It’s said that you need to know when to hold and when to fold. Getting out of the driver’s seat is, for any racer, a tough decision to make. Knowing the right time and place is a challenge. Knowing it’s time to go? How does anyone make that call?
For seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, the time has come. Johnson announced during media activities at Daytona International Speedway that February 2027’s Daytona 500 will be his final NASCAR Cup Series race. Johnson raced in this year’s 500 and finished 29th, the fourth car a lap down in this contest. He intends to do a few more races this year, including the hometown San Diego event this summer in NASCAR’s CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
From February of 2027, Johnson’s focus will be on building the team he races for and co-owns: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. How he got to this point and why he’s making these changes show well in the driver’s history.
Jimmie Johnson removed himself from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition during the COVID-19 pandemic. He’d made the announcement that 2020 would be his final full-time season before the pandemic hit, but it seemed prescient that this was the time. After all, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion hadn’t won a race since the 2017 campaign, lost his longtime sponsor Lowe’s and crew chief Chad Knaus, who got bumped up the Hendrick Motorsports food chain.
The former off-road ace who came of age in the Mickey Thompson off-road series had always wanted to drive an Indy car in anger; he got the chance to try it out in 2020 with Chip Ganassi Racing and signed to do a part-time season in 2021, competing only on road and street courses. The 2022 season he drove in every single race, including his first stab at the Indianapolis 500, earning Rookie of the Year honors, despite crashing with six laps remaining and finishing 28th in the 33-car field. He collected his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES podium result at Iowa Speedway in July, then announced he’d be stepping back from full-time racing in any car, with or without a roof, in 2023.
That decision allowed Johnson to be part of the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB ownership team that sprang from the seeds of Richard Petty Racing. He also returned to racing on a part-time basis with the team, using the No. 84, a reverse of his familiar No. 48 car number. And unlike his full-time NASCAR career, Jimmie Johnson would be in a Toyota Camry, not a Chevrolet, the brand with which he’d been identified at Hendrick Motorsports. The brand doesn’t matter as much as the competition, as far as Johnson is concerned. That’s the way it’s always been.
And now, with the news that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final race, “It doesn’t mean I’m not going to race and do other fun things. I’ve got plenty planned this year and hope to have some more fun later in the year as well.” He’ll be racing in the off-road Minto 400 outside Las Vegas, “And then there’s the truck race in San Diego, and just trying to find fun bucket list things to do.” So there won’t be much reflection on his career, despite its longevity. “Induction in the Hall of Fame was the moment in time that really allowed me to reflect, and I imagine this year will be more reflection. I’m now savoring and enjoying the emotions, feelings, conversations, all the moments around the time I’ve spent in this sport and all the great times we had.”
Johnson is closing the door on both NASCAR and INDYCAR, he stressed. “The commitment it takes to be where I want to be in the [INDYCAR] field… I just don’t have that in me anymore. My focus and interest is truly in building this race team.” He did reflect on the difference between being a 25-year-old in the No. 48 Chevy and the understanding that, “I just don’t have that passion for that part of life anymore and that’s been a tough thing to kind of accept.” Not being able to be up early in the morning with passion for the job, “It took the two years in INDYCAR and the journey that I’ve been on now to really reflect on that and see it. I’m in a different place of life and really enjoying it.”
Johnson intends to be the face of LEGACY MOTOR CLUB as it moves up the NASCAR Cup Series food chain, helping his drivers work within the team and his team work within the NASCAR community. “Now that I have control of the company and a lot of other elements are in play, I can really lean into that. So I was going to get started a few years ago,” but family issues scotched that. “We’re a little behind schedule and we’ll do a lot more of that now.”
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB consists of three drivers at the moment: John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones have full season rides with the Toyota team while Johnson is a part-timer. The team is collaborating with Joe Gibbs Racing, one of Toyota’s legacy squads. The objective is to enable growth and to do it in a sensible, business-like manner. Cheering Toyota’s support to all of its teams, “We’ve had a lot of growing to do as a company and did a lot of that last year, and through that evolution and building trust and respect, how to manage all of that, we’re at a great point in time, where we’re shoulder partners with JGR and, of course, working for Toyota on this journey to win races and championships. We still have a lot of growing and maturing to do as a company, but I’m confident it will be noticed this year as we get into the schedule and get racing. I’m excited for the future and how we can all collaborate more together.”
While he wishes he had more Toyota experience to assist his young drivers, Nemechek and Jones, Jimmie Johnson is enjoying “being the nucleus of a team and getting people to work together. In my day, it was really about 15 to 20 people, just that road crew and a small group of the 48 team. Now it’s 140 men and women at LEGACY, and we’ll be growing as we bring on that third car and get closer to 200 employees. This fills a bucket and gives me a lot of purpose and something I really enjoy.”
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