FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car driver. He currently drives the number 48 Lowe's Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson began racing motorcycles at the age of five. After graduating from Granite Hills High School he competed in off-road series. He raced in Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG), Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA) and SCORE International, winning rookie of the year in each series. In 1998, Johnson and his team began stock car racing. In 2000, he moved up to the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He raced two full seasons in that series driving for William and stanley Herzog; posting only one win and five top 5 finishes. Johhnson won his only Xfinity Series race driving the #92 Excedrin car at Chicagoland Speedway in July of 2001. To be honest it was a big surprise when Rick Hendrick tabbed Johnson to move up and drive a CUP car for him. But Hendrick must have saw something in Johnson that everyone else was missing; as he put Johnson in a full time ride in the Sprint Cup Series in 2002. After finishing fifth in the points in his first full season, he was second in 2003 and 2004 and fifth in 2005. Johnson won his first Cup series championship in 2006 and with further wins CUP Championships in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, he became the only driver in NASCAR history to win five consecutive championships. Johnson began racing full time in the Winston Cup Series during the 2002 season. During the season, he became the first rookie driver to lead the point standings, and the first rookie to win twice at the same track during a season. He recorded three wins (Auto

Club 500, MBNA 400, MBNA America 400), as well as 6 top-fives and 21 top-tens. In 2006, Johnson began the season with a victory in the Daytona 500. He finished second at the next race at California Speedway and won the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Johnson was also able to win the Brickyard 400, as well as two other victories at Martinsville Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway in the season. During the season, he became the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first five seasons. He also won the championship title, which was his first in his NASCAR career. During the 2007 season, he recorded ten wins, four pole positions, 20 top-five, and 24 top-10 finishes. He won

his second consecutive title, as well as being named 2007 Driver of the Year. Johnson also had the best average finish in the Chase with a 5.0. At seasons end, he had a total of 33 wins, which was 18th at the time on the all time list. In 2008, Johnson became the second driver to win three consecutive Sprint Cup Series championships, with the other being Cale Yarborough. He became the only driver to record three wins in each of their first seven seasons. In the Chase for the Sprint Cup, he had recorded 14 wins, eight more than any other driver. Also in the season, he was named 2008 Driver of the Year, and won an ESPY as the Best Driver. Also in the 2008 season, Johnson made his one and only Truck series start driving for owner

RandyMoss. He led 29 laps before being crashed out. After the season, he also moved to third on the active winners list at the time. In the 2009 season, Johnson recorded his fourth consecutive championship, becoming the only driver to do so. During the season he became second on the active winners list, while 13th on the all time winners list. After the season concluded, he was awarded an ESPY for the second consecutive year, and won the Driver of the Year title for the third time, tying Jeff Gordon, Mario Andretti, and Darrell Waltrip as the only three time winners of the award. He also became the first auto racing driver to win the Associated Press's Athlete of the Year award. During 2010, Johnson managed to win his fifth consecutive championship. He also remained the only driver to qualify for the Chase every year since its inception in 2004, and became tenth on the all time NASCAR win list with 53 wins. He also is the only driver to record three wins in each of their first nine seasons.

Johnson received his first win of the 2011 season during the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, edging Clint Bowyer by 0.002 seconds, tying with the closest finish in series history. His only other win of that season came at Kansas. 2012 saw him back on track with five wins, but only finishing third in points. 2013 was the final year before NASCAR switched to the 'elimination" format in the Chase; and he claimed his sixth CUP Championship along with six more wins. 2014 saw Johnson claim four wins; but struggle in NASCAR's new Chase format. He didn't advance out of the first round finishing outside the top ten in the final standings, and suffered the same fate in 2015; a year in which he posted five more wins. 2016 saw him win five times and finally get past the first round of the eliminations. The first race of round number two: he won,

assuring himself he'd advance to round three. The first race of round number three was at Martinsville and he won again making sure he'd race at the season finale at Homestead for the Championship. At homestead his car wasn't competitive all day long. He never even led a lap and was rarely inside the top ten in the running order. A yellow with just a couple laps remaining flew and crew Chief Chad Knaus took a gamble and only put on two tires and got out of the pits first. When the green hankie flew for the final time Johnson got a good restart and managed to grab the win garnering himself his seventh Cup Championship; tying him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. In 2017, looked early to be a season where they might break that record as Johnson won at Texas, and then the next week at Bristol; and added a third win at

