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The Extra Point

Don’t count out Johnson’s title hopes

Chris Siers
Posted 2/7/20

It’s crazy how fast time flies. Looking back throughout my life, I’ve been blessed to see some amazing feats of achievement at every level of competition and virtually every sport. I remember watching the Titans fall literally one yard short of a win in Super Bowl XXXIV...

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The Extra Point

Don’t count out Johnson’s title hopes

Posted

It’s crazy how fast time flies. Looking back throughout my life, I’ve been blessed to see some amazing feats of achievement at every level of competition and virtually every sport.

I remember watching the Titans fall literally one yard short of a win in Super Bowl XXXIV.

I remember watching Tim Tebow electrify the college football landscape from Gainesville.

I remember where I was when Dale Earnhardt hit the wall in 2001 on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

We often don’t pay attention, but the cycles of drivers that come and go in NASCAR have been almost speeding up, just like Father Time.

I remember watching the hot shot of my childhood, Jeff Gordon, take the racing circuit by storm.

I followed him throughout his career until his retirement in 2016.

I remember another young hotshot making his debut in the world of NASCAR in 2002.

What the sporting world got with Johnson’s emergence within the NASCAR Cup Series was something to behold.

Everything fell into place to form one of the most dominant teams of any racing era.

In 2020, Johnson will suit up for one final season before hanging it up for good.

Johnson built such an incredible resume throughout his career that his seven Cup Championships put him in a field with the likes of Richard “The King” Petty and Dale Earnhardt, with each having won seven.

Think about it for a minute. Those three drivers are accountable for 21 seasons of NASCAR racing titles.

That’s a lot of wins and that’s a lot of dominating.

Johnson, notably, put together maybe the best streak of championships in any sport during the 2000’s.

From 2006-2010, there was nobody better.

Having won five-straight titles, veteran driver Tony Stewart broke Johnson’s stranglehold on the NASCAR world in 2011, becoming the first driver not named Jimmie Johnson to win the title in six years.

It didn’t take Johnson long to return to championship form, however.

With the likes of newcomer Brad Keselowski, Johnson now had become one of the older guys trying to fend off the young bucks.

He did just that in 2013 in one of the best Cup finishes in recent history.

For the bulk of the season, Matt Kenseth held the points total lead and was able to keep Johnson in the rear view mirror.

It wasn’t until Johnson finished ninth in the final race of the season that he secured his sixth title.

His seventh title came in 2017 in yet another title that was decided in the final race of the season at Miami Homestead.

Having to weave his way through several wrecks and a penalty from a pre-race inspection that moved him to the back of the field, Johnson stormed his way through the field and made his move on the final restart of the race to win his seventh title.

Now at the start of the 2020 season and the Daytona 500 barely a week away, Johnson is preparing to begin his final season.

He’s had his share of successes through the last decade, but his titles came none-too-easy.

Johnson has a chance to not only end his career on a high note, but perhaps move into uncharted territory with an eighth Cup title—which would give him the most in NASCAR history.

If the last five years have shown anything, it’s that Johnson will be right there till the very end, maybe even down to the final restart.

Chris Siers is sports editor of the Times-Gazette.