to win his sixth title.
3. The Break Through (2006)
cc: reviewjournal.com
Johnson’s first four years were incredible, winning 19 times and being a championship threat every year. The only problem was that the 48 couldn’t close it out, and after falling short in 2005, Rick Hendrick famously sat Johnson and Knaus down in a room with milk and cookies and said that if they’re going to act like children, they were going to eat cookies, nap and sort things out. Whatever was said in that meeting clearly paid off.
Though Knaus got caught cheating at Daytona and was suspended for the first four races, he managed to win his first Daytona 500. In fact, his finishes were 1–2–1–6 in said races. Statistically, 2006 was Johnson’s best season by average finish, as his 9.7 is his only year below 10.0. He stumbled a little bit at the end of the regular season, and two straight wins by Kenseth allowed him to snag the top seed heading to the Chase. The first four races couldn’t have been more of a disaster. He wrecked and ran 39th at Loudon, 13th at Dover and at Kansas he led the most laps, but speeding on his last stop relegated him to 14th. At Talladega, he ran second on the last lap with Brian Vickers behind him. When Vickers tried to push Johnson to the front, he hit his right rear, taking him and leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. out. The crash left him in eighth place, 156 points back with six races left. Johnson and Knaus needed something big, and they started a run that would change their careers overnight.
He ran second at Charlotte before dominating and winning at Martinsville. He then reeled off three straight runner-up finishes, taking the lead back from Kenseth after Texas. He kept it off the wall at Homestead, and finally broke through and won his first of many championships.
2. Exclusive Company (2009)
cc: nascar.com
The Chevrolet camp was on another level in 2009. Juan Pablo Montoya broke out in Earnhardt-Ganassi’s first year together, Stewart-Haas exceeded every expectation possible in their first year and then there’s Hendrick Motorsports. Jeff Gordon had the best average finish in Cup with a 10.2, Mark Martin had a career renaissance his first year there, winning five times, then there’s Johnson. Johnson’s year could be summed up in a number: 2238. That’s how many laps he led on the season. That number has only been eclipsed since by Kevin Harvick in 2015 and Martin Truex Jr. in 2017. The 48 was on it from the get go, starting with a win at Martinsville where he outmuscled Hamlin. He followed that up with a whipping of the field at Dover where he led 298/400 laps and a win at the Brickyard 400. This seeded him second for the Chase, a Chase that was his finest performance. After Martin followed his top seed with a win at the Loudon opener, Johnson won four races, all in dominant fashion. Even with a 38th at Texas, he gave his competition no chance to gain the points back, and he won the Championship by a whopping 141 points, leading a Hendrick 1–2–3. The title was Johnson’s fourth straight title, the first driver ever to do so.
1. Passing of the Torch (2007)
cc: autoweek.com
So in 2009, he led 2238 laps, won seven times and had his biggest points gap in any of his Championships. What could possibly top that Championship? Well after the first six races, which Johnson happened to win three of, one certain driver began what turned out to be a historic season. From Texas to Darlington, Jeff Gordon had finishes of 4–1–1–4–1. After a wreck at Charlotte, Gordon went on a streak of 10 straight top 10 finishes. Gordon set a modern record with 30 top 10s on the year, posting a 7.3 average finish. After Johnson closed out the regular season with back-to-back wins at California and Richmond, wins five and six on the year, they proved that the Chase was going to be a two-man show. After an incredible win at Talladega and another at Charlotte, Gordon sat 68 points ahead with five races to go. Knowing that Gordon wasn’t going to falter, Johnson needed to be perfect, which he was. Four straight wins was what came next, at Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas and Phoenix. This gave Johnson 10 wins on the year, a mark nobody had reached since Gordon in 1998, and a number nobody has reached since. In a year where Gordon was historically great, Johnson and Knaus were somehow better when it counted. This was the moment that fans knew the torch had been passed. The apprentice was now the master, and he was the face of NASCAR.
It’s only fitting that Johnson, the man who sat at the throne of the sport with as much grace and class as anyone who came before him, could see his mentee become the new face of NASCAR. Johnson’s last two races saw Chase Elliott drive the race of his life at Martinsville before becoming NASCAR’s newest champion. Johnson got to see Elliott become a superstar before he said farewell to NASCAR, a championship that made him as happy as any that he won himself.
This story was published to Medium.com on Dec. 23 2020