The Wide World of Dirt

Over the past three years, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson’s legacy came into question because he failed to find victory lane.

The man who won 7 titles in the span of 11 seasons and won 83 races went winless after the first Dover race in 2017, and the hangover from that triumph never subsided.

Some near misses in 2018, including a heartbreaking defeat at the inaugural race at the Roval, gave way to a breakup with longtime crew chief Chad Knaus at season’s end.

A disastrous new pairing with Kevin Meendering led to a midseason crew chief change to 2016 champion race engineer Cliff Daniels. While the results began to pick back up, Johnson missed out on victory lane for a second straight season.

Prior to the 2020 season, Johnson announced it would be his final full-time foray in the Cup Series, and it got off to a great start, scoring three top-12 finishes in the first four races.

Then, Covid struck, stopping the season.

Though he came close a few more times, Johnson still wasn’t able to reach his 84th win, closing out the season watching teammate Chase Elliott score his first title at Phoenix.

The common theme of hot take makers on The Bird is that Johnson wasn’t as great as we thought he was because he was unable to win the final three seasons of his career.

Don’t be fooled; those people are wrong. Here’s why.

2017 – The Departure of Stewart-Haas Racing

This is a wrinkle in this story that I don’t think people consider enough when talking about the decline of Hendrick. SHR experienced a highly successful alliance with HMS since Tony Stewart bought half of the team in 2009.

This run included three championships for Jimmie Johnson, a championship for Tony Stewart, and a championship for Kevin Harvick after he joined SHR in 2014.

Harvick became the primary focus of SHR over the next three seasons, resulting in another championship race appearance in 2015 alongside HMS legend Jeff Gordon and a solid 7th-place finish in 2016.

Johnson ended up snagging the title in 2016, but the cracks at HMS were beginning to show. Gordon retired at the end of 2015, being replaced by Xfinity champion Chase Elliott.

Dale Jr. spent half the season on the sidelines recovering from several concussions while journeyman Alex Bowman and a past-his-prime Gordon filled the gap.

Kasey Kahne took the last spot, and his decline continued in the 5 car, finishing outside the playoffs and winless on the year.

Jimmie wasn’t particularly special throughout the entire season, but he got hot at the best possible time and took advantage of his opportunity at Homestead to win his seventh title.

With SHR switching to Ford, both teams experienced setbacks. SHR only won three races amongst its four cars, two by Harvick and one by Kurt Busch.

Losing the alliance led to Hendrick lagging behind as well, with Johnson only winning 3 of the first 12 races and not winning again the rest of the year. Kasey Kahne added to the HMS win total with a fluke victory at the Brickyard.

Chase Elliott improved immensely but couldn’t find victory lane yet while Dale Jr. was an afterthought in his farewell tour, missing the playoffs.

HMS saw that they needed a satellite team to run through notes with, so they signed on JTG Daugherty Racing’s two-car outfit at season’s end.

2018 – The Chevrolet Camaro & The Youth

Johnson and Knaus waltzed into the 2018 season after a Round of 8 appearance the previous year. They won three times at the beginning of 2017, but they couldn’t find their way back before season’s end.

Due to the fact that they got one race away from another championship berth, there wasn’t really cause for concern in the NASCAR community.

As the Camaro made its debut in the Cup Series after a successful stint in the Xfinity Series, hopes were high for all Chevy teams in the garage that the new model would provide a bit of an artificial boost.

That didn’t happen.

Of the 36 points races that season, Chevy only won four (4) of them in 2018: The Daytona 500 with Austin Dillon as well as Watkins Glen, Dover 2, and Kansas 2 with Chase Elliott.

Elliott finished the season as the top Chevy driver with those 3 wins, 11 top-5s, 21 top-10s, and a respectable 12.2 average finish. Chip Ganassi’s Kyle Larson had a solid season as well, and Austin Dillon parlayed his Daytona 500 victory into a 13th-place points finish.

Johnson sat second of the HMS fleet in 14th, no wins, 2 top-5s, 11 top-10s, and an average finish of 16.7, a tenth better than the season before, but still didn’t stand up to the standard Johnson and Knaus set for themselves.

