Life is not fair. I won’t get into a political or ideological debate here, so I’ll stick with NASCAR. If life were fair, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Davey Allison, Tim Richmond, and Neil Bonnett would have been sharing a beverage—or three—in the VIP Suite at Talladega Superspeedway a few weeks ago, talking about which of their championship years was the best. If life were fair, maybe Dale Jr. would still be racing full-time, on the verge of tying his father’s record for most Cup championships.
And if life were fair, Jimmie Johnson would be having a farewell season for the ages, similar to the one his mentor, Jeff Gordon, had. Instead, he was forced to sit out as his farewell season was put on hold by COVID-19. Then, as NASCAR returned, Johnson himself was diagnosed with the virus and has been forced to miss at least one race (the Brickyard 400) as of this writing.
Jimmie Johnson deserves better. But life isn’t fair. Want more evidence? The only other two seven-time champions in NASCAR’s Cup level are Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt never got a final season to thank the fans and receive the accolades of the sport, passing away on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
Richard Petty, after many years of declining performances, decided to use the 1992 season as a “Farewell Tour.”
The problem was that Petty was several years past his prime. In 1992, the King led just five laps out of nearly 8,000. He failed to finish in the Top 10 even once, with a best finish of 15th (three times, including Michigan and the two Talladega races). His average finish was 23rd.
Throughout the 2020 season, Jimmie Johnson had been compiling a decent record. In the first fifteen races, he had six Top 10s, with a best finish of 3rd at Bristol (and a runner-up finish in the Coca-Cola 600 before later being disqualified) and a season-high 70 laps led at Martinsville.
Sure, the statistics Johnson was putting up may have paled in comparison to Harvick’s or Hamlin’s. But they were respectable numbers.
And this is not an epitaph for Johnson’s 2020 season. Historically, he has always hit his stride with the coming of fall. If he can return by this weekend at Kentucky, NASCAR has offered him a waiver. Even with missing the Brickyard 400, Johnson remains in the Top 16.
Perhaps Johnson can return with an even greater drive to make his final season a memorable one. Perhaps coming so close to having to step down before he was quite ready will fuel some fire in the #48 camp.
He deserves to go out with momentum. With something he, his fans, and NASCAR can point to and say, “He still had something left in the tank.”
In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t want Jimmie Johnson to win an eighth Cup championship. When he won his seventh title in 2016, I thought, “This is history!” He deserves to be ranked alongside Petty and Earnhardt. He was certainly the greatest driver of his generation—and didn’t need to pad his stats to prove it.
However, I fear that with an eighth championship, there will be many who believe that accomplishment places him on a level higher than the King or the Intimidator. Some time ago, I said (only semi-jokingly) that while Johnson was good, he was not “better-than-Earnhardt good.”
While I do believe Earnhardt is the best of the three, I think NASCAR will lose something if that debate disappears.
But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see Jimmie have a strong run. Honestly, the scenario I’ve always envisioned was for Jimmie to make the playoffs, be eliminated in the Round of 8, yet win the final race of the season.
While some might argue that Johnson’s final win in his last race might take away from whichever driver wins the championship, I would argue there is enough glory to go around.
And how much of a storybook ending would it be for Jimmie to go out having a strong run to the finish, and then take one final victory?
Jimmie Johnson deserves that.
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