{"id":104843,"date":"2026-02-17T12:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=104843"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:36:33","slug":"jimmie-johnsons-final-nascar-cup-race-at-2027-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/jimmie-johnsons-final-nascar-cup-race-at-2027-daytona-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson\u2019s Final NASCAR Cup Race at 2027 Daytona 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jimmie Johnson poses with his No. 84 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry – Getty Images for NASCAR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s said that you need to know when to hold and when to fold. Getting out of the driver\u2019s seat is, for any racer, a tough decision to make. Knowing the right time and place is a challenge. Knowing it\u2019s time to go? How does anyone make that call?<\/p>\n

For seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, the time has come.\u00a0 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\u2019s 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\u2019s CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.<\/p>\n

From February of 2027, Johnson\u2019s 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\u2019s making these changes show well in the driver\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson removed himself from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition during the COVID-19 pandemic. He\u2019d 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\u2019t won a race since the 2017 campaign, lost his longtime sponsor Lowe\u2019s and crew chief Chad Knaus, who got bumped up the Hendrick Motorsports food chain.<\/p>\n

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Johnson is focusing on having fun – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u00a0 <\/span>podium result at Iowa Speedway in July, then announced he\u2019d be stepping back from full-time racing in any car, with or without a roof, in 2023.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d been identified at Hendrick Motorsports. The brand doesn\u2019t matter as much as the competition, as far as Johnson is concerned. That\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n

And now, with the news that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final race, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not going to race and do other fun things. I\u2019ve got plenty planned this year and hope to have some more fun later in the year as well.\u201d He\u2019ll be racing in the off-road Minto 400 outside Las Vegas, \u201cAnd then there\u2019s the truck race in San Diego, and just trying to find fun bucket list things to do.\u201d So there won\u2019t be much reflection on his career, despite its longevity. \u201cInduction 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\u2019m now savoring and enjoying the emotions, feelings, conversations, all the moments around the time I\u2019ve spent in this sport and all the great times we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Johnson had the right line in Laguna Seca\u2019s famous Corkscrew during his final INDYCAR race in 2022 – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnson is closing the door on both NASCAR and INDYCAR, he stressed. \u201cThe commitment it takes to be where I want to be in the [INDYCAR] field\u2026 I just don\u2019t have that in me anymore. My focus and interest is truly in building this race team.\u201d He did reflect on the difference between being a 25-year-old in the No. 48 Chevy and the understanding that, \u201cI just don\u2019t have that passion for that part of life anymore and that\u2019s been a tough thing to kind of accept.\u201d Not being able to be up early in the morning with passion for the job, \u201cIt took the two years in INDYCAR and the journey that I\u2019ve been on now to really reflect on that and see it. I\u2019m in a different place of life and really enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cNow 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,\u201d but family issues scotched that. \u201cWe\u2019re a little behind schedule and we\u2019ll do a lot more of that now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s legacy squads. The objective is to enable growth and to do it in a sensible, business-like manner. Cheering Toyota\u2019s support to all of its teams, \u201cWe\u2019ve 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\u2019re at a great point in time, where we\u2019re 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\u2019m confident it will be noticed this year as we get into the schedule and get racing. I\u2019m excited for the future and how we can all collaborate more together.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he wishes he had more Toyota experience to assist his young drivers, Nemechek and Jones, Jimmie Johnson is enjoying \u201cbeing 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\u2019s 140 men and women at LEGACY, and we\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Johnson prepares for a change of pace.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":104845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[772,3424,3470,5029],"tags":[549,2951,3186,3355,3512,9688,127,9391,4437,516,9392],"class_list":["post-104843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-circle-track-racing","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-daytona-500","tag-erik-jones","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-joe-gibbs-racing","tag-john-hunter-nemechek","tag-legacy-motor-club","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-craftsman-truck-series","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-toyota","tag-toyota-racing-development"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JJ-with-car-Getty-Images.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rh1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104854,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104843\/revisions\/104854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}