Jimmie Johnson has three races remaining in his NASCAR Cup Series career.
The seven-time Cup champion said Saturday that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his last race in NASCAR’s top series. Johnson is competing in this season’s Daytona 500 on Sunday and will also compete in San Diego’s first road race this summer.
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Johnson will definitely get a NASCAR provisional to compete in the Daytona 500 again next season. NASCAR granted Johnson a provisional spot for the 2026 race under a rule implemented a season ago that gives the sanctioning body the right to add a starting grid spot for a notable driver. The rule was put in place when Helio Castroneves, the former IndyCar driver, first attempted the 2025 Daytona 500.
Sunday’s race will mark the start of the 701st Cup Series of Johnson’s career. He reached 700th place in the Coca-Cola 600 last May, but retired from the race after completing just 111 of 400 laps.
Johnson retired from the Cup Series at the end of the 2020 season, but has returned to part-time schedules in each of the last three seasons as he now co-owns the Legacy Motor Club. The Toyota team is the former Richard Petty Motorsports and features full-time entries for Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek. Legacy expands to three cars full-time in 2027, and Johnson will drive a fourth car in the Daytona 500.
Johnson was the dominant driver of the 2000s in the Cup Series. He won five consecutive championships from 2006 to 2010 before winning titles in 2013 and 2016. Johnson won 35 races during his five-season championship streak and had no fewer than 22 top-10 finishes in those five seasons.
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He is one of three drivers – along with Petty and Dale Earnhardt – to win seven Cup Series titles. Johnson’s 83 Cup Series victories are sixth all-time as he is tied with Cale Yarborough. Only Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip have more.