Only one other Chevy driver made the Playoffs, and it was HMS newcomer Alex Bowman. He had an awful Playoffs and finished dead last of the playoff field in 16th, but there was hope that he would improve with time.

HMS rookie William Byron finished 23trd in points. RCR veteran Ryan Newman sat in 17th. Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger ended their full-time Cup careers 20th and 22nd in the final points standings.

All in all, this was a horrible season for Chevy. Only four wins and four drivers making the Playoffs? It was practically a nightmare for the manufacturer, but the Camaro was the Camaro. There wasn’t really an easy fix to the race car.

Chevy expected there to be more veteran leadership at HMS to lead the charge, but the driver lineup included Johnson, sophomore Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman (his first full season in good Cup equipment), and rookie William Byron.

Dillon and Larson weren’t ready to make the step up to being a veteran presence for the manufacturer, and Newman, McMurray, and Allmendinger didn’t have enough recent success to give them any momentum.

The lack of success Jimmie and Chad faced tore a hole in their relationship, and it showed in their radio communications. The frustrations eroded years of confidence and success.

At the end of the 2018 season, HMS announced Chad would take the reigns of William Byron’s team while Jimmie would be paired with Kevin Meendering, a JR Motorsports crew chief.

2019 – Kevin Meendering and NA18D

NASCAR released the aero package restrictions for the next season as 2018 wound to a close, and people in the garage AND online were not happy about it.

The cars got their horsepower stunted at 550, and a billboard of a spoiler was added to the rear for maximum downforce. This made racing at any track over one mile very simple.

Get the handling right and you can drive around full throttle for most of a run.

It was maddening to veteran drivers like Kyle Busch, who was very vocal about his displeasure, but the rules were the rules. The teams had to find a way to win within them.

With HMS’ drivers having a whole year under their belt together, most expected that they would have a bounce back season, especially with Chase Elliott and company getting three wins in the back-half of the previous year.

That didn’t really happen.

Though the season started out great with a win in the Busch Clash in his first race with Ally as sponsor, Johnson only scored eight top-10s in the season’s first 21 races while his teammates went out and outperformed him.

Alex Bowman got his first career victory at Chicagoland, punching his ticket into the Playoffs while William Byron was in the midst of a strong summer where he scored 7 top-10s in 15 races.

Elliott punched his Playoff ticket early with a win at Talladega, and though he suffered a late-spring slump that moved into summer, it was only a matter of time before he’d revisit victory lane.

Kevin Meendering spent three years as veteran Elliott Sadler’s crew chief in the Xfinity Series where he helped the team to two top-5 points finishes, coming up one spot short of a championship to then-teammate William Byron in 2017.

The interesting part of his tenure is that Meendering and Sadler won their last race in 2016, so Meendering took the job with Johnson while in the midst of an even longer winless streak.

The results up to the second Pocono race may have looked better than the year before on paper, but Johnson and Meendering clearly didn’t mesh well.

Perhaps it was a combination of the Camaro, the aero package, and the new crew chief all at once, but Johnson made changes where he could and booted Meendering midseason.

It was a bold move, but Johnson wanted a familiar voice on top of the pit box, so he brought over the race engineer from his 2016 championship team, Cliff Daniels, to lead the team.

Daniels’ interim gig may not have produced the results the team expected, but Johnson seemed much more comfortable with Daniels on the radio.

The team showed more consistent speed, running well at some of Jimmie’s best tracks. A 40-lap stint at Texas reminded everyone of the old 48, but a crash into the outside wall while running in the top-5 killed their day.

The other HMS drivers settled in while Johnson kept trying to adapt. Elliott repeated at Watkins Glen and won the second race at the Roval. Unfortunately, he floundered in the Round of 8, missing the finale and finishing 10th in points.

Bowman’s confidence continued to grow after his Chicago win, but an up-and-down Playoffs ruined any chance he had at a championship.

Chad Knaus helped Byron become consistent, stringing together several solid runs throughout the season and keeping the car on the track. Their chances at a championship were dashed in the Round of 12 after a wreck at Talladega.

