|
Jimmie Johnson, a native of El Cajon, Calif., started as an off-road racer and won championships in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Championship from 1992-94. He won the ASA ACDelco Challenge Series Rookie of the Year Award in 1998.
Johnson, with a limited number of stock car starts on his resume, was the third man in the 2000 Nationwide Series rookie invasion. He started 31 races and finished 10th in the point standings with six top-10 finishes.
Even though Johnson's consistency was what earned him his point position, with 24 top-25 finishes and an average finish of 20th, the enduring image of him from 2000 was his crash through the Styrofoam blocks at Watkins Glen after a Turn 1 brake failure. Due to the great seasons by fellow rookies Kevin Harvick and Ron Hornaday, Johnson finished only third in the rookie of the year standings.
Johnson made his first three NASCAR Cup starts in 2001, the season in which he scored a breakthrough first NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in only his fourth season in stock cars while preparing to advance his career to the next level.
While he qualified an impressive 15th in his first start, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Johnson's best finish was only 25th, at Homestead. He primarily concentrated on maintaining his top-10 standing in the Nationwide Series point standings.
Under car owner Jeff Gordon, Johnson's Cup rookie campaign in 2002 was one of the best in recent memory. He won three times, including a season sweep at Dover. His 21 top-10 finishes tied him with 2002 champion Tony Stewart for second in the series and he led the Cup standings following the Kansas race in late September.
Two finishes outside the top 30 in the final six races of the season helped take Johnson out of title contention, but he did manage to finish fifth in the final standings. He also finished second to Ryan Newman in the rookie of the year balloting.
In 2003, Johnson spent all 36 weeks in the NASCAR Top 10, the only driver to do so, and finished second in the series points. That season he swept both events at New Hampshire and won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 in May at Charlotte, one week after winning the All-Star race.
The bottom line of Johnson's 2004 Cup season is that he and his Lowe's Chevrolet teammates won eight races — the most of any team — and fell eight points short of a championship title, nearly pulling off one of the most incredible comebacks in NASCAR history.
Johnson was able to make up a 247-point deficit he faced after the fourth of the 10-race Chase.
2006 was a year to remember for Johnson, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 and then went on to his first Sprint Cup championship. But it was anything but easy.
Johnson had to take on the biggest race of the year - the Daytona 500 - without his crew chief Chad Knaus, who was suspended for four races by NASCAR when the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet didn't pass post-qualifying inspection.
Johnson added another restrictor plate win with a victory in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway in April. He also added another crown jewel victory to his racing resume in 2006 when he "kissed the bricks" at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
Johnson's Indy victory was especially impressive as he overcame an early race flat tire and found himself a lap down to the field before rallying back for the emotional victory.
After beginning the Chase with finishes of 39th, 13th and 14th, Johnson suffered what looked to be a fatal blow at Talladega when he appeared headed for victory lane, only to be taken out of the race when teammate Brian Vickers made contact with him on the final lap. The racing world counted Johnson out of the Chase at that point.
But from that disappointment, Johnson and company rose up and showed just what a championship caliber team they were. Johnson reeled off a string of five straight races finishing first or second, punctuated by his fifth win of the year at Martinsville, to climb back on top of the standings heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
With a finish of 12th or better in the Ford 400 needed to lock up his first title, Johnson brought home yet another top-10 finish with a ninth-place run in the season-ending race.
In 2007, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet won 10 races on the year, including a record-setting four straight in the Chase, to clinch his second-consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
Johnson also posted an additional 14 top-10 finishes, 10 of which were within the top five. His finishing average in the Chase was 5.0 and over the whole season was 10.8. He led laps in all but 12 races.
In the year that saw the debut of the COT, Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon combined to win half of the COT races and led a total of 1,325 laps in COT competition. They also had the best COT average finishes. Johnson's COT finishing average was 6.9.
With his second straight championship, Johnson became the first driver to complete that feat sinch Jeff Gordon in 1997 and 1998.
But the following year, Johnson blew Gordon's record away when he won his third straight Sprint Cup Series title in 2008. By doing so, he entered elite company as one of only two drivers to win three consecutive championships in NASCAR's top division. Only Johnson and Cale Yarborough, who won championships from 1976 through 1978, have been able to turn the three-peat.
Johnson was able to hold off Carl Edwards as the 2008 Chase wound down to win the 2008 title by 69 points. In the season's Chase, Johnson collected three victories, six top-fives and eight top-10s and had an average finish of 5.7.
In 2008 overall, Johnson had seven victories, 15 top-fives, 22 top-10s and an average finish of 10.5.
Many didn't think it could be done, especially with his 31st season debut at Daytona and 24th-place finish at Las Vegas two races later, but Johnson scored a record fourth-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2009.
The Hendrick Motorsports entry went to victory lane seven times in the historic season, including four times during the Chase, and Johnson knocked down 16 top fives and 24 top tens on his way to a 141 point series win in the standings over teammate Mark Martin.
|
