DOVER, Del. — Column by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Sean Gardner/Getty Images North America photo —
Weather permitting, six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will make his 500th career series start on Sunday at the track where he has had more success than any on the existing circuit — Dover International Speedway.
It seems appropriate that such a significant milestone will come at the one-mile concrete behemoth known as the ‘Monster Mile’ — Johnson has a series-best 10 victories at Dover, including three of the past four events, to go along with 15 top fives, 20 top 10s and two poles in his 27 career starts there.
If the now 40-year-old veteran leads just a single lap during the Cup race this weekend, he will cross the threshold of 3,000 career laps led at the Delaware facility, becoming the first driver in Sprint Cup history to hit that milestone at Dover.
Add to that his career numbers — 74 career victories (eighth all-time), 204 top fives, 310 top 10s and 33 poles to go along with his six Cup titles — and you have a 15-year resume (since his debut in 2001) that even stuns the driver himself when he looks back on it.
“My head is still spinning,” Johnson said Friday morning at Dover during media press conferences. “It’s been a life-changing experience, one that I’m extremely grateful for and an experience I think really shows what the power of people can do. The situation that was created between Lowe’s and Hendrick Motorsports, starting the team, Chad Knaus (crew chief) and myself being put together, the guys that have put their heart and soul into this team and started it and created it. The people made the success of the No. 48, all of us together, the team. To be on that team is just something that I dreamed of, but I still couldn’t have dreamed this big and have this much take place for us.”
However, amid all of those impressive numbers, Johnson also comes into Dover with questions swirling around him, mainly this one in particular: “With Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart hanging up their Sprint Cup helmets over the next year and a half, would he be quick to follow suit?”
Johnson’s answer on Friday, while rain fell and cancelled all on-track activity, was striking.
“I do not have a number and I have not picked a number,” the El Cajon, Calif. native said in regards to when he might call it quits. “As a kid growing up racing and as I got in the sport, I didn’t say, ‘When I get to this age, I am going to step down.’ I haven’t had that conversation and have not picked a number with my wife and said, ‘OK honey, this is the point that I am going to stop.’ It’s really been based on feel, and I have (wife) Chani’s support on that as well. When I feel like it’s time, I am going to make that decision. But I certainly don’t feel like it’s time now.”
Johnson’s career was just hitting its stride when veterans Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin rode into the twilights of their Cup careers, and spoke candidly of their struggles to stop at the right time, as well as his opinion on that school of thought.
“I remember watching Rusty pick a number and then remember talking to Rusty in years following that, and I still think he’s mad he stopped. I still think he feels like he could be out here racing with us and winning races,” Johnson said. “So conversations with him, with Dale Jarrett, with other guys … I have always been curious. Why, when, what tells you to stop? Mark tried a half dozen times to retire and couldn’t walk away. So I want to make sure I do it once and (don’t) keep coming back. What I am looking for is that moment. That moment that you say, ‘Alright, it’s time.’ When that shows up, then I will step down.”
As Johnson spoke, it got me thinking: ‘Is that time coming soon?’ for an all-but-assured first-ballot Hall of Famer and modern-era legend of the sport?
I certainly don’t see why he should consider calling it quits, at least in the near future.
Johnson just signed a new two-year contract with Hendrick Motorsports, as did longtime sponsor Lowe’s Home Improvement and crew chief Chad Knaus (who actually inked a three-year deal with HMS). He has four wins this season, has matched his career average finish (11.9) through 28 races, has led 467 laps and sits fifth in the Chase standings entering Sunday’s race at Dover.
While those numbers may not seem spectacular at first glance, they are solidly on par with his season averages dating back to 2012, meaning that Johnson is currently in the midst of the most consistent statistical stretch of his career since his five-year championship run from 2006-2010.
I know the old adage is, ‘It’s better to go out on top,’ and I firmly believe Johnson will do just that — but he has so much left in the tank that it would be foolhardy to cut the string quite yet.
Besides, he still has some unfinished business right now: mainly, winning a record-tying seventh Sprint Cup title and scoring the three race wins he would need to bypass Dale Earnhardt and move into seventh on the series’ all-time win list.
That’s going to require a little more effort and some races put in to get there — and a passion from Johnson that shows no signs of slowing down.
Congratulations on 500 starts, Jimmie. Here’s to the quest for #se7en, and more wins along the way.
The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Race Chaser Online, Speed77 Radio, the Performance Motorsports Network, their sponsors or other contributors.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 21-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Follow Race Chaser Online: @RaceChaserNews