And then, there was Jimmie. He missed the Playoffs for the first time in his career. Even in 2018, he slid comfortably into the playoffs, but with all of the crew chief turnover, his shot at an eighth title would be cut short at Indy.

Johnson’s season ended in 18th place, a record-low for the seven-time champ.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Johnson and Daniels showed they could put a fast car together, and all they had to do was learn how to finish races. The future looked bright, even if Jimmie announced that 2020 would be his final Cup Series season.

2020 – Covid

We’re still in the pandemic, so I’m not going to go too much into it. Y’all already know.

Prior to the Covid break, Johnson looked solid, having three straight finishes of 12th or better leaving Phoenix. Due to restrictions, teams couldn’t be in their shops for a long while, so this was likely the first time in anyone’s career they weren’t allowed in the garage.

The Series returned to action at Darlington, ready to pick up where they left off. Johnson got the luck of the draw (literally, starting spots were chosen on random draw), and he grabbed the lead from Byron late in the first stage.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Johnson was in the lead and pulling away. It felt just like old times, like the guy everyone feared for 15 straight seasons was back.

On the final lap of stage 1, Johnson approached the lapped car of Chris Buescher at the exit of turn 2. The two cars came together, and Johnson’s car was sent careening into the inside wall, ending his good run and his race.

It was devastating.

But, the pain doesn’t stop there.

Johnson’s bad finish in the race led to him getting awful starting spots throughout the rest of the season due to his points position. That’s not to say that this one race was a microcosm of his season, but it certainly got the snowball rolling.

The 48 team clawed their way from 37th to 8th in the second Darlington race, and when the Series qualified at Charlotte for the World 600, they showed even more speed, qualifying 2nd for a race he’d won four times.

The team put together a great race, and they fought hard for a 2nd-place finish…until post-race inspection ruled that the 48 car had an infraction that disqualified them from the race, stripping them of their points.

Could not catch a break.

Johnson and Company rebounded by finishing 11th or better in the next four races before a mediocre run at Homestead stunted the team’s momentum.

An emotional trip to Talladega saw Johnson go for the lead with less than five laps to go, but at a time when no one is giving an inch, Kevin Harvick shoved his car into a gap that wasn’t there, spinning the 48 off of the front fender.

Somehow, the field avoided Johnson’s car as it lazily spun toward the frontstretch apron, and on the final restart, the seven-time champion charged back for a 13th-place finish.

A doubleheader at Pocono yielded no positive returns, but Johnson finally got some luck as the series headed into his old playground at Indy.

Since the season resumed, Johnson started outside the top 10 in 7 of the 10 races determined by random draw, and with many of the races being run with the 550hp aero package, that put Johnson at a massive disadvantage.

Johnson was due to start the 2020 Brickyard 400 in 4th, but his wife came down with Covid. Subsequently, Jimmie came down with a positive test and no symptoms.

This put him out of the race. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Johnson passed his next few Covid tests the following week, allowing him to return behind the wheel for Kentucky. This quick turnaround made Johnson wonder if maybe he had a false positive, but he tried to put it behind him at the time.

Kentucky appeared to be another mediocre run for the 48 team, but they took a chance on pit strategy that put them up front with a restart with about 30 laps to go.

Instead of doing what literally everyone else did all day, Brad Keselowski made an ill-advised move to dip under Johnson right after the finish line, and in his haste, Johnson cut across the 2 car’s nose, spinning himself into the infield.

Another crushing blow in a season where the 48 team got slugged week-in and week-out.

Though Johnson started 20th the next week at Texas, his car flew through the pack, being the fastest car on the track at times. An unfortunate pit penalty moved Johnson to the back of the pack, and trying to make up for lost time bit him.

Johnson got loose coming out of turn 4 and clobbered the wall with the rear of the car, littering the track with debris. With the amount of damage on the car, most people would’ve packed it up and called it a day.

The 48 team decided to fix it as much as possible and logged laps. They finished 26th after a mid-race melee took out a few cars, but that performance showed the 48 team still had fight and resolve in the midst of adversity.