Dover. But from there things took a major down turn as the team would only post one Top 5 the rest of the season. He managed to progress through the Chase; but missed making the final round at Homestead. He ended up 10th in the points standings. 2018 Looks to be a pivotal season for the #48 team. Johnson is definitely going to see Johnson as the leader at Hendrick Motor Sports. His team mates will include rookie William Byron, and drivers with very little experience Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. They would be looking for Johnson to lead the way. Johnson had a disappointing 2018 season, and it was Elliott who was the teams strongest driver. Johnson, for the first time in his career, failed to win a race when he drove a full

season. Every year starting in 2002 Johnson had won at least one race along with his seven Championships. Johnson was only able to post two Top 5 finishes; with a best of third at Bristol. He made the Chase via points; but poor finishes saw him eliminated after the first round. He and crew chief Chad Knaus had been together since the beginning. At the end of the season it was announced that the super duo would be split up for 2019, as Knaus would go lead the efforts of William Byron while Kevin

Meendering would be brought up to call the shots for Johnson. Another major change was sponsorship. Ally Financial was Johnson new sponsor for 2019. It was the first time in his Cup career he ever had a sponsor other than Lowe's Home Improvement Centers. The 2019 season started on a positive note for Johnson, as he won the 2019 Advance Auto Parts Clash after contact between him and Paul Menard sent Menard spinning while battling for the lead and triggering "the Big One" on lap 55 right before the rain arrived. It was also the first race with new sponsor Ally Financial. In the Daytona 500, Johnson ran up front most of the race, but when he came to pit road

with around 40 to go, B. J. McLeod and Cody Ware’s cars spun behind him and hit him in the left rear. The contact ripped off the left rear quarter-panel. He recovered to finish 9th after being 2 laps down. On March 29 in O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 qualifying at Texas, Johnson got his first pole since 2016 at Texas and scored his first top-five finish since the 2018 Coca-Cola 600. On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that race engineer Cliff Daniels would replace Meendering as the crew chief of the #48. In September 2019, Johnson missed the playoffs cut for the first time in his NASCAR career after finishing 35th in the Brickyard 400. Johnson would go on to score only

three Top 5 and 12 top 10 finishes, and wound up finishing a career-worst 18th place in the final standings and going winless for the second straight season. On October 4, 2019, Ally extended its sponsorship of the #48 for three more years through the 2023 season. On November 20, 2019, Johnson announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing. Johnson had a disappointing season in 2020. He announced that this year would be the final season he would drive a Cup car; and many fans wanted to see him rack up at least one last win and qualify for the Chase. About everything that could go wrong for him; did go wrong. He started the season with a

crash at Daytona finishing 35th. Three good runs ensued before NASCAR was shut down for the Covid virus; and the season was suspended for March 8th to May 17th. Upon resumption of the season; no fans were allowed to attend and it was an odd setting with cars racing with no fans. This also messed up the "Farewell Jimmie" tour most tracks had planned to celebrate his retirement. Upon resumption of racing; Johnson looked like a winner. The first race back was at Darlington and he dominated stage one. On the last lap of the stage he made an uncharacteristic mistake and run upon a lap car. He jerked his car to the right and ended up plowing nose first into the inside wall. This would prove to costly in the long run. He lost his ten bonus points he would got for winning the stage; could have accumulated a lot more race points; and maybe a win

that would have locked him into the Chase. Two races later he won the Coke 600. But post race inspection saw his car be a tiny amount too low and he was disqualified and placed 40th in the final finish order. Again; another loss of a massive amount of points. The next ten races he finished well with only one finish worse than 18th. At Indianapolis he tested positive for Covid and was required to stay home and missed the race; and of course got no points. It was later determined the test provided a false-positive. He was just outside the points to advance to qualify for the Chase heading into the final two regular season races. He finished 17th at the final race at Daytona and missed making the Chase by six points. The ten races

in the Chase he actually didn't finish that well. But he went out on a high note scoring a top five finish at the season ending race at Phoenix. To date; For his Cup career he raced 20 years and ran 686 Cup races; has 83 wins; 232 top five finishes and 374 top tens. He has a long list of major wins in his career. They include: Daytona 500 (2006, 2013); Coke 600 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2014); Southern 500 (2004, 2012); Brick Yard 400 (2006, 2008, 2009, 2012). Before moving to the Cup series he ran a hand full of races in 1998 and 1999 in the Xfinity series; before running

two full time seasons the following years. No one thought Johnson would be very competitive in the Cup series as he only won one race and finished in eighth and tenth in points the two years he ran full time. But Jeff Gordon saw the talent inside waiting to get out and convinced Rich Hendrick to give him a shot. His first season he won three times and finished fifth in points; and as they say "the rest is history". But Johnsons race career isn't over. He still has a desire to compete and he will move to the Indy Car series to drive for Chip Ganassi in street and road course races. Johnson’s first season racing in the Indy Car Series

was a learning experience. He had stated before the season started; he just wanted to run all the laps and not be a problem for the other drivers. Most races he was able to complete all the event and ran better as the season progressed. He didn’t post any Top 10 finishes; as this was a much different machine than the Cup cars he was used to. He had said he was only going to race on the road courses due to safety concerns. But, after driving the cars; and watching team mate Tony Kanaan run the ovals he decided to do a test at Texas. Late in 2021 he went to Indy and took the Indy 500 Rookie Orientation test and was possible he’d attempt to make the Indy 500 field in 2022. He also ran two races in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. His team finished a season best at Daytona in the Rolex 24; and went on to finish fourth at

Watkins Glen and seventh at Sebring and fifth at Road Atlanta. In December, Johnson announced that he would contest the full 2022 IndyCar schedule driving the #48 car for Chip Ganassi Racing. Johnson struggled on the road and street courses, but during his first oval race in the series, the XPEL 375 at Texas, Johnson finished a then career-best sixth. Johnson made his Indianapolis 500 debut later in the year. Johnson led two laps and ran a smooth clean race. He let the car get out from under him in the waning laps of the race and tagged the outside wall. Despite the late race crash, he was elected Rookie of the Year for the race. Johnson proceeded to collect his

first career IndyCar top 5 in his first ever trip to Iowa Speedway at the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google on July 24, 2022. In September, Johnson announced that he would be stepping back from racing full-time. The BIG news for Johnson in 2022 came in November. He announced he had purchased an ownership stake in Petty GMS Motorsports. In addition, he announced his return to the Cup Series on a part-time basis in 2023, starting with an attempt to make the 2023 Daytona 500. However whatever could go wrong, did seem to go wrong for Johnson. He made the field for the Daytona 500, but was involved in a crash with just nine laps remaining and finished 31st. He was looking forward to the road race at COTA to get some experience behind the wheel before they jetted off to Le Mans to race the “Garage

56” project in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But he was involved in an accident on the opening lap and knocked out before completing any laps. His final Cup start came in the Coke 600. He spun out twice and only completed 115 laps; finishing 37th. Johnson was scheduled to race in the street race to be held at Chicago over July 4th weekend. However, on June 26, Johnson in-laws were involved in a murder-suicide at their house in Muskogg, OK. Jack and Terry Janway were the parents of Johnson wife Chandra. They, along with her 11-year-old grandson, were found dead inside a Muskogee home on June 26 after law enforcement received a 911 call over reports of a

disturbance and someone with a gun. The police responding to the incident said in a statement at the time that officers responded to the scene and saw a person "laying in the hallway inside the front door." Shortly after, they heard a gunshot inside the home. Jack Janway’s body was identified as the victim near the front door. Terry Janway was later located on a couch positioned "next to a handgun. The team withdrew Johnson’s entry due to the tragedy. The high point for Johnson in 2023 was competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was March of 2022 at Sebring in Florida when the Garage 56 Project was announced to the world. NASCAR through Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet fielded a modified Camaro based on the current Next Gen car raced in NASCAR’s Cup series. It wouldn’t be competing for the overall win; after all they were entered in the class reserved for non-competitors; a single-entry class is for those cars with innovative technology who want to use the race as a sort of a ‘laboratory’ over the course of 24 hours. In the week leading up to the world’s most prestigious endurance race Europeans were treated to appearances of the big stock car; a car which looked like a Godzilla next to the rest of the field, almost comically so. The drivers affectionately called the car “the Beast”. The drivers for the event were Johnson, former Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfellow, and former F1 Champion Jenson Button. Not all was smooth sailing during the race. The Garage 56 car needed a brake change and a gearbox rebuilt during the race. But at one time they ran as high as 28th overall and looked on pace to finish ahead of the entire GTE class. In the end the Garage 56 Camaro crossed the line 39th overall among the 62 entries, including 12 cars, 1/3 of the field, who failed to finish. The car ran 285 laps around the 8.476 road course: 2415.66 miles, the equivalent of four Coca-Cola 600s, NASCAR’s longest race. It is suspected Johnson will look to compete in select NASCAR Cup races in 2024. So, it seems we have not saw the last of Johnson in a Cup car. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JIMMIE KENNETH JOHNSON - 09/17/1975