Johnson got caught up in a melee at Kansas the next week that ended their race early before showing up to Loudon with a hot rod. Johnson was running well in the top-10, but Clint Bowyer drove through him midway through the first stage.

The incident put Johnson behind the 8-ball for the rest of the race, but they scratched and clawed their way through the field to score a 12th-place finish.

The race at Loudon kicked off a stretch where the 48 crew started to show consistent speed for the first time in what seemed like forever. Two solid runs at Michigan gave way to the team’s first top-5 since Bristol with a 4th-place run at the Daytona road course.

They continued to charge the next weekend for a doubleheader at Johnson’s best track: Dover. Johnson scored finishes of 7th and 3rd, even leading the second race briefly on two tires before eventual winner Kevin Harvick maneuvered by him with less than 20 laps left.

This run led to Johnson having a strong shot at making the Playoff field, being only six points back of placing himself in on points. But, the regular season cutoff race was at Daytona, the ultimate equalizer.

Johnson competed in the lead pack for most of the race, and with two laps to go, he was in position to make the Playoffs if everything stayed the same.

A three-wide pass for the lead coming out of the tri-oval led to a massive pileup, and Johnson’s car met the careening heap that was Matt Kenseth’s car, hitting the wall.

The 48 team tried desperately to fix the car, and they made it to the finish of the race in 17th place, their worst finish in the last seven races.

His teammate, William Byron, got to fly by scot-free for his first win, punching his ticket into the playoffs. Wood Brothers’ driver Matt DiBenedetto clinched a playoff berth by sneaking through the wrecks and finishing in the top-10.

Johnson, once again, was left out of the Playoffs, but they fought like hell at the end to finish only six points back. If Bowyer didn’t dump him at New Hampshire, maybe things are different.

If he didn’t make contact with Keselowski at Kentucky, maybe things are different. If his car didn’t DQ at Charlotte, maybe things are different. If the qualifying format wasn’t a farce for most of the regular season, maybe things are different.

Johnson’s 2020 season is filled with close scrapes at glory that ultimately fell short.

The Playoffs weren’t fruitful for Johnson, clearly getting the lowest focus in HMS as his three teammates made the postseason. He scored an 11th-place run at Vegas, but that was the highlight of the final nine races leading up to the finale in Phoenix.

His final race with Hendrick saw his protege, Chase Elliott, compete for his first championship while Johnson slowly picked his way through the field all day.

Elliott won the race and clinched the title as Johnson crossed the finish line fifth, the first of the drivers not competing for the championship. Elliott and Johnson met at the start-finish line in a passing-of-the-torch moment, bookending Johnson’s illustrious full-time career.

When I think of Johnson’s 2020 season, I think of them finishing the race at Texas several laps down with a torn-up car and sawing parts off the car to finish at Daytona to salvage a chance at making the Playoffs.

They may not have the results of a champion, but their heart and resolve could not be questioned. They fought till the bitter end.

Conclusion

In the span of four seasons, Johnson witnessed the retirement of three of his veteran teammates, the arrival of three young drivers, a change in car model, four different aero packages, two crew chief changes, and a lack of support from a satellite team.

Even for a younger, established driver, that would be a ridiculous amount of change to deal with, so to expect Johnson, an older established driver, to adapt to all of that change well is a lot to ask.

Some would argue that drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick have adapted well to all of the change in their careers, and that’s true. However, neither driver has rivaled Johnson’s success.

Frankly, the only drivers who have experienced the level of success Johnson has are Gordon, Earnhardt, and Petty, and that comes with some interesting parallels.

Gordon couldn’t win a title after Johnson entered the fold. Earnhardt stopped competing for titles after RCR gave him a teammate. Petty didn’t win the final eight years of his career.

Every legend in the sport experiences a decline in terms of championship contention, and Johnson was no different. The only difference is that Johnson’s decline happened recently.

While I hope Johnson returns to the sport in a limited capacity in the future to shut the negative noise down about his legacy, I wouldn’t blame him for never returning to a sport that never truly embraced him, not only as a dominant driver but also as a person